Clara had not expected to feel nervous introducing her son to a king, but standing outside the heavy chamber doors the following morning, her stomach twisted with an anxiety that rivaled her own examination the day before.
She had barely slept, her mind circling back again and again to the strange charge that had passed between her and Alaric during yesterday's examination, an awareness she still did not know how to categorize or dismiss. Now, with Leo's small hand in hers, a different worry crowded forward, the simple, familiar fear of any mother preparing to introduce her child to someone whose reaction she could not predict.
"Remember what we discussed," she said quietly, crouching to meet Leo's eyes one final time before Dorian knocked. "The king is very powerful, and he is still rec
