y

said, "can't humiliate me the way a husban

y at the table had an answer re

ood, like he needed it to hold himself up. "Ivy. Listen to an old man for one moment. You fought

head slow. "We watched you grow up in this house. None of us want

areful, almost kind. "Even if he wakes one day, what will be left of

ike he thought I couldn't hear it from there. "If House Blackw

it to my face. "I'll find another one. I always have. I did it once already, the night my fat

put against that

tay there. None of them ha

out to be," I said, "you'

ment to throw. The doors shut behind me.

y shoulders drop the half inch

Julian stood in. One council meeting, and I'd already stopped

ree days the pendant had been gone, carried past the palace gates in R

in, two years ago, hidden under a c

ssed close enough that their headlights swept right over me, and not one slowed. Nobody wanted to be the one Julian heard about later, helping the wife he'd

the edge of the road like it had b

way from Silver

and I saw the crest stamped into the door. Silas B

hat was the only thing I knew

own coat. He didn't ask before he settled it around my shoulders, the wool

yet. "Why woul

it plainly, like the answer embar

ing in ugly little hiccups I couldn't smooth out. He didn't ask why, didn't fill the si

oke. "He'll come looking for you eve

ake his eyes off the road. "Yo

I didn't want to be seen arriving this way. He pressed something small and co

rs were too numb to fe

it cost him nothing, though I learned later that nothing about that pen

nt anything that pl

h the memory, close and apologetic.

r w

ady. She said it's time everything cur

me down, she meant to make sure I walked out of this

the way new staff always kept them. Mine were half on t

ked into his back. He dropped into

a Jul

oad and back into the present. Julian stood

closer. "You knew I'd be through here. Staging

nything. Your mo

hat you wanted in that council room, so now you're out here proving a point to anyone who

e who took the long way around just to end

out of my

kable coincidence.

nt something worse was coming. "You're enjoying this a little too much

I stood, you were the one who couldn't find his own voice once I put

d. "It makes you desperate. A woman throwing hersel

full second nothing in

ying to flatten everyone smaller than him into the floor. It used to

d on me. Nothing in me buckl

ged hard, his hand coming up to his collar, and he had to l

didn't bother hidi

ough, scraped thin, like the cough had

ur own temper becau

and lifting halfway, like he hadn't decided yet what h

to decide, fast and uneven on the stone, l

d her, his collar still crooked from how fast he'd come, his chest still working t

an answer. From