Page 115 of Maksym

He looked, as usual, almost impossible to rattle.

Grace pulled in a short breath. It was small. She likely did not know she had done it. I noticed anyway.

She would not be the first woman—or man—to react to Shad’s face as if competence had developed cheekbones. I did not comment. Grace had earned the right to breathe near handsome men without a king making an idiot of himself.

Shad’s eyes moved to me first.

“Your Grace.”

“Shad.”

Then his gaze shifted, briefly and carefully, to Grace. I moved half a step, so the camera caught us both.

“This is Gracelyn Marlow,” I said. “Grace, Shadrick Devers. Operations manager of Amethyst and one of the few men I trust without qualification.”

Shad gave a slight nod. Not overdone. Not courtly enough to burden her.

“My lady.”

Grace inclined her head. “Mr. Devers.”

“Shad is fine.”

Her mouth moved faintly. “Grace, then.”

“Done.”

I looked at him. “I’m sorry in-person introductions were not possible before we left Vegas. Time was not generous.”

“No apology necessary,” Shad said.

That was Shad’s way of accepting it without making me explain myself twice.

“Report,” I said.

Shad’s gaze returned fully to mine.

“Lucian’s men entered Amethyst again earlier this evening.”

Grace went still beside me.

Not visibly, perhaps, to anyone with dull senses. To me, she changed entirely. Her pulse struck harder. Her shoulders did not rise, but tension moved beneath the fabric of her dress like wire being drawn through cloth.

“How many?” I asked.

“Three confirmed. Possibly a fourth outside camera range before entry, but the witch team is still cleaning the footage. Two vampires, one human. The human carried himself like compelled personnel, but I am not calling that conclusive yet.”

“Names?”

“Working on them. One vampire used a false identification under a minor house out of Phoenix. Sloppy enough that I assume we were meant to find it.”

I absorbed that.

Lucian was arrogant, not stupid. The distinction mattered. Stupid men made noise because they did not understand silence. Arrogant men made noise where they wanted attention and moved quietly everywhere else.

“What did they do?” Bohdan asked.

Shad did not glance at him with surprise. He had expected Bohdan to be in the room, or he had adjusted to the fact instantly.