Liam found Lilith in the war room, surrounded by maps and reports that painted a picture of an empire preparing for something it didn't fully understand yet.
She looked tired.
Not physically - demons didn't fatigue the way humans did - but mentally. The kind of exhaustion that came from calculating impossible odds and finding them all ending in variations of catastrophe.
Her golden eyes flicked up as he entered, and something in her expression shifted.
Relief? Concern? Maybe both.
"The Cathedral is still celebrating," she said, setting down a report about troop movements. "I'm receiving messages every ten minutes about the miracles you performed. Restored sight. Healed crippled legs. The faithful are calling it divine providence."
"It was." Liam moved to study the maps, his posture more relaxed than it had been in weeks. "They had absolute faith. I had the power to answer it. Seemed like a waste not to."
Lilith watched him carefully. "You sound different."
"Different how?"
