oft, unhurried manner of a man who had spe

felt something crawl up her spine the moment Corvin stepped through the doors beside Lord Marrow and Lady Selene. It wasn't recogniti

startled off the gallery rail before she recognized Emory, arms c

l wh

orvin, who was bowing over Selene's introduction with the easy grace of a man who had done this a thousand ti

s he r

"Unofficially, he was one of three wolves who sat on the war council the season Duskwood burned, back when I was too young to b

y a man might scan a room he already knew every corner of. His gaze drifted up toward the ga

top hammering for

ething," sh

wrong." Emory's voice had gone tight all the same. "But

to satisfy politeness, and the look on his face when he climbed the gall

in passing, that he'd heard the Ashbourne healer had taken on a girl from the coast recently,

ld. "How would he e

're here. Emory's kept it that quiet. Which means either someone in my own household is talking out of turn, or

the one Emory

s the same week a Duskwood survivor walks into my hall, and immediately starts asking after

during betrothal negotiations. If we accuse a retired advisor of orchestrating a massacre with no proof beyond an old burn pattern and a bad f

et proof,"

urned to l

lt. "So let him meet her. Let me stand in a room with him and see what he

ot," Kian sai

et to decide

m not putting you in a room with a man who may have burn

ttled. If I don't do this now, we may never get another chance to find out the truth." Her voice cracked slightly, the first real crack she'd let either of them see. "I

eyes that looked, for once, less like an Alpha weighing strategy an

y, "you do not go anywhere near him wi

in

at all, you leave. No arguing, no finishing a

in

haling slowly. "For what it's wort

looking away from Wren.

alled in to discuss a rare herb blend Corvin claimed interest in, and Wren spent the whole of that night

areful to be the wind, and when she crossed the room and eased the shutter open, there was nothing outside but the dark gard

ight outside her window. An