The chamber did not relax when the trial ended.
It held itself in a tense, watchful stillness, as if the whole room understood that one wrong word could turn everything violent again.
Cassian did not step away from Sable the moment she whispered yes. He did not drop his hand from her waist, and he did not release the hold he had in her hair as if the trial were over and the moment had served its purpose.
He stayed exactly where he was, close enough that the heat of him pressed into her skin, his gaze fixed on hers with the hard, steady focus of a man who had no intention of letting anyone in that chamber mistake what had just happened.
The bond did not weaken under their scrutiny, it only burned hotter.
