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My com crackles and a handsolows in ht ere the only civil coaze upon?”

“Cicero, you scoundrel You’re supposed to be in the Plains of Caduceus”

“Squeaks the ht menace “Mayhaps Love is lost in the storm, my friends Didn’t you know Heliopolis is just a skip to the south?”

A beat of silence “I go where I am ordered”

“Like a good knight The peril of oaths, no? But fear not, my intrepid father noticed a certain lack of Leopards on his flank in the Plains of Caduceus and has sent us to ensure that no skullduggery is afoot at the gates of Heliopolis” His voice lowers “The city belongs to my father, Scorpio, and House Votu in the dark”

“Prepare to fire,” Kalindora says over the private channel

“I have them flanked,” Seraphina intones “I count four hundred Could be more”

“Belay that,” I snap “No Praetorian will fire on allies Nor will you, Seraphina”

“Yes, doives the order for all Praetorians to stand down Kalindora goes into a stony silence

“Private communications, eh, Kalindora? I don’t need to crack your code to knohat you said,” Cicero says “Not enough that that Lunese bitch tries to steal our city She’ll spill old blood like there’s so much of it left”

“Salve, Cicero,” I say, taking over from Kalindora

“And who’s that?” he asks I share ram I knew Cicero as a child Not well, but on the occasions when his family visited Luna, Grandmother insisted I entertain the voluble heir of House Votum To be honest, I found it tireso He is ten years older, and thus his condescension is linizes me immediately

“Hades on high,” he says without an ounce of surprise “Is that Lysander au Lune in the pinkish flesh?” So his father told him

“You never do forget a face, Cicero”

“Not the pretty ones, at least Father didn’t lie—not dead after all My, my Atalantia has roped you into her schemes? How the beast now leads the master”