here for you. You are not alone. Whatever you need, we got you.
Paradise, Craeg’s mate, was next. And as she wrapped her arms around Boone, he relaxed into her embrace.
“I know this is hard,” she said. “I am really sorry.”
As a fellow member of the glymera and a distant cousin, she understood exactly how it was in aristocratic families. How grief was one more thing that was swept under the Oriental, put away in the safe, tucked into the silver closet.
Axe and Novo and Peyton were up next, and then Boone just stood there like a planker.
“Let’s go inside,” Paradise said gently.
“Oh, right. Yes, of course. It’s cold out here.”
Next thing he knew, they were all in the ladies’ parlor, sitting on the formal sofas, looking at each other. He expected Marquist to burst in at any moment. When that didn’t happen, he took a deep breath.
“I’m glad you guys came.”
“Do you want us to stay overday with you?” Paradise asked.
“I don’t know what I want, to be honest.” He looked at the vase of flowers set on the coffee table in front of them all. “I just . . .”
Axe spoke up. “I know, it’s hard to explain—”
“My father was traitor.”
As he said the words, he realized he was trying them on for size. Testing the weight of them. Strapping on the shame for the first time, and undoubtedly not the last.
“My father . . . was a traitor.” He shifted his eyes to his friends. “He was directly involved in the previous plot to overthrow Wrath, and there is a good chance he was part of a revival of that treason tonight.”
Craeg cursed and turned his hat around and around in his hands. Paradise put a hand on Boone’s shoulder. Axe made like he was spitting on the ground.
“I tried to get him to stay home.” Boone shook his head. “I told him not to go there. But he refused to listen to me.”
“Your father is not you,” Paradise said. “You are not him.”
“I know.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I just want to go back to work.”
He studiously ignored the volley of worried looks that his friends shared. But as long as his shoulder was good to go, what was the problem?
“When will you be doing the Fade Ceremony?” Novo asked. “We want to be there.”
“I haven’t gotten that far.” Speaking of which, where was the body? Who had his stepmahmen’s? “But I’ll let you know.”
He had no brothers or sisters, no grandparents, no aunts or uncles who were still alive after the raids. But he had a couple dozen cousins in the glymera, none of whom he knew well at all because he had kept such a low profile socially. Benign estrangement aside, however, he was willing to bet that all of them would want to show up for Altamere’s ceremony.
They would surely come, if only to gawk, assuming the news of how the death had occurred would hit the gossip phone tree—and how could it not? His father had been attacked in front of over twenty other members of the aristocracy, and all of them, evidently, had survived.
And as for Boone’s stepmahmen? He had to assume that her family would take care of, and honor properly, her remains. She had, after all, come from a very good bloodline with plenty of proud heritage of their own.
As if his father would have mated anybody lesser than he.
“I’m going to keep the ceremony low-key,” Boone heard himself say. “You are all welcome to attend, but I understand if—”
The gonging sound that echoed around the foyer was a surprise, and at first, his congested brain didn’t know what the interruption was caused by.
“That’s the front door,” he mumbled.
Getting to his feet, he was aware of a tensing throughout his chest and shoulders, although that was not because of whoever might have arrived: He didn’t want to go the rounds with the butler.
But Marquist didn’t make an appearance.
As Boone opened the heavy panels, he exhaled in a combination of surprise and curious relief. “Oh, it’s you. You didn’t have to come . . . but I’m glad to see you.”
“I just heard.” Rochelle’s pale eyes were just as lovely and warm as they had been a year before. “I am so sorry.”
There was a long pause. And then they both moved at the same time.
Even though he had not seen the female since the night their arrangement had ended, and in spite of the fact that it was totally