Alaric
*[Whole club's turning against you,]* Rook said, tense, alert to every shift in the crowd's mood around us. *[Watch the edges. That's where trouble starts first.]*
*I know.*
I held my position, body between Marlowe and a yard full of people who'd just watched twelve years of my carefully built reputation crack open in front of them — and I understood, scanning the crowd's faces, exactly how fractured this moment had already become. Some watched with open fury. Others, confusion, still working through what they'd just heard. A handful — Nova, unsurprisingly, and Cricket, more surprisingly — had already positioned themselves protectively near the front, ready to back whatever I decided next.
"King." Bear's voice, cutting through the noise, and I felt my whole chest tighten, uncert
