She gathered them at eight.
Not formally — she didn't send announcements or schedule the thing with the precision of a managed event. She went from room to room, person to person, the way she went about most things: directly, simply, in the specific grammar of the house.
Jax was in the kitchen finishing the washing up. She stood in the doorway and said: "Sitting room at eight. The fourth phase." He looked at her over his shoulder and said: "Yes." No questions. No qualifications. Just: yes.
Cade was in the library — Petra had gone to her room for the evening and he'd stayed in the library, which she'd expected, because Cade in the evenings needed the books the way other people needed sleep. She told him and he closed the Donne and stood.
Flynn was at the canvas. She knocked on the open
