Xena."Say it again.""Dante, I need you to actually hear me before you—""Say it again." He hadn't moved from the doorway of his own kitchen. "The word. Just the word.""Guardianship."Something went out of his face. Not colour — colour had gone already, in the car, the second I'd started talking. This was something under the colour."When." His voice had dropped almost to nothing."Herald didn't give me a date. He said Victor told him you were helping build the paperwork. Somebody inside the family. Somebody who'd sign off on it and never lose a night's sleep." I made myself keep going, because if I stopped now I don't think I'd have started again. "That's what he said.""I didn't—" Dante stopped himself. Started again. "I need to think.""Take your time.""No. Actual time. Not the kind where I say something clever in four seconds because I can't stand the silence." He put both hands flat on the counter and stood there like a man bracing for weather. "Give me a minute, Xena. A real
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