Chapter 160 Knees And Services

• The following week was a fragile illusion. For seven days, the heavy, metallic scent of fear seemed to fade from the palace corridors. Sophie was glowing, convinced that the tension between her husband and brother had finally dissolved into a genuine bond. Fenrir and Adonis played their parts to perfection, sharing stiff but polite conversations over dinner and walking the grounds like the powerful men they were meant to be. They began to breathe again, believing that Vespera had grown bored of her "new friends."
• They thought they had been left alone. They were fools.
• On the eighth day, the calling came. It wasn’t a loud announcement; it was a silent vibration of the devices they still wore beneath their regal clothes, a rhythmic hum that signaled their mistress was hungry for their dignity once more. The summons was absolute.