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Qhuinn erand stairway at around six p His head was still a little fuzzy, his footfallsall over But, hey, he was upright, he was s could be worse

Plus he had a purpose When Doc Jane had come in to check on him just now, she&039;d told hi of the Brotherhood Of course, she&039;d also informed him that he was off rotation and had to stay in bed in the clinic - but like he was going to one down at Assail&039;s? Negs

She&039;d done her best to persuade him otherwise, naturally, but in the end, she&039;d dialed up and told the king to expect one more

As he came around the carved post of the banister, he could hear the Brothers talking on the second floor, those voices loud and deep, overriding one another Clearly, Wrath hadn&039;t called shit to order yet - which rab a drink of the alcohol variety before going up

Because, duh, that was precisely what you needed when you were rocky on your pins to begin with

After some careful assessment, he decided that the distance to the library was shorter than that to the billiards roo his way to the oak doors, he froze as soon as he got to the archway

"Holy hell"

There were at least fifty books of the Old Lading the floor, and that wasn&039;t the half of it Over at the trestle table beneath the leaded-glass s, more leather-bound voluuts exposed like soldiers shot dead on a battlefield

Two coal pads

A creak fro teak ladder, reaching for a book on the top shelf by the ceiling uy said from his lofty perch

Just thewith all this?"

"You&039;re looking rather well recovered" The ladder creaked again as the male descended with his prize "All and sundry have been worried"

"Nah, I&039;m fine" Qhuinn went over to liquor bottles lined up on theon?"

Do not think of him with Blay Do not think of him with Blay Do not think of him -

"I didn&039;t know you were a sherry lanced down at what he&039;d poured himself Fuck In thebottle "Oh, you know I&039;ood with it"

To prove the point, he tossed back the hooch - and nearly choked as the sweetness hit his throat

He served himself another only so he didn&039;t look like the kind of idiot ouldn&039;t knohat he was dishing out into his own glass

Okay, gag The second orse than the first

From out of the corner of his eye, he watched Saxton settle in at the table, the brass lalow over his face Shiiiiiit, he looked like so out of a Ralph Lauren ad, with his buff-colored tweed jacket and his pointed pocket square and that button-doeater vest co liver cozy

Meanwhile, Qhuinn was sporting hospital scrubs, bare feet And sherry

"So what&039;s the big project?" he asked again

Saxton glanced over with a strange light in his eyes "It&039;s a gaht say"

"Ohhhh, supersecret king stuff"

"Indeed"

"Well, good luck with it Looks like you&039;ve got enough to keep you busy for a while"

"I&039;ll be at this for a , rewriting the whole goddamn law?"

"Just a part of it"

"Man, you et shot at than do paperwork" He poured hi sherry and then tried not to look too much like a zombie as he headed for the door "Have fun with it"

"And you with your endeavors, dear cousin I would be up there as well, but I have been given no tiet through it"

"Indeed I will"

As Qhuinn nodded and then hit the stairs, he thought Well, at least that exchange hadn&039;t been too bad He hadn&039;t i the motherfucker until he bled out all over his nice threads

Progress Yay

Up on the second story, the double doors of the study ide-open, and he paused when he got a gander at the size of the crowd Holy crap everyone was there As in not just the Brothers and the fighters, but the shellans and the staff?

There were literally forty people in the room, packed in like sardines around the pansy-ass furniture

Then again, odda was back behind his desk, sitting on his throne, all but risen from the dead Kind of warranted a celebration, he supposed

Before stepping into the fray, he went to take another haul of the sherry, but one whiff of the shit in his nose and his goiter went no-go Leaning to the side, he tossed the stuff out into a potted plant, left the glass on the hall table and -

The instant they saw hih the door, everyone shut up Sure as if there were a remote to the room and someone had muted the picture

Qhuinn froze Glanced down at hi indecent Looked behind hi up the stairs

Then he looked around the rooreat, yawning absence of sound and ainst his queen&039;s are around his neck, and he looked a little pale, but he was alive and wearing an expression so intense, Qhuinn felt like he was being physically enveloped

And then the king put the hand that bore the black diaht in the erly, with the help of his shellan, bent over at the waist

To bow at Qhuinn

As all the blood drained out of Qhuinn&039;s head, and he wondered what the fuck the , so slowly

Clap Clap Clap!

Others joined in, until the entire assembly, from Phury and Cormia, to Z and Bella and baby Nalla, to Fritz and his staff to Vishous and Payne and their mates, to Butch and Marissa and Rehv and Ehlena were clapping for him with tears unshed in their eyes

Qhuinn tucked his arms around himself as his mismatched stare bounced anywhere and everywhere

Until it settled on Blaylock

The redhead was over to the right-hand side, clapping like the rest of theain, he would kno enital defect whose family hadn&039;t wanted hirace

He would kno hard the gratitude was to accept

He would kno much Qhuinn just wanted to escape from the attention even as he was touched beyond measure at this honor he did not deserve

In the midst of all he couldn&039;t handle, he just looked at his old, dear friend

As always, Blay was the anchor who kept hih thethe trip to the mansion under royal command: Wrath himself had extended the "invite" - and as much of an iconoclast as she was, she wasn&039;t about to shut down a direct order fro

Man, she was nauseous

When she&039;d first gotten the voicebeen killed out on the field A quick Hail Mary text to him had been replied to ihtfall?

That was all she got back; even after she said yes, and had expected so further fro up because this was probably John putting an end to them officially The vampire equivalent of divorce was rare, but the Old Laws did provide for an out legally And naturally, for people at John&039;s social level - naer Brother - the king was the only one who could give them dispensation to split

This had to be the end

Shit, she actually was going to throw up