y

o fast for a court appearance. Whoever th

he pen

my grip in

rainy night gets whatever she asks for. Genevieve honored an old order. She never once asked herself whether she believed in you." He

ed. I'm an old de

held that way will House Blackwood ever truly recognize." She glanced at the scr

are the re

buried in paperwork she invented for tonight. Marielle and Aurelia are both still in the capital. None of them

d y

ide behind

er three to stop pretending

when your brother's already

t talk to me like the

you expect me to do with it. Stand outside th

I tell you to do,

I'm done guessing what t

name on anything wit

t wait

he pen and s

late. The ink had alrea

re you

ything, and I won't pretend I can. But I can make sure my side of

ht to do that w

one eit

once, slow. "You're that su

ed I can. I've c

eople killed i

'll be

e turned for the do

owed h

eone who didn't care whether I

down. "I don't know what debt he owes you, or why it runs deep enough that he'd promise you anything you

advantage of a man who

someone after an ea

died alphas who'd have taken me in a heartbeat,

e doesn't waste, a healer who checks his blood every Sunday whether anything's changed or not. I built tha

ed to me. I want to b

a set of double doors. "You'll have a room three halls ov

re she wanted me. Out of the way

t his

illed on the do

him, change what needs changing. Whatever the nur

ing about caring for a body

rn the first t

exhausted

exhausted. Tea

er that refuses to add up. The doors stayed s

votion buys y

give whether it buys

m alive for a year without you. I'm not pulling them off rotation so

nurses. I'll lea

r me again, slower this time. Whatever she was l

the doors o

for the low hum of machines. Silas lay still at the center

ore you've unpacked." Elara didn't step past th

n wa

e and didn't look back

**

mony silk. Someone else had other p

else's perfume. I unpinned my own hair, working the clasps loos

ices drifted in, pitched

dy promised it to someone." Not quiet enough. "All these years and a Lycan King never too

not ours

hat the whole hous

wn. Whatever name they'd already decided didn't belong to

ft burning low by the bed. Silas lay on his back, blanket drawn t

the edge

tract today, no matter what your sisters make of it. They don't trus

tstand, wrung it out, and ran it slowly al

four years learning exactly what it costs to be owed nothing in return." I lifted his hand and drew the c

moothed it over his collarbone

it as long as they need to." I kept my voice low, close to

e and laid his hand

the washroom

le step, my eyes were p

resting at his si