“Konstantin has constructed something larger than a facility. A convergence point. Three types of magic intersect at it. Witch binding. Blood contamination. And something he retrieved from a source older than any of these.”
“The wolves cannot enter the eastern boundary because the ground itself has been rewritten. The Earth’s composition altered at a fundamental level. What it broadcasts now is a signal every predator’s instinct reads as territory already claimed by something larger.”
“What did he retrieve?”
“That I will tell you after the convening.”
My jaw tightens.
“If Syrenne discovers I gave you intelligence before the other courts received it, she has grounds to invalidate the alliance. Fae law is exact.”
“You’re asking me to walk into the convening without full information.”
“I am asking you to trust that what I tell the courts, under protocols that make deception impossible, will carry more weight than a private briefing in a stone room.”
He’s right. I don’t like it. But he’s right.
The silence fills the room, and no one rushes to end it.
“My granddaughter,” he says.
His voice changes on the word. Lower. His chin drops a fraction. The smallest crack in the composure. Controlled. Brief. Private.
“She was six when you saved her. She is three hundred and six now. I have watched every year from this side of the Veil.”
His hands grip the table edge.
“I watched her refuse to let her mother heal the burn scar on her left wrist from the iron chains. She trained in combat magic until she could destroy anything that came for her. I watched her grow fury into a spine.”
“She calls me Uncle Max,” I say. “I have never corrected her.”
His eyes close for a single breath. When they open, the crack in his composure has widened.
“With time,” he says. “I could have torn the Veil open and walked through at any time.”
“I didn’t. Because every intelligence I had told me that revealing her connection to the Fae throne would make her a target for every faction in Thessivane that wants leverage over me. Syrenne would have used her. Veyran would have tried to protect her and failed. The courts would have turned my bloodline into a political instrument.”
“You stayed away to keep her safe.”
“I stayed away because safety required my absence.”
His fingers close. Open.
“And it is the choice I am least proud of.”
I let it stand.
I think about the ring. My father’s ring, on Konstantin’s finger. The cost of what you carry and what gets taken from you.
Lanthar chose to set his down. I had mine stolen. The loss is different. The absence is the same.
“She will meet you at the convening,” I say. “On her terms.”
“I would expect nothing else.”
He stands. The chair releases him, flowing back to its original shape.
“Lord Maximus.”
