A pause.
Then— “Sorcery…”
His face shuttered.
The note vanished into his palm.
“What happened?” Jasmine asked, steadying a hand at Amerei’s chest.
“Vykenra is not happy we’re here…” Evander glowered. “The scholar who fetched them from the courtyard—he drew a knife and Amerei—”
“Amerei?”
“No.” Xavien’s voice cut, smooth and commanding. “He will be recorded as a man who died of convulsion in the corridor. The steward will pen it. The physician will sign it.” His gaze fixed on Jasmine. “Lady Inara, you saw nothing. Say so with conviction.”
Jasmine lifted her chin. “Gladly.”
Amerei pressed herself into the settee, her world cinching to a thread of memory. Heat—the weight of Viktor’s chest against her back.
“Every sound. Every scream. You give them all to me.”
Her mind reached for him now, fingers closing on the cord between them—then stilled.
Wings beat the back of her eyes.
Dragons.
Silence means duty.
The cry died in her throat.
Viktor was preparing for war.
And she—safe. Behind Xavien’s door.
“Send my husband soldiers.”
Xavien did not answer at once.
Across the chamber, he bent to search a trunk, golden hair spilling forward as though even that was meant to taunt.Bronze-tan skin caught the lamplight, all honed lines and sculpted strength—too perfect, too deliberate.
The black serpent tattoo coiled from his chest across his shoulder, winding down the muscles of his back as if it owned him.
Each slow shift of his body made the ink ripple like something alive. He was fit, dangerous, beautiful—everything her blood insisted she notice and everything her soul refused to want. Dask, she hated herself for even seeing him.
His hand brushed a folded linen shirt, but he left it untouched. He crossed to her with unhurried grace, lowering toone knee. Heat reached her first, then the scent—spice and sea. His gaze lifted.
“I will do all that I can to give you what you ask. But I cannot commission soldiers.”
She trembled.
“Then you will tell the king.”
His hand hovered, as if to touch her arm. He pulled back, eyes glinting.
“Elarien…”
She stilled at the sound of him calling herbeautiful, loathing how it wound through her like both knife and caress.
