I heard Caspian's voice, pitched high and cracking with the particular fury of a man unused to being denied. I stopped at the corner instead of rounding it, some old instinct from a life spent dying by other people's hands telling me to watch first, act second.
Caspian stood in the middle of my receiving room like he owned it, gold rings flashing as he jabbed a finger at Ryan's chest. "I am her fiancé. Do you understand what that means, slave? I could have you gutted in the courtyard and no one would blink."
"The engagement has been postponed by royal decree." Ryan's voice was maddeningly level, each word placed like a stone in a wall. "I answer to the Princess. Perhaps if you understood how palace protocol worked, you wouldn't need to be reminded of it in front of your own men."
A vein
