"But I swear to you," Kaelus vowed, the words not a military command, but a sacred, unholy prayer. "I will find it. Whether it is a poison, a curse, or the smiling Marquess himself. I will find whatever made you scream."
His violet eyes, staring at her pale face, hardened.
The vulnerability remained, a bleeding wound in his chest, but around it, the iron of the Archduke forged a new, unbreakable resolve.
"They thought you were bait to trap the small beasts," Kaelus murmured, a dark, terrifying promise filling the silent room. "But they do not realise what happens when the bait belongs to the Leviathan."
He pulled his heavy, midnight-blue cape from his own shoulders.
He draped it over the bed, covering her small form entirely, tucking the edges around her shoulders to create a perfect, impenetrable cocoon of his own lingering, protective mana.
Kaelus did not sleep that night.
