LOGINLucien's POV
"So what do you want me to do then?" I asked, my voice loud. "Go beat her up? Drag her back here? Force her to stay miserable?"
Ravena's POV Marianne counted out the rest of the money with a face the colour of ash.Her hands were not quite steady as she did it, and she wouldn't look at me, and every note she laid down she laid down as though it were a piece of her own skin. I stood and watched her do it and I didn't feel one drop of pity. I had passed the point of pity with this woman a long time ago.
Ravena's POVMarianne's jaw tightened. The needle hadn't gone in. So she reached for a crueler one."Family?" she sneered, and her lip curled. "Is that what you are? Do you know, Luna, my daughter here once had a great deal to say about you, before you were quite so grand. About the kind of woman my nephew was bringing into the royal house." Her eyes glittered. "A woman married once already and cast off. A woman with a used name and a second wedding. Cressida had her doubts about whether such a one belonged among us at all, and she was not wrong to have them, wha
Ravena's POV In the end, Marianne chose to pay.She gave the order through her teeth, and her steward went to the room and came back with a thick fold of bank notes, and she had them set down on the table in front of me rather than placed in my hand, as though passing them to me directly would cost her something more than the coin.I didn't take offense. I just drew them towards me and started to count.
Ravena's POV I had my hand on the door and Vivienne behind me and the whole stack of books held tight against my body when Marianne broke."Wait."I stopped, but I didn't turn around, not yet. I let her say it again."Wait." Her voice was tight, forced out through her
Ravena's POVThe Ministry of Justice. I had said it plainly, and I had said it on purpose, because I knew something that these two women knew even better than I did. The Ministry of Justice, the kingdom's own house of questioners and judges, did not answer to some distant lord. It answered to my husband. Evander held it. The prince who commanded the armies also commanded the men who put hard questions to criminals against the crown, and every soul in the capital knew it.
Ravena's POVDuchess Marianne's house was different at night.By day it had been all light and polish, grand rooms made to make a visitor feel small. But at this dark hour it was hushed and shadowed, and the servant who let us in did so with the stiff, uneasy manner of a household that had not expected callers and didn't know what to make of two women arriving with a stack of books and four silent guards at their backs.
Evander’s POVI had been waiting in that courtyard for over an hour. Every passing minute felt like an eternity, and every sound made me tense, wondering if it was her carriage approaching.I leaned against the stone pillar, trying to look casual and relaxed. Lik
The Third PovHigh-ranking officials from every major territory were in the grand hall, their fine clothes and jewels glittering under the chandeliers.This was more than a celebration. This was a display of power. Of hierarchy. Of who mattered and who did not.
Ravena's POVThe noise dragged me from sleep before dawn had fully broken. I could hear voices, footsteps, and the clanging of metal outside my tent.Today was the day Astrid would face her punishment.I sat up slowly, feeling very exhausted. I had barely slept because Evander's voice kept replayin
Ravena's POVI leaned back in my chair, letting the noise of the banquet wash over me. The laughter, music, and the clinking of glasses. It all felt distant, like I was watching it from somewhere far away.My eyes drifted across the room, taking in faces. Officials. Wa







