COMPLICATED ISSUES

IVAN POV

Tag'arkh stood eerily still, her back rigid, and her amber eyes locked onto me as I recounted everything that had happened—just as she had instructed. Her fiery aura, usually a soft and glowing light, now burned hotter, crackling faintly as it licked the air around her like a predator testing its chains.

The air between us felt charged, heavy with unspoken tension, as if the room itself was bracing for an outburst. I tried not to falter under her gaze. My voice, steady at first, cracked when I reached the part about the twins—how they'd fallen ill, how nothing we tried had worked, and how the healers refused to intervene, whispering curses of divine punishment under their breaths.