His father made a noise of pain.

“Go, now,” Cassius whispered to Domitia.

She kept her gaze averted from him, but he could see her eye already swelling, her nose and lip bleeding.

Blood was also coming from her ear.

“I thought the law now said I could say no,” she whimpered.

Cassius’s chest caved in.

“You thought right,” he replied.

She glanced up at him, and he could see blame in her hesitant gaze.

“Unhand me!” his father ordered.

Domitia flinched at the sound and rushed away, limping.

Cassius’s blood now burned.

“Unhand me!” his father shouted.

“Ian! Tone! Nero!” Cassius called, turning to look his father in the eyes.

Gallienus tried to get free of Cassius’s grip, but he just held tighter.

Gallienus ceased struggling and yelled, “Unhand me!”

“Cass,” Ian murmured.

“Arrest this man for rape,” Cassius commanded.

The room went static.

“Cass, are you sure?” Ian asked.

“You can’t arrest me!” Gallienus shrieked, attempting to gather the sheets around his hips with his free hand.

Cassius looked to him. “Would you like to lay a wager?”

“This is preposterous,” Gallienus spat. “Unhand me!” He jerked his hand in Cassius’s hold.

Cass let go and he fell to his arse in the bed.

“Arrest him,” he said.

“I’ll do it,” Nero said, moving in.

“Do not touch me!” Gallienus screamed, scrambling to get away. “I am your king. I am your monarch. I am your ruler. I rescind the Regency. I take back my reign!”

Cass did not watch.

He turned on his boot, saying, “Ian, help Nero. Tone, come with me.”

He went to the door where Horatia was still standing, glaring at him.

Cornelia was not to be seen, and he hoped she was with Elena, seeing to Domitia.

But Frey and Lahn were now out in the hall, Lahn looking angry, Frey looking lethal.

He took his gaze from them and turned to Horatia.

“Antonius, arrest this woman for abetting a rape,” he ordered.

Her eyes grew enormous, her face went ashen, and she started backing away.

“Wh-what?” she asked.

“I see I was not taken seriously when I heralded my first proclamations as this realm’s Prince Regent. Thus, it’s necessary I make my peoples understand, when my will is known, it will be obeyed. I do not thank you for giving me a powerful example to prove my determination. But as you have provided it, I will not waste the opportunity,” he told her, turned to Antonius and jerked his head her way.

Antonius moved.

“But…you can’t. He’s king!” Horatia cried.

Cassius put her out of his mind and looked to Frey.

“How long would it take for your dragons to make Airen?” he asked.

There was some racket as a king and his wife were forcibly removed from the area, but Frey gamely ignored it.

“They fly fast, not long.”

“I may need to make more examples,” Cassius said.

Frey nodded.

“Your wives?” Cassius asked the both of them.

“They were with us when she came out,” Frey told him, his mouth tight, making his words the same. “They went with Elena and Cornelia to see to her.”