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"Tell me what?"

"The Jewels a Queen wears are not the only kind of power she wields You should know that well enough How many of the Queens you endured over these past few decades would have ruled at all if they hadn’t been backed by that bitch Dorothea SaDiablo?"

"None," Talon said bitterly "What’s that got to do with the here and now?"

"Connections, Prince You looked at Cassidy’s Jewels and forgot to consider the connections"

"What connections?"

"Do you knohy Cassidy is here?" Lucivar asked

"Because Sadi’s wife is a friend of hers, and Theran’s choice was to take Cassidy or walk aithout a Queen," Talon snapped, frustrated enough to be imprudent

"Sadi’s wife"

"A Queen who doesn’t see"

The rooh to bite

"Your boy left out a few things," Lucivar said too softly "Because of that, I’ll overlook your lack of courtesy This time Since Grayhaven has chosen to leave out a few details--or didn’t care enough to ask--you would do well to ask Cassidy a few questions Like who really sent her to Dena Nehele"

The cold was turning his h to avoid an attack Wouldn’t survive an attack even if he couldfield Battlefield Didn’tside survived when Yaslana stepped into a fight

"I’ll be back, Talon," Lucivar said as he turned toward the door "You can count on it And the next ti You can count on that too"

Lucivar opened the door, then stopped and looked back "The Warlord Prince Gray"

Talon sed hard Mother Night! Hoould a defense-less boy like Gray handle crossing paths with so like Yaslana? "What about him?"

"How old was he when he was tortured?"

Talon rocked back on his heels, not sure what to think "How did you know?"

Lucivar snorted "I’ve lived seventeen hundred years I’ve seen a lot of courts and a lot ofthat time I know the look, and I know the feel, of a man who’s been tortured"

"Fifteen," Talon said "He was fifteen years old and the enerations or er in other ways He could have been stronger" He sighed, feeling the old regrets "Wasn’tboy two years later when I finally found hiot him away fro time "Ask the questions, Prince," he said softly "Ask the questions before it’s too late"

Talon waited until Lucivar left the roolass of yarbarah Then he corked the bottle and put a cooling spell on it He wantedfor any--or de any--froht Cassidy had freely given her blood

"Too rowled

When he opened the door, he found Ranon on the other side

"I caone," Ranon said

"In here," Talon snapped

Ranon came into the room, wary

"What in the name of Hell happened today?"

"I don’t know," Ranon said

"You have no idea how ames with me"

"I don’t know!"

Frustration Worry Ranon wasn’t trying to hide those things

"Then tell ive you a shovel Or a hoe Or a rake Or any of the tools I Craft-locked the shed"

Cassidy slanted a look at Gray, who had crept up to the flower bed and now stood a long step away from her

Her hands throbbed whenever she lowered them Her arms ached when she held her hands up She shouldn’t even be out there She should be in her roo She’d slept for a little while after Shira finished the healing and helped her to her suite, but she didn’t feel easy about being inside the house At least out here, there was the illusion of co Gray used sank in and had her looking at hi the book he clutched to his chest like a shield

"Is that one of the books of Protocol I brought?"

Gray nodded "If I’d studied the book before, I could have stopped you fro hurt"

"I told you to stay away," Cassidy said "You obeyed my orders"

"The first law is not obedience Lucivar said so"

Thank you very much, Lucivar Even if he was an adult, Gray was still an i man, and LucivarYaslana could certainly leave an impression

"How much ti"