Third Person POV
It had taken hours, but in the end, Harland was dead.
Vaden didn’t revel in it. He didn’t grin or roar or drink in the victory like a beast. He simply stood in the silence that followed—a silence so deep it felt like a mountain had shifted from his chest—and breathed.
The weight was gone.
Justice, finally, had been served. Not just for Sofia. Not just for their unborn child. But for every betrayal, every wound, every coward who had whispered doubt in shadowed halls.
He left the dungeon without a word.
---
The locker room used by the royal guards was still and dark, empty at this early hour. Vaden stripped off his shirt, stained with dried blood, and stepped into the cold spray of the shower.
He scrubbed the stench of Harland from his skin. The memory of the screams
