Alexandra didn't blink. "He won't."
Gabriel gave her a look. "You say that with an alarming amount of confidence."
She met his gaze without flinching, her voice softer and steadier. "Because he would blame the stars first before blaming you."
Irina looked up, paused in mid-motion, her fingers resting on a pale blue envelope shaped like a swan.
Even Crista looked over.
Gabriel didn't answer right away.
His hand rested over the gentle rise of his stomach again, almost absentmindedly. The motion was instinctive now, something he did when the noise got too loud, when the walls pressed too close. The child hadn't moved in the last hour, but the weight was there, solid and warm and constant beneath his palm.
A dozen scrolls lay unread in front of him, with more on their way, containing wishes, bribes, and veiled threats hidden in verse. Nobles waited like circling hounds, pacing just outside the walls, hungry for a smile, a whisper, a name.
The door opened.
