His eyes went to my shoulder.
Which was rather rude, if you asked me. Apparently his mother had never taught him not to stare.
The Mark brightened under the attention. Pain moved down my arm and into my fingers.
I kept the smile where it was, though I feared it had turned into a grimace.
“If you intend to touch me,” I said, “I suggest you reconsider.”
His hands stayed at his sides.
A wiser man than he looked.
Across the hall, another steward approached Jonah Hale.
That went even worse.
Hale didn’t move or threaten. He simply glared at the man until the man took three steps back.
Instructor Hale, still giving us an education on combat arts while his Mark burned like the Tower had put a hook through it.
I almost admired him for it.
At the basin, Caspian kept his hand over Astra’s.
Magnus Ashford spoke to Quill too quietly for most of the hall to hear.
Naturally, I was not most of the hall.
“He is my son.”
Quill’s answer was just as quiet.
“He is named.”
That distressed Magnus Ashford enough that I nearly forgave Quill for being the absolute pompous ass overseeing this whole debacle.
Astra’s head turned toward Caspian, and something passed between them that the bond probably made easier.
I hated the bond for that.
I loved it for keeping her standing.
Rev tried to step away from the students along the wall.
Cosima caught her wrist.
Rev looked down at Cosima’s hand and frowned, but Cosima did not let go.
Whatever passed between them happened without words.Rev stayed put. Her face made a promise that everyone in this room would be sorry for later.
I believed she would do everything in her power to keep it.
Juno’s hand left the witness basin at last.
The black water had gone silver again, but it left the room colder. Or maybe that was just the death promise crawling through me.
“Under whose authority are they to be removed?” Juno asked.
