Marcus stepped forward at once. "Order!" His voice cracked like a whip. Guards moved. Steel rang. The room held. Barely.
But Thessian.... Thessian did not even look at the shouting traitors. His eyes remained on Caelum kneeling at his feet. And for a moment, a strange thought passed through him. One so private it did not touch his face. This is too easy. Because they were breaking too fast. Confessing too easily. Fearing him too much. And that, to a predator, suggested there might still be something hidden beneath what had already surfaced.
His enhanced senses, still alive and unnervingly sharp, stirred again. A scent. Faint. Almost lost beneath blood and panic. But there. Wrong.
His gaze lifted. Moved slowly across the chamber. Past kneeling elders. Past conspirators. Past Marcus. Searching. Not with suspicion now. With instinct.
And then, he went still.
Because somewhere in that room, someone else was lying.
