I hated that I was sitting and he was standing, and that I had to crane my neck back so far to look into his eyes. Water beaded on his cheekbones, his nose, the top of his lip. His feet shifted a little beneath him as I glared, and that gave me a small sense of satisfaction, though he did not look away. Bayan had always had the air of a wounded animal about him, ready to strike back whenever threatened. Jovis didn’t feel quite the same; rather, he felt scarred, the wounds healed over but still evident in his bearing. I had asked him to be honest, hadn’t I? But having him throw that back in my face in front of my steward only pricked my temper.

A tremor started in my bones. I had to clench my teeth to keep myself from tapping my foot, from letting a little of that energy out. There were far too many people here. “So do you see this decision as an inadequacy?”

He frowned and then suddenly seemed to remember who he was speaking to. He bowed his head, dipping his gaze away in retreat, and I wished I could take back the sharpness of my words. Long black eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks. “I only think the people of the north-eastern reaches deserve more.” The words cut, and they were meant to. Not a retreat then, not at all.

Ikanuy was flicking beads across the abacus, studiously avoiding looking at both of us.

“Deserve more than me as Emperor?”

He opened his mouth to respond.

And then Mephi came bounding out of the kitchen, something metallic clenched between his teeth. Jovis’s gaze flicked to his companion. “Hey now, didn’t we just talk about this?” He moved around the table to Mephi, kneeling to pull a cooking pan from the creature’s mouth. “You can’t take things that aren’t yours.”

“No one said it was theirs.”

“No one said it was yours either.”

Thrana licked a paw and ran it over her ears as if to say, “Aren’t you glad I’m different?” I gave her a scratch behind the horns and handed her half a scallion pancake in thanks. She might be more timid than Mephi, but that wasn’t always a bad thing.

Jovis returned the pan to the kitchen, but instead of settling himself into the cabin or checking in on the guards who were coming along on this trip, he made his way back to our table, taking up position just behind my right shoulder. Did he expect another assassin? Here? I glared at him but he only shrugged his shoulders. “To Riya first then?” he asked.