Mary Ann’s POV
Nightveil did not like postponement.
Neither did I.
The loyalty vote had already begun shifting in ways Cassius clearly had not expected. Families were speaking openly about homes, land, clinics, and the safety they had experienced under the rebuilding council. His promise of revenge no longer sounded as powerful once people compared it with what had actually been rebuilt.
And then Severin’s assassin had nearly killed Darius.
That changed everything.
By dawn, the final vote had been postponed.
Not cancelled.
Postponed.
I stood before Nightveil’s council and said exactly that.
“We will finish this.”
The restored hall was quieter than it had been during the ceremony. Guards stood at every entrance. Cassius had been returned to secured custody beneath the eastern win
