Then, the doors slammed open once more.
Samuel, Grandpa Vanguard, and Grandma Vanguard rushed into the room. The elderly war heroes were huffing and puffing, their battle-scarred faces pale with unadulterated terror. Samuel was entirely stripped of his elegant, genius-scholar facade; his golden eyes were wide, frantic, and completely feral as he violently pushed past the imperial guards to get to his wife.
When the Vanguard family finally saw Heena, they froze in utter shock.
She was slumped against the base of the desk, surrounded by four trembling imperial physicians. The heavy dose of emergency painkillers and the dozen silver acupuncture needles meticulously embedded in her neck and temples had finally dulled the agonizing spike of pain into a heavy, suffocating throb.
Slowly, heavily, Heena forced her eyelids open.
