"No," Lucien said, stepping directly between us. "Whatever this is, we do it together, or it doesn't happen at all."
"That wasn't the arrangement your wife proposed," Bartholomew said, unbothered.
"Then the arrangement changes," Lucien said. "Or you can explain to this entire council why your granddaughter's grandfather orchestrated a kidnapping in broad daylight, feet from a formal proceeding still crawling with guards."
Something flickered across Bartholomew's face, calculation shifting behind his cold eyes.
"You're bluffing," he said. "You wouldn't risk exposing everything you've worked to protect, not this close to the finish."
"Try me," Lucien said.
The clearing fell silent, tension stretching taut between them, and I watched Bartholomew weigh the cost of his own leverage agains
