Lucas's chest tightened with every breath he tried to take, it felt like the very walls had shifted inward, closing around him with a truth he had not been prepared to face.
His gaze remained fixed on Valen, he couldn't believe that the man he once thought could make his heart skip a beat was actually a woman.
The truth lying before him was now fragile, unconscious, her body finally still after Georgia's power had forced the poison back, her breathing shallow but steady enough to hold onto.
A woman... How?
The realization refused to sit quietly in his mind the way facts usually did, because this was not just a revelation, this was a complete fracture.
He was already dealing with a lot of things but this was just the height of it all.
"No," Lucas breathed, the word slipping out before he could stop it, his voice barely more than air, "that's not—"
