“I know.”
“If you corner a cleric, he will either deny everything or the temple will claim you fabricated evidence.”
“Then I need a witness who cannot be dismissed.” Sabine met her eyes. “Bring Princess Elara. Quietly. Tell her I need her political mind more than her sympathy.”
Lysa left.
Elara arrived through a servant passage, dressed simply, carrying a book as if she had come to return archive material.
She read Sabine’s false note and smiled faintly.
“Temple men do not panic over accusation,” Elara said. “They panic over jurisdiction. You need to add one phrase that implies the temple acted independently without full crown authority.”
She took the pen and added a single line:
“Removed from marriage archive under temple seal, not crown authority.”
“That will make them move fast,” Elara continued. “If the crown believes the temple altered a royal rite without witness, Serast loses his procedural shield.”
“Will you stay as witness when they come?”
“I will position myself in the adjacent gallery. Close enough to enter if needed, far enough not to ruin the bait.” Elara set the note down. “You are learning to hunt, Sabine Corvyr. That makes you more dangerous than a dozen properly trained brides.”
She left through the same hidden route.
Sabine placed the false note inside a decoy notebook and hid it in her desk drawer. Badly hidden. Obviously accessible to someone searching quickly.
Then she waited.
The door opened without warning.
Lucien entered and locked it behind him.
His face was controlled, but his eyes were dark.
“Elara sent word you are setting bait for temple agents,” he said. “Without telling me.”
Sabine rose. “Telling you would have made you intervene.”
“Yes.”
“And your interventions are now part of the problem.” She crossed her arms. “Every time you step between me and the palace, you prove Serast right. That the bond makes you reckless. That I destabilize you. That we are repeating the Isolde pattern.”
“I do not care what Serast thinks.”
“You should. Because he is building a case to remove me by arguing I make you dangerous.” Sabine held his gaze. “I need to move without you rescuing me. I need the palace to learn I am not something they can control by threatening you.”
Lucien crossed the room in three strides and caught her wrist.
The bond flared.
Heat rushed up Sabine’s arm and lodged in her chest.
“Stop touching me if you want me obedient,” she said.
“Obedience is the last thing I want from you.”
“Then stop asking me to behave like something you can lock away.”
