Chapter 42 · No one touches her

He said it for the room.

For the wounded guard.

For whoever was waiting beyond the door.

"No one touches her," he continued. "No one questions her alone. No one takes her anywhere without my order. If Klaus wants her, he can come through me."

Vey's mouth thinned. "You are making a public claim without a formal bond ceremony."

"I'm making a warning."

"The distinction matters."

"Not to the men who are about to die at my gate."

The guard at my back shifted his feet. I caught the movement in the polished black surface of the council table.

He was watching my left hand.

Not the red mark.

The inside of my thumb.

A small black smudge stained the skin there. I had not noticed it before. It looked like ash, except the mark had three thin lines crossing through it.

My chest tightened.

Three lines.

A broken crown.

The old signal.

I knew it from the ledgers in my father's estate. I had spent years copying messages for Klaus's household guards without understanding why certain numbers were written backward. The broken crown meant death.