Black Fang hit Quinlan before his arms could rise.
The manacles still swung from her wrists with chunks of stone trailing behind them, and she slammed into his chest with a force that drove every wisp of air from his lungs and sent him backward off his feet.
Sera surged forward with golden light blazing on her palms, and on the wall Myrasyn's chains rattled violently as the queen pressed back against the stone, ears flat, eyes huge.
But Quinlan didn't even try to dodge.
He'd watched her come, tracked every fraction of the lunge, and his legs hadn't moved.
A certainty quieter than instinct told him the woman throwing herself at his chest was not going to kill him, and he believed it without understanding why.
