Bound by Blood and Fire

Damage control

The sovereign summoned Kael before the bond-heat had even fully faded from his hand.

"You will keep her close," Aldric said, without preamble, the moment the chamber doors shut behind them. "Whatever this bond is, it changes nothing about your assignment. If anything, it gives you better cover for it. No one will question why the two of you are constantly together."

Kael kept his expression even, though something in him recoiled at hearing it put so plainly — his own bond, repurposed as a tool for espionage before the night was even over. "And if she asks questions I can't answer?"

"Then you'll do what you were trained to do." His father studied him with those pale, assessing eyes. "Unless there's a reason you'd rather not."

"There's no reason," Kael said, too quickly, and watched his father notice the speed of it.

"Good," Aldric said. "Because a bond this rare will draw attention from every corner of both courts by morning. Ren already suspects it's convenient. Make sure no one has cause to suspect it's more than that."

More than that. Kael thought of Ravenna's hand in his, the way the whole hall had gone white and roaring the instant they'd touched, the particular, familiar way she'd tilted her chin at him in the corridor like she still expected him to argue with her about something.

It had never once, in six years, felt like nothing.

"I'll manage it," he said, because it was the only acceptable answer, and left before his father could ask him to define exactly what it was.