Just before the quiet in the room could stretch long enough to swallow the last traces of Voren's prayer, a sudden sneeze burst from Seraphine with startling force, the sharp sound cutting through the silence so abruptly that it made his entire body tense.
Voren's eyes flew open at once, every nerve in his body reacting instantly as he stared at her.
Her chest began rising and falling with harsh urgency as air rushed violently back into her lungs, her body dragging in breath after breath in deep, uneven gasps as though she had been drowning moments earlier and had only just broken the surface.
The sight struck him with such overwhelming relief that his shoulders sagged as if an enormous weight had been lifted from them, and the tight pressure that had been strangling his chest loosened enough for him to finally breathe again.
"She's breathing," he murmured under his breath, the words leaving him in a long exhale that carried away the worst of his fear.
