Kavak embraced me next, his grip firm and reassuring. "The Council session went well, I hear."
"It did." I gestured toward the seating area. "Please, sit." I couldn't wait to share the sanctions and punishments the Council had approved to punish convicted slavers and those that supported them.
Charick settled onto the couch beside Willa, immediately reaching for Titus, who abandoned Cullen's lap to climb onto his father's. Kavak took the chair opposite mine, his expression thoughtful.
"There's something else we need to discuss," Charick said, his tone shifting to something more serious. "About what Riuondo said before he died."
My chest tightened. "Enslak."
"Yes." Charick leaned forward, his hands clasped between his knees. "I've contacted Siemba of Asad Intelligence. He's already dispatched operatives to investigate—quietly, discreetly. If Enslak is alive, if he's out there somewhere, we'll find him."
The name hung in the air between us, heavy with a century of grief.
Enslak. My youngest son. Lost during the Vaktaire-Romvesian skirmish when Riuondo had refused to accept his defeat in the Prime trials. He'd been barely twenty years old—young, idealistic, eager to prove himself in battle.
And then he was gone.
We'd searched for months. Scoured every battlefield, every prison camp, every medical facility. But we'd found nothing. No body. No trace. Eventually, we'd been forced to accept that he was dead—killed in the chaos of war, his remains lost or destroyed.
But now...
"If he's alive," I said slowly, my voice barely above a whisper, "if Riuondo was telling the truth—"
"Then we'll bring him home," Charick said firmly. "I've already given orders to theBardaga. We'll search every system, every outpost, every place Riuondo might have hidden him. We'll find him, Mother. I promise you that."
My hand moved to my heart, pressing against my chest as if I could physically hold the hope that was threatening to overwhelm me. A century. A hundred years of believing my son was dead, of carrying that grief like a stone in my chest.
And now there was a chance—however small—that he might still be alive.
"Thank you," I managed, my voice thick with emotion. "Thank you, Charick."
Kavak cleared his throat. "There's something else we need to discuss. Something urgent."
I looked at my eldest son, noting the tension in his shoulders, the careful neutrality of his expression. "What is it?"
"Tensions between Romvesia and Vaktaire are rising," he said. "Dangerously so. Riuondo was a folk hero to a lot of Romvesians—even though most of them believed he'd died a century ago. Learning that he survived, that he was working to reclaim what he saw as his rightful position, and then hearing that you killed him..." He paused. "It's created what Cullen so aptly called: a powder keg."
"They see me as a usurper," I said quietly. "As the female who stole his destiny and then murdered him when he tried to reclaim it." Romvesians could be a little backward when it came to what Willa and Chloe called 'women's rights'.
"Yes." Kavak's jaw tightened. "The Romvesian Council is calling for reparations. Some of the more militant factions are calling for war. If we don't do something to ease tensions, we could be looking at another century of conflict."
The weight of it settled over me like a physical thing. This was what leadership meant—not just making decisions for yourself, but bearing the consequences of those decisions for entire worlds. For billions of lives.
"What do you propose?" I asked, though part of me dreaded the answer.
Kavak met my gaze steadily. "I'm going to enter into a political mating with a Romvesian princess. It will create a formal alliance between our houses, demonstrate our commitment to peace. It should be enough to satisfy the moderates and undercut the militants."
No.
Not this. Not my son sacrificing his chance at happiness the way I had sacrificed mine.
"Kavak—" I began, but he held up a hand.
"The arrangements are already made, Mother. Princess Thallia of House Morven has agreed. The ceremony will take place in two months, on neutral ground. Both the Vaktaire and Romvesian Councils have given their blessing."
"But your true mate—" The words caught in my throat. "You deserve to find your true mate. To experience what your brother has found, what I've found with Cullen. You shouldn't have to—"
"I'm doing this to protect the Alliance," Kavak said firmly. "To prevent war. To save lives. Isn't that what you taught me? That leadership means sacrifice?"
