Ryan’s POV
“I absorbed the news in silence, exhaustion warring against the sharp, cold clarity that always seemed to surface whenever the Vane family cornered someone I'd sworn to protect.
"A hearing meant to interrogate her, disguised as one meant to condemn Cassandra."
"Exactly." Ryan stepped back to let me pass into the safehouse, wincing slightly as the movement pulled at his healing wound.
"Cassandra's clever enough to know she can't avoid answering for the borrowed guard entirely, not with Lydia's testimony already planted in the King's mind. So she's turning the hearing into a trade, her explanation for the guard, in exchange for Arwen explaining exactly how she survived an ambush that killed a decorated general and most of her escort."
I set the recovered chest down carefully
