Clutching his slackened body close to her chest, a primal, suffocating terror took root in the deepest depths of her soul. The agonizing dread of losing yet another person she had just begun to hold onto tore through her icy exterior, shattering her restraint.
"Kyle! Kyle!" she screamed, her voice cracking under the weight of an unyielding panic.
The heavy chamber doors burst open, and Kyle rushed inside. He skidded to a halt, the breath catching in his throat at the sight before him: Olivia, trembling and broken, desperately cradling his father in her arms, looking up at him with eyes entirely drowned in tears.
Without a word, Kyle scrambled to the bed. He gently but quickly pulled the Emperor from her grip, laying him flat against the pillows. With a practiced, frantic tension, he pressed two fingers against Lucius's pale wrist while leaning down to check his nose.
