DUKE POV
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Duke Fen had drawn Reine Castell once before.
Not from life — he'd never met her, hadn't known what she looked like beyond a name attached to a legal filing and the particular expression Ryke wore whenever she was mentioned, which was less an expression than an absence of one. He'd drawn her from description: Mitch's dry, factual account of the Castell family structure, combined with the specific gap in Ryke's posture when the name came up.
He'd sketched a woman who stood very still. A woman whose stillness was load-bearing rather than restful.
He'd been, he saw now watching her walk through the compound gate, more right than he'd expected to be.
She arrived with one bag and no escort, which Duke understood, watching her carry both, as a statement rather than a circumsta
