Page 218 of Sky’s Edge

“So your theory that they’re under the influence of something that beats truth serum is proving true.”

“Perhaps. We’ll have to wait and see.”

“Well, you’re correct, this isn’t all that great, but it isn’t all bad either. If those chemists can find out what it is, they’ll know such an agent is out there and bloods can be taken before truth serum is delivered.”

“That isn’t the news I came to share.”

Oh boy.

“What news is that?”

He let me go to pull out his Palm, he brought something up on the display and handed it to me.

I looked down at it.

It was an article from a well-known tabloid newspaper in the Edge.

And the headline screamed, He’s Made His Choice.

Under that was a picture of Tanyn, looking amazing in a suit, walking into a building.

I’d seen that picture before. He’d been attending one of the hearings on his succession.

Next to it was a picture of me, taken direct from the staff section of Tempera’s pane. I was standing just to the side of a large painting by Deekor. It was a bright, mad, demented canvas covered in thick slashes and thicker drips of paint.

I looked fabulous (obviously, or I wouldn’t have put that picture up on the gallery’s pane).

As I scrolled down, I saw another photo of us both at the Midnight Masque. We were in close proximity but not standing together. However, we were sharing a look.

I remembered that moment.

We both were wearing masks, so you couldn’t quite see my glare, and Tanyn was being his then-usual indifferent, so his expression was unreadable, even around the mask he was wearing.

But the angle of the camera made it look like we were together.

And we looked amazing, if I did say so myself. Tanyn could rock a tux, and my gown for the Masque had been the bomb.

I scrolled back up to start reading, and…yes.

The first sentence said:

King Tanyn, our new monarch, isn’t wasting any time filling his neighboring throne. And he’s selected a member of a First Family of The Fall, a demon defector, Catla Truelock.

Well…fuck.

This had to be Mira’s doing.

I’d promised her I’d give her a heads-up before I told Tanyn, but it was seeming I wasn’t going to be able to do it.

I handed him back his Palm, but before I could say anything, he said, “Mira attempted to resign half an hour ago.”

Right, that was a surprise.

Maybe?

“She did?”

He was watching me closely. “She said something happened between you two, and she’s tendering her resignation before I request it.”