CIAN
The silence on the other end stretched long enough that I wondered if the connection had dropped.
Then Madeline spoke.
"What about him?"
Her voice came across as carefully neutral. Too neutral. The kind of control that took effort to maintain.
I leaned against the wall, staring at the empty hallway where Gabriel had disappeared.
"He's dead."
The words sat heavily between us. I heard her breathing change on the other end. Sharper. Quicker.
"How?"
"Fia killed him."
There came another pause. It was longer this time. When Madeline spoke again, her voice had gone hard.
"Good. It's what he deserved."
The words came clipped and precise. Each syllable was carefully measured. I recognized the tone. Had heard it before from people trying to convince themselves they felt something they didn't.
"He came after her," I continued. "Sent one of his experiments to kidnap her. When we tracked them down to his home, he tried to kill us both. Fia fought back."
