Chapter 3: The Burn Marks
That evening, the estate doctor insisted on examining Saraphina.
She refused.
Cassian dismissed everyone.
Only the two of them remained.
"I won't force you," he said.
"But you don't have to carry this alone."
She stared at him for a long time.
Then...
With trembling hands...
She unbuttoned her cardigan.
Rolled back one sleeve.
Then the other.
Finally...
She slipped one shoulder free.
Cassian stopped breathing.
The scars stretched across her shoulder, collarbone, and upper back.
Old burns.
Layer upon layer.
Some circular.
Some long.
Some shaped like branding irons.
Someone hadn't tried to kill her.
Someone had tried to erase her.
Cassian's jaw clenched so hard it hurt.
"Who did this?"
She answered with one sentence.
"The man everyone still calls respectable."
May you like
For the first time in years...
Cassian Voss looked angry enough to frighten his own bodyguards.
