“I look forward to your email.”
“Of course.”
His gaze rested on me again. “And to our next conversation.”
His hand brushed the back of his chair on the way past.
“That sounds optimistic.”
“It usually is.”
Dominic was at my shoulder before Rhain took his second step away from the table. Never touching. Close. Rhain’s gaze flicked to the distance between us, then back to me.
The look he gave me was curiosity. Then he walked away.
I stayed where I was for one breath too long.
Dominic’s voice came from beside me, pitched so no one else at the table could hear. “Ms.Cordero.”
“Yes?”
His weight shifted toward the door. “We should go.”
I picked up my notebook. “Of course.”
Chess
Catalina
ByThursday afternoon, I had three things I was certain of.
One: Dominic Graves had been outside my door for four consecutive nights without sleeping.
The aide who brought my schedule at seven gave me a look that translated, across the cultural divide between humans and dragons, asplease do something about this.
I didn’t know what she expected me to do. Invite him in? Sedate him? File a complaint with whatever department handled emotionally repressed enforcers with territorial insomnia?
I took the paper and pretended not to notice her noticing the man standing ten feet behind me. Dominic did the same.
Two: Rhain Solberg had decided to spend the rest of the week behaving as if we had been the closest of friends since nursery school.
He greeted me in corridors by my first name. He stopped to ask after my morning. He told me a small joke about the Norwegian deputy’s tie on Thursday and waited for me to laugh. He was delighted when I did. He used charm as both a weapon and a public service.
He sat across from me in the conference room and looked at me with open, fond attention. He had decided I was the most interesting person in the building and intended for everyone watching to understand it.
Three: the state dinner was tomorrow night and the Norwegian delegation was here to sabotage Yuki’s negotiating position with the U.S. Somebody at this table was going to do something they couldn’t take back.
* **
Thursday’s council session ran from nine to noon. I translated and watched.
Yuki at the head of the table. Three Ashenmere elders to her right. Two elders I hadn’t yet placed, who I now suspected were a quiet faction within her own clan. The Norwegian delegation across, with Bjorn at its head. Two Japanese observers from Clan Akane I hadn’t been told to expect. The U.S. ambassador’s senior trade representative and his deputies.
And Rhain, my apparent best friend, across the table.
Rhain walked into the council suite at eight fifty-seven and stopped at my chair before taking his own.
He set a small paper bag beside my notebook. “Good morning, Catalina.” Then he gave me a wink that was, somehow, not cheesy.
