The Shared Map

The quiet in the War Room at midnight was a heavy blanket, broken only by the soft click of Demetrius’s pen against the strategic maps. He had summoned me hours ago, dismissing all the Generals, all the analysts, and even Rhys. Only Icarus remained, posted at the far end of the vast room, watching the doorway.

Demetrius was wearing simple clothes tonight, a dark tunic that made him look less like a king and more like a very dangerous man. He was bent over the central stone map, ...