LUCIAN
Every step toward the cage felt heavier even though my body still moved exactly as it always did... controlled.
As I stepped closer to the cage, she started laughing.
I stopped.
Not completely. Just a fractional slowing that probably looked like nothing from a distance and felt like everything from where I was standing.
She was genuinely laughing.
The kind of laugh that came from somewhere real rather than the brittle edge of hysteria.
Her eyes were on mine and her shoulders were shaking slightly with it and she looked ... in the specific context of sitting chained in a cage at the eastern border with Moonfang in my hand and a pack vote against her life hanging in the territory air behind us... completely and entirely unhinged.
Who laughed in the face of death.
Who the hell sit in a cage and laugh?
Behind me I could hear the Elders beginning to murmur. Their voices were low like they were exchanging something I didn't turn to acknowledge.
