“Well, Your Majesty, I’d welcome you to our rooms, but since they are in fact your rooms, I’ll skip those pleasantries,” Silene says with forced cheeriness from my left. She walks out of the primary bedroom, and I freeze for just a moment at the implication. They’re betrothed, of course they’re sleeping in the same bed. I shake away the thought and the twinge of something I can’t explain, focusing all my attention on the small female. Her petite and toned frame practically bounces with excitement, and I can’t help myself from warming to her lighthearted and exuberant personality.

“Silene,” I say, “thank you for receiving me. I trust Prince Hawthorne has advised you of the purpose of today’s meeting.” Silene nods as she follows me to the other two chairs across from Prince Hawthorne and Fionn. “The Prince informed me of the contact you received for the Sons and Daughters, and of your plan to infiltrate them. I’m still a bit suspicious of your motivations for seeking them out.” I pause, letting them feel a zap of energy and the smallest squeezing of their necks with a rope of air. Three sets of wide eyes stare back at me, but they remain silent and otherwise unaffected. Prince Hawthorne smirks, like he likes it, and it makes me want to rip the air from his lungs, but I refrain. They’re well trained, or at the very least used to veiled threats—I’m sure Mazus is quick to use his power to threaten. “However, it would be foolish of me to pass up this opportunity.”

“Thorne didn’t give us much information,” Silene begins cautiously. “How do you intend for us to pursue this opportunity, as you say?” Something about the Prince’s nickname gives me tingles down my spine. Ignoring it, I walk them through the high-level details of my scheme.