Darren

I had locked the crowned heads of the known world in my ballroom overnight, and the room I walked back into was a diplomatic catastrophe wearing party clothes.

Hundreds of dignitaries in wilted finery, sealed behind my guards since the fireworks. Kings detained like suspects. Alphas separated from their packs, envoys from their escorts, nobody fed properly, nobody told anything, every one of them watching every other one with the arithmetic of fear, and over it all the knowledge, ...