Move the body to the cremator. Do it quietly, clean the ground, and restrict this section of the perimeter until every trace is gone.
Vance hesitated.
“What do I say if someone asks why the area is closed?”
Malakai’s hands moved with controlled precision.
You say nothing was found.
He disappeared before Vance could answer.
* * *
The sedative released Veya slowly, returning awareness in broken pieces rather than giving her a clean waking.
She remembered opening her eyes to an empty room. She remembered cold stone beneath her bare feet and the wall beneath her palm as she moved through corridors that seemed to tilt around her.
She did not remember choosing a destination.
When clarity returned, she stood outside Rhen’s door.
Whether the tether had drawn her there or whether pain had simply made her seek its source, she could not tell. It remained alive beneath her ribs, aching with every step and tightening whenever she imagined turning away.
Veya closed her hand around the iron handle.
The door opened beneath her weight.
Rhen stood on the far side of the room with his back toward her. His shirt lay discarded across a chair, and blood marked the cloth in his hand as he wiped it from his fingers. A dark smear remained at the corner of his mouth.
His blades rested nearby, clean and untouched.
Rhen knew she had entered before the hinge finished moving.
“I told you to stay out of my quarters.”
His voice remained quiet, which made the threat inside it more pronounced.
Veya held the doorframe while the room steadied around her.
“I didn’t come for permission.”
Rhen turned.
His face held no surprise and no concern. His silver eyes moved over the sweat along her skin, the weakness in her legs, and the tremors she could no longer suppress.
He assessed each symptom as he might inspect damage to a weapon.
“You should be unconscious.”
“I woke up.”
“An unfortunate development.”
Pain tightened through her abdomen, forcing her to catch herself against the dresser.
“You did this to me.”
Rhen folded the bloodstained cloth and set it aside.
