TAVRIC
My face holds its mask of tempered stone even as my father continues his lecture on the logistical shifts in leadership that accompany the advent of a Dragon Alpha.
I nod in the right places. I play the dutiful, if estranged, son. But my focus is across the hall, where I watch Lucy pale by several degrees in the space of a single moment—an instantaneous, visible shift in her color that tells me Kieran has just said something that hit her like a cold hand around the throat.
What did that fool tell her?
Even Jaxl looks unsettled, and Jaxl is not a man who unsettles easily.
My hands flex restlessly at my sides. I run through the possibilities. A warning of some kind? About my father? About the shape this day is about to take behind closed doors?
"Tavric." My brother's voice is a blunt instrument. "Did you hear what I said? It's as if we're speaking to a wall."
