The morning light that filtered through the heavy silk curtains of the Hotel Sacher was a pale, anemic gold. It spilled across the ornate furniture of the suite, illuminating the dust motes dancing in the air, yet it offered no warmth to the two people sitting at the small breakfast table. The scent of freshly brewed Viennese coffee and warm apricot jam should have been inviting, but to Kai, the aroma felt strangely cloying, as if it were masking the scent of gunpowder that still lingered in his mind.
"You are very quiet this morning, darling," Elea said, her voice smooth as cream as she spread a thin layer of butter over a croissant. "Did you not sleep well after all that excitement at the Prater?"
Kai looked up from his plate, his expression carefully neutral. He had spent the last
