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My phone vibrated against the table. I ignored it.

Alphus leaned forward. “You’re growing careless, Draven. The continent is watching. You opened yourself up to weakness the moment you began protecting powerless people who offered you nothing.”

“I dislike repeating myself.”

My phone vibrated again.

An alert.

My attention slid down to the screen beside my left hand.

L. HEART APARTMENT CAMERA TWO SIGNAL INTERRUPTED CAMERA THREE SIGNAL INTERRUPTED ANTI-TAMPERING ALARM ACTIVE

The room changed temperature.

Vale saw my face before anyone else did.

His shoulders stiffened.

Another notification popped up.

CAMERA ONE OFFLINE

A strange, bright feeling moved through me.

Pride, first.

She found them.

Then irritation.

She. Found. Them.

Then something uglier, because the anti-tampering alarm meant she had not only found them. She was breaking them.

My Little Flower had found one of my sins, and just like that, the Southern Lords ceased to matter. A historic moment for them, I assumed.

I rose from my chair.

Every demon at the table froze.

Alphus’s eyes narrowed. “We aren’t finished.”

“No,” I said, buttoning my jacket. “You’re not finished. I am.”

Lady Marrow’s lips parted. “This is an insult.”

“This is me leaving before I become less polite.”

Vale stepped forward smoothly. “Lord Draven will return shortly.”

I looked at him.

He corrected without hesitation. “Or he won’t.”

Good man.

I picked up my phone.