Vows of Graphite and Guilt
Her stomach twisted as she remembered the sickening sensation of driving that brass shank into the neck of the gunman.
She looked down at her hands. They were shivering, stained with soot, grease, and the violent reality of the last hour. She had spent her life in quiet archives, handling centuries-old vellum with delicate white cotton gloves, treating fragile historic structures with absolute reverence.
Now, she was trapped in a high-tech tomb with a man who had forced her into a marriage of compliance, holding a bloody key, while a cartel hit squad slept ten feet away.
"You are experiencing a psychological load-shift," Julian said.