Long enough that the victory she had been holding onto started losing its shape, uncertainty creeping back into the spaces it had occupied.
"Good," Thessian said quietly.
The Queen blinked. "What?"
His expression remained entirely unreadable, his gaze steady on hers. "If they are larger than Valeria—" he did not look away, "—then I don't have to stop at Valeria."
The victory left her face completely and all at once, stripped away in a single moment, replaced by something she had not allowed herself all night. Not the fear of pain, which she had already endured. Not the fear of death, which she had already accepted as a possibility. But the fear of understanding, with sudden and devastating clarity, exactly what was standing in front of her.
