Tatiana had not moved or spoken. She sat very still, with the particular stillness of someone whose mind is working considerably faster than their face suggests. She had been watching Cixi since she walked into the room. She had been looking for something, some obvious quality in Cixi that could explain her, that made it make sense.
Two Crown men. One dead, one sitting at a dinner table announcing intentions over a woman carrying someone else's child. Tatiana had tried to find it, the thing that made Cixi extraordinary, and all she could see was the prosthetic belly and a woman who spoke too freely and ran her mouth like a blade.
It made her angrier than she had expected. Not at Cixi. At Rafael, who had been looking at Cixi with fascination while she sat right beside him.
Without delaying further, she turned to him.
"I need to speak with you." Her voice was quiet. "Outside. Now!"
Rafael exhaled slowly, pushed back his chair, and stood. "Fine."
