Lena's POV
Damien called the council within the hour.
It was not a large session, not the full formal gathering that had reviewed the treaty clause or debated Deverin's objection. Just Damien, Rourke, Bastian, and Corwin, the careful, precise legal advisor who had corrected his own oversight over the Veranox treaty weeks before, all of them assembled in the war room with Marcus Cole standing at the far end of the table, still under Rourke's watch, still not fully understanding, I thought, the shape of what was about to happen to him.
I stood beside Damien. I had asked to be present, and he had agreed without hesitation, understanding by now that whatever this was, it was mine to witness rather than mine to be shielded from.
"Marcus Cole," Damien said, "arrived at Stormridge today witho
