- Sebastian Lightwood:
I watched it unfold like something slow and catastrophic, like a building cracking from the inside before anyone hears the first stone fall.
I watched them. I watched every movement, every twitch of muscle, every shiver of breath. My blood was hot, burning, coiling in my veins like fire. Anger sat heavy in my chest, mixing with an ache I couldn't name, twisting the heat of fury into something sharper, something rawer. It wasn't just anger at Aurelian. It was anger at the helplessness I felt, at the frustration of watching Elias suffer, at the betrayal of seeing the man I cared for—maybe loved, though I refused to admit it fully—allow this to happen.
When Elias said I love you, I felt it in my bloodstream.
