~Lucas POV~
Dante went down at the third wave. I saw it happen from twelve feet away and I could not do anything about the twelve feet, because the space between us was occupied by four wolves who required my immediate attention and did not leave room for anything else.
By the time I cleared them, the outcome was already settled, and Dante was on the ground with the particular stillness that means the accounting is finished.
I study it.
That was the only functional response in active combat, and I had learned it early enough in my life that it had become automatic. Grief was real and necessary and had a correct time and place, and the middle of a three-faction battle on the outer grounds of the mansion was not that time or place. I filed Dante's name in the part of my mind I had reserved for things requiring later attention and I kept moving.
