[Zeph's POV]

He killed that thing for me?

Master Alaric’s words hung in the air between us. Despite my misgivings, Damian Gallo killing that thing, it was still an unassailable fact that I couldn’t immediately refute.

It didn’t help that Master Alaric’s expression was one of quiet pleading, as if hoping that this one truth of this statement would be enough to turn my world right-side up again.

But it didn’t. Instead, it further twisted everything sideways.

I looked down at my ...