Arrow Lake one breath, it'll just break

Emotion spiked her heart—thrumming in her chest as honeyed eyes studied him with perhaps what could be described as an open bewilderment. He had belittled her on every account in this moment—and the silver lady truly believed she deserved the ire if only to pay her dues for the storm she had very likely brought on to Epoch.

What she didn’t understand is what the Imperator was angry with her for—and while she had paused when he beckoned, she also did not know why he kept her here to continue the lash of his tongue. “And yet you send your own there and have allied with them. Protect them.”

He knew something of Akashingo. His words more than implied such—she would never pretend to know what. But what it did occur to her was that the man before her very well had made a deal with the devil.