Malrik POV
Dashira had stretched my patience to its very limits, and I was determined to remind her what consequences awaited such recklessness. Locking Zenovia in a cell hadn’t simply been necessary it had been unavoidable. She needed to understand her place, to recognize that her words carried weight, and that weight could just as easily crush her if wielded without care. Defiance of that magnitude could not be overlooked not now, not ever.
After breakfast, I withdrew to my office, my one sanctuary of order amid the chaos unraveling around me. The oak door shut with its familiar groan, but the heaviness in my chest refused to ease.
Outside, Dravina wandered Silverlight with Aveline, moving through the world with that quiet, effortless grace of hers. There was something almost otherwor
