"Renan."
"Fine." He cracks his neck, rolling his shoulders. "But if he touches your chair, I'm not responsible for what happens to his fingers."
I start walking again and Iowyn stumbles slightly—I'm moving faster now, dragging her with me, and I don't slow down. Renan falls into step beside us. His eyes slide to Iowyn, to her hand in mine, back to me.
"Huh," he says. His thread flickers—bright, eager. Delighted, the bastard.
"Don't."
"Didn't say anything."
"You were thinking it."
Renan grins, all teeth. "War's going to shit himself when he sees you walk in holding hands with the debt."
I don't answer. We're at The Hollow doors and Renan reaches past me to shove them open.
The room is full. I feel it before I see it—bodies, heat, the press of too many threads in too small a space. Discord elite line the walls. War's people cluster near the front. Their threads tangle together, silver and grey and that particular shade of deep red. Too much. Too loud. My temples throb.
And there, at the center of my own fucking war room, standing where I should be standing—
War.
He's mid-sentence when we enter. Doesn't stop talking, doesn't even glance at the doors.
"—Coin's alliance with Commerce gives them access to shipping routes through the northern corridor. If they move first, they control supply lines for three territories before anyone can—"
He's bigger than I remember. Broader. The kind of body that's built for crushing things, and he knows it. He gestures while he talks—broad sweeps of his arm, a step forward to emphasize a point, then another. Talks with his whole body. Fills the space. Crowds the room.
I hate him.
No.
Wrong.
I don't care enough about him to hate him. He's irrelevant. Background noise.
Then Iowyn's hand goes rigid in mine. Her fingers clamp down, grip crushing.
I look at her.
She's staring at War—not at his face, at his hands. The way they cut through the air when he talks. The way they swing too close when he steps forward.
She's not breathing.
War gestures again, arm sweeping out, and she flinches. Small and fast, her whole body jerking backward. She's not here anymore. She's somewhere else, somewhere with hands that move too fast and—
"Stop."
War pauses. The room goes quiet.
"What?"
"Stop moving."
His brow furrows.
He looks at Iowyn, then at me, then back at Iowyn. I watch his gaze track down her body and my jaw locks so hard my teeth ache.
