There, slumped on the cold stone floor beside the heavy velvet drapes of the bed, lay Valex's mother. She was completely motionless, her pale face turned toward the window as if she had been staring at the sky. There was no struggle, no signs of a fight—just a devastating and quiet finality that filled the entire room.
A few inches away from her resting hand lay a single piece of parchment, the ink stark against the white paper. Valex stared at her, gripping Odesse's shoulder tightly. Kael stopped dead in his tracks by the doorway, his hand instinctively dropping from his sword hilt as he bowed his head.
