Staring at his mother, Magnus felt the truth settling deep into his bones.
Maliah was beyond saving.
Whatever love or softness she might have once possessed had long rotted away, consumed by her insatiable ambition. She no longer cared for people, not for the lives she ruined or the children she condemned—
only for herself.
For her power.
For her ambitions.
To her, the cost of blood and suffering was nothing if it meant getting what she wanted.
And yet… of all the places she could have fled, why had she chosen the Evadene Kingdom?
Magnus's brows knit as the thought struck him.
There's no way she knew he's here… right? he murmured under his breath, voice low and troubled, his eyes narrowing on her bound figure.
But Maliah heard none of his doubt, or perhaps she didn't care.
