“Let’s go,” Cass called to Elena, reaching out to her with a hand.

She moved to him and took it, and we all walked into the Great Hall, which was truly a delight with silver velvet couches, low round pots tufted with tight-packed snowy carnations on conveniently placed tables, and thick, midnight-blue rugs covering the floors.

And I realized upon entering it, I had a rather dire, fixed idea of what the Citadel was like. So much so, it colored my memories of the Bay, which I remembered as nothing but cold and austere.

Mars grunted when he moved into the room.

“All right?” I asked him.

“Some time ago, Cass and I spoke of miracles,” he answered. “It would seem Elena has a variety of magicks at her disposal, for I see she has wrought some.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This room, under Gallienus, was designed to intimidate and call notice to him, forcing courtiers to compete for his attention. So far, mia bellezza, with some flowers, rugs and sofas, Elena has swept this place clean of him and the rule of his forebears in very little time. Thus, a miracle.”

“These are not miracles, Mars,” I educated him.

As he was seating me on a couch, he raised his brows in question.

“I learned from Mercy before she passed, the power of females takes many forms.”

He grunted again as he sat beside me, slouched down in his seat, stretched out his long legs, crossed his booted ankles, and dropped into me, draping an arm around the back of the couch behind me.

My husband comfortably resting against me, all was right in my world.

For the now.

We waited as the others, including Serena and Chu, Hera and Macrinus, and Nero took their seats before Ian started talking.

“First, Elena.”

He said no more. Simply looked at her with an expression on his handsome face that had a frog forming in my throat.

“Speak not, my brother,” she whispered.

He nodded, looked to Mac.

“She is in the veil,” Mac grunted. “And we will talk no more of it in the now.”

He nodded and looked to Hera.

“She liked you very much,” Hera said softly.

“And I liked her too,” Ian replied gently.

Hera’s lashes swept down.

He looked to Cass. “Tone?”

“He will be here soon, and we will lay him to rest by his father with his mother and sister at our sides.”

A muscle danced in Ian’s jaw before he nodded one last time and he said, “Right. You should know, I’ve received reports that there’s a stronghold of Allied Gentry in Dunlyn. I’ve sent word to Navagio. He’s randomly inundating low-populated, high-financial-loss areas, like warehouses, wharves, piers, jetties and merchant offices with cannon fire to provide cover for our operatives to infiltrate and find their headquarters.”

“Excellent,” Cassius murmured.