Charles POV

“Even kings forget the floor is glass until it splinters under them.”

The city looked calm from my office window, blue-gray skyline, traffic humming below, the kind of peace that only fools mistake for safety.

But the air inside the room was thick and too quiet and too still.

Something was wrong.

I could feel it.

Rourke entered without knocking, his face unreadable. “We have a problem.”

I didn’t look up from the document I was signing. “We always do. Be specific.”

He ...