121; The Dinner

POV: LyraPetra had arranged a private room at the back of a restaurant two streets from the council building.Not formal, That was the first thing I noticed when I walked through the door. No council insignia, no long table designed for proceedings, no chairs arranged to communicate hierarchy. Just a round table large enough for all of us, candles in the centre, the particular warm light of a room that had been set up by someone who understood that what we needed tonight was not a debriefing.It was a table. Ronan came in beside me and his hand found the small of my back briefly as we moved through the door, a small ordinary gesture that I felt in the specific way you feel things when you have stopped bracing for them.We sat. Ronan beside me. Kieran across from me, beside Calla, who had come from the council building in the same car and had spent the drive looking out the window with the expression of someone taking stock of a day that had contained more than most years. Cassian was

122; The Second Letter

POV: LyraThe room Petra had arranged was small and quiet and on the fourth floor of the residence building, high enough that the city sounds were distant and the window looked out over rooftops rather than streets.I sat on the edge of the bed for a long time before I opened it. The envelope was in my hands. I had carried it from the restaurant in my coat pocket with the particular careful quality of someone transporting something that mattered more than its physical weight suggested. I had said goodnight to the table without making it into a moment. Ronan had looked at my face and understood without asking and squeezed my hand once and let me go.He knew. I had told him, quietly, on the walk from the restaurant. He had listened and then said, take the time you need. I had said, I know. He had said, I will be here when you come back. I had said, I know that too.Now I was alone in a small room on the fourth floor with the envelope in my hands and the city quiet outside the window an

All Chapters of Marked By The Rival Alphas: Chapter 121 - Chapter 122

121; The Dinner

122; The Second Letter