Malrik POV

Dashira had stretched my patience to its very limits, and I was determined to remind her what consequences awaited such recklessness. Locking Zenovia in a cell hadn’t simply been necessary it had been unavoidable. She needed to understand her place, to recognize that her words carried weight, and that weight could just as easily crush her if wielded without care. Defiance of that magnitude could not be overlooked not now, not ever.

After breakfast, I withdrew to my office, my one ...