The healers moved Finnian to the lower holding cells that night, not as punishment but as protection, Elena reasoning that fewer people would know his exact location there than within the open infirmary where the attempted assassination had already demonstrated someone possessed both motive and capability to strike again.
Logan found the arrangement unsettling regardless of its protective intent.
"A prison cell is not safety," he said, finding Elena in the quiet corridor outside the throne hall well past midnight. "It is simply a different kind of exposure, Elena. Fewer guards, fewer witnesses, fewer people positioned to intervene should someone finally succeed where today's attacker failed."
"The healers insisted the infirmary remained too exposed," Elena said, though her own unease wa
