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“You’ll make better friends.”

Who they would be, I didn’t know. I would have to investigate that. I certainly didn’t want her to spend all her time in Kiam’s company.

I felt her aura billow with anger, as if a gust of wind had caught and stretched a curtain that now fluttered against my legs. “You can’t tell me who my friends are. That’s not how it works. You better not hurt her.”

Katarina had been escorted down to the dungeons the moment the women were returned.

She knew Cassia was not to leave without being accompanied by her guard. It was standard procedure. She’d been employed long enough to be aware of what would happen.

“You are my responsibility. For someone so fearful of her surroundings, you made a reckless decision.” Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised, but I was.

Throwing projectiles at me in the safety of the bedroom was much different than wandering the city unaccompanied. She had displayed carelessness for her own well-being. She was my responsibility and it was my job to keep her safe.

Too much was going on. Kalix was being sent to rule a kingdom in the north. One of my men, Deven, had located a human in possession of contraband under odd circumstances. And Annalise was hinting at something major occurring in her personal life.

Being torn in many different directions meant I had neglected to monitor Cassia sufficiently.

Pure spite radiated from her gaze. “You’re not going to keep me locked up here like a child.”

“There’s a reason there are no children here.” Her chest rose and fell. “I’ll deal with Kiam, but you are not going to flitter about the Realm unsupervised.”

“Katarina should be enough. Are you telling me that somebody would hurt what you claim is yours?”

My own anger flared. She was testing me.

And very much trying my patience.

The pen in my hand made a sharp cracking sound, and she quickly glanced at it. I dropped the broken writing instrument on my desk and watched the ink pool in a small, thick circle before I looked at her.

I crowded her against the wall before she realized what had happened. My hand curled around her neck with her soft strands draping against my skin. She teetered on her tiptoes and her big blue eyes watered. The temptation to leave her suspended in this position won.

She was speechless, gaping at me when I returned to my desk. With a small cotton cloth, I mopped up the spilled ink.

“Lukas.” Her voice was hoarse.

I still had a verdict to decree, regarding Deven’s find, but the circumstances were outlandish. I had half a mind to transfer the case to Ezekiel, let him deal with it. Cassia needed tending to.

Her muscles were twitching as she fought to lower her feet, and she repeated my name again. Her disbelief and anger filled the room with a thick, cloying fog that Kiam walked right into. He wasn’t a pureblood, he shouldn’t have been so sensitive. But he was.

“What the hell,” he muttered, giving her a cursory glance.

He strolled directly over to the carafe of blood sitting on the sideboard and poured himself a glass, the sound of the crystal decanter competing with Cassia’s grunts.

“I imagine Katarina is waiting for your company,” I drawled.

He arched a single brow. “You do have a nice dungeon here. Gave me some ideas for my own.”

“No. Lukas! You can’t put my friend in a dungeon!” Tears flew down Cassia’s cheeks in earnest. “Get her out of there right now or I’ll⁠—”

“Or you’ll what?” I interrupted her. “What will you do?”

Kiam snickered and seated himself in one of the two armchairs facing my desk and slowly sipped on his beverage. He didn’t care about Cassia’s slave, but I had a point to make, and he played along.

“Please?”

Her voice was so soft that I wouldn’t have heard it if I wasn’t a vampire. The sound of that single word slid around my brain and my chest, softening my anger. Without thinking any further, I lifted my hand and she lowered to her knees.

Cassia gasped and rose from the floor. “Where do you think you are going?” I asked.