For a moment, Alpheo didn't speak. He didn't blink either. He just stared at the man he believed he knew everything about.
A slow silence stretched between them, and the clamor of the army behind faded into background noise, like the dull ringing after a blow to the head.
Alpheo's face didn't twist or scowl—it just stopped, like a clock forgetting how to tick. A stillness took him. His hands went slack on the reins, and his jaw hung slightly open. It was as if his brain had simply refused to accept what it had just heard.
