bout crying in

not d

an well and somehow make it worse. Not in fron

ho forfeited the right to my tears the moment

ace like he can read every word written on it and Lucian's

Quietly. Quickly. The way you learn to when

fine,"

that do not dart around looking for somewhere easier to land. He just looks at you a

have to be

something you need this morning? I can have breakfast br

is expression shifts, just slightly, and he takes the

be welcome," he s

and that is w

s ten fe

Caden and back to me, and I watch him do the math of what he is looking at, the two of us standing close

t three seconds. It fe

is perfectly controlled. "I t

d layered, the specific tension of two men who know each other well enough to know exactly w

sy and familiar, like he ha

sible, the kind you would miss if you were not already fam

e council meeting," he says, and it takes me

on your desk w

e says.

t courteous at all, and we both know it and Caden probably knows it too and the c

re I let him see that I know exactly what he is do

k toward the stairc

him. I stopped doing

ndence takes me fort

outes. Two internal memos from the council. I organise them by priority, clip them, and carry them up to the study with the second cup of

rything o

, and he reaches for the correspondence without l

you been spea

nce with no room for de

nd. "Since

not wha

I have in this room and I have learned to hold it carefully. "He intro

a way he has been carefully avoiding for three months, and I f

e by accident,

ne ev

s in his expres

there anything else you need

atch him hear it, watch something move through

e all," he s

le

afternoon. Mara brought me a sandwich and did not push for information, which means Bowen spoke to her before he came to me and to

der to fi

n I hear footsteps on the pa

not

oat pockets and a calmness about him that doe

e nods at

cal and self-preserving in me line

ar myself s

between us and looks out at the mountains the same way I

"I know about

rapper in my h

ingle day since. I am not here to make that harder." A pause. "I am here because someone who has known you longer than I have

and loo

of the study on the second floor, Lucian

chi