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"Maybe I can pull soood word Get you buenerous"

"You report to Kilorn"

In spite of the nervous fear tearing up h out loud "Whatever you do, don’t tell hiive , the fake orders I’d never live it down

Farley laughs with me, her short blond hair splayed around her face in a halo of gold She isn’t exactly sparse with her shter, but this is different Not tainted by a smirk or any sharpness A small burst of real happiness It’s a rarity these days, in all of us

Slowly, she catches herself, the echoes of her laughter dying in her throat I look away quickly, as if I’ve seen soht" Her voice is certain She knows, as I’m sure everyone does Cal and I weren’t exactly discreet

I answer bluntly, without shame "Yes"

Her smile fades, and she sits up on the bed In the mirror’s reflection, I watch her expression shift The corners of heron an air of sadness, if not pity And perhaps a glint of suspicion as well

"It doesn’t change things," I force out, bristling as I turn around "For either of us"

Farley is quick to respond, one hand raised "I know that," she says, as if cal an ani her words very carefully "I et one more day with him To let Clara meet her father"

My hands ball atmy cheeks flush With shaer, deep sorrow, regret, for my brother lost to all of us "I won’t--"

She pushes up to her feet and closes the distance between us in fir er than I a moment for the words to sink in "When it co the tension

"Nothing else," I say, agreeing with a s people"

Farley just shrugs her broad shoulders "Well, who knows? I haven’t tried that yet"

The throne room of Ocean Hill looks out over the city, across blue rooftops and white walls, all the way down to the harbor Grand s arch over the king’s seat, flooding the chaives everything an almost dreamlike quality, as if this ht wake up to the darkness of this , before we set out for Province Before the as so easily won, and a life so easily traded

Cal didn’t say anything about Salin Iral afterward, but he didn’t have to I know hihs on hiraced lord, but a lord all the same, drowned and one easy for Cal But looking at King Tiberias the Seventh, no one would be able to tell

He sits on his father’s throne, tall against the dia like flame itself in his crilow, and I wonder if one of his guards is a Haven shadow, th It’s certainly working He see, like his father Like Maven never was

I despise the sight The shiold, like his grandant Less violent A crown for peace, not war