~ DAVID ~
I'd gathered the men in the Royal library—a much bigger space than my personal study where I met with Zara.
With the women gone and only servants and a scattering of nobles powerful enough to stand with Kings, we were down to about twenty men.
Still, I felt as if someone had loaded bricks into a satchel and slung it around my neck. It was a work to focus and force myself to make jovial conversation. Especially when the conversation turned to the women who made up the Select.
Though it was exactly where I needed the conversation to go. I'd been waiting, like a cat hunched in the grass, waiting to pounce. I knew they couldn't endure an entire evening in my presence without raising it. I'd been counting on it. So, it was a relief when Barst, the ruler of Caeloria gave me a wicked smile.
