Chapter 8 · Crowned Under Debt

The ledger slipped from my fingers just as the palace doors shook under another hit.

Someone outside shouted, "Open the doors! By order of the council!"

Ronan stepped in front of me, one hand pressed against his bleeding side. His eyes had gone silver again. Not the calm silver from the throne room. This was the other kind. The kind that made every wolf in the hall lower their head and every human servant forget how to breathe.

I grabbed the ledger before it hit the floor.

"Don't," I told him.

His jaw locked. "Don't what?"

"Don't turn into a monster because Drake ran away."

A muscle jumped in his cheek. "He brought killers into my palace. He poisoned you. He used your mother's name to start a riot. Give me one good reason not to tear this whole place apart until I find him."

"Because the whole place includes me."

That stopped him.

For half a second, we stood in the wrecked kitchen with smoke crawling along the ceiling, blood on the tiles, and the smell of nightroot still burning the back of my throat. The rescued servant girl whimpered behind me.