It didn't echo through the hall like a normal sentence generated by a human's vocal cords would.
No.
It burrowed into their minds. Into their bones. Her voice was weight itself. Her words were declarations.
An existential dread swept through the manor, thick enough to make even shadows seem too bright.
And still, she did not appear. No body. No silhouette. No face.
Just presence.
Just terror.
Just the knowledge that Vespera, Monarch of Shadows—the thing that should not be—was listening.
Was watching.
And she was angry.
Kaiden observed as the siblings who once made his life hell trembled beneath an invisible hand.
Selena's knees refused to fully straighten. Cassian and Calix could barely stop their noses from leaking crimson. Their pride, the great Ashborn pride, meant nothing in the face of Vespera's all-consuming rage.
For a brief moment, a storm swirled behind Kaiden's eyes, his brain demanding he tell them never to speak like that to his family ever again.
