[POV: Sofia Lanka]

"Keep your hands where I can see them, and if you move toward the children, I’ll find out if a Royal Guard’s heart stops as fast as a corporate spy’s. My husband is currently recovering from a cardiac arrest you people caused, so my patience for the Northern Throne is non-existent. Talk fast, or get out of my sight."

Sofia stood in the shadows of the villa’s lower wine cellar, the only part of the estate that hadn't been completely dismantled by the gravity spikes. The air here was damp, smelling of old oak and the metallic tang of blood—mostly Lyon’s. She gripped a pulse-pistol with white-knuckled...