She could feel Oliver tremble, his eyes distant, looking at something else. He shook with the most incredible fear that she had ever seen from him – or from anyone. She held his hand as tightly as she could, trying to induce in him some strength of emotion that might pull his eyes back to reality.
But he was gone. She should have known it. Too much of a burden to bear. They always asked too much of him. Asabel was one thing, but the extents Oliver had gone to, despite his suffering, to see them rescued from a similar such fate. The burden of the crown that he so hated.
