Tyler stood up and walked around the table to Camilla's chair. "I've heard the problem. Do you want me to solve it?" Camilla raised her eyes to him with the whiskey glass still in her hand, and for a second she wanted to laugh. "My dearest. I've seen you fight. I watched you throw a car door through two trucks and fifty men, and I still don't know what you are." "But?" "But it isn't a fighting problem." Camilla set the glass down. "Mayor Rourke has called me twice this week. Six of the men who fund my gang came to my office on Thursday. They all said the same sentence." "And what is that?" "End the war. They own hotels and shipping lines in this city. My war is costing them money, and they don't care which of us dies as long as somebody stops." "So?" "So if Dorian Vex proposes in front of eight hundred witnesses and I spit in his face, I lose all six of them in a night. Then I'm a woman with three hundred men, no money, and an army at the door." Bruno kept his eyes on the fl

Julian Ashford went down on one knee on the stage of the Grand Meridian and held up a ring.The scream that came out of that ballroom put two waiters against the wall."Ivy Solaris. In front of this whole city. Will you marry me?"Phones went up in every hand in the room. A photographer on the balcony climbed onto a chair."SAY YES! SAY YES! SAY YES!"Ivy stood in the spotlight holding a microphone she hadn't asked for. She understood exactly what had been done to her. He hadn't asked in a restaurant. He'd asked where refusing him would be the only story in the country by morning."Julian. Can we talk about this somewhere private?"Ashford smiled up at her and made sure the room heard him."Sweetheart, I've been very patient with you. Say it.""Can I say something?"The voice came from the floor. It wasn't loud. The people in front of it stepped aside anyway, then the ones behind them, until a lane ran through the middle of the ballroom.Tyler walked up it holding a bread roll.Ashfor

Dexter's sword came down at Tyler's shoulder with enough force to split a man in half."Tyler!" Vivian screamed from the Prince's table. "Pick up the sword!"Tyler had tossed his own blade away. It had clattered across the marble floor and slid under a table."Is he insane?" one of the suitors exclaimed. "He threw away his sword! Does he have a death wish?"In a bizarre decision, he reached behind him and picked up a silver fork from the nearest place setting.Clang! The Indigo Captain's blade stopped dead against the fork, a foot short of Tyler's shoulder.The entire ballroom gasped in disbelief. Did that man just block Dexter Sentinel with a fork?"He is mocking the Indigo Captain!" another hollered. "Captain, cut him down! Teach the homeless brat some manners!"Dexter pulled his blade back and stared at the fork in confusion. His strike had carried enough strength to cleave through a steel helmet. Yet this young man had stopped it with a piece of cutlery, and his feet had not moved

Ivy Solaris pushed her way through the ballroom with her sunglasses on and her hood up. It was a poor disguise for the most famous face in the country, but she didn't care.She had sung tonight for one man in this ballroom, and the fans had swept her away before she could even speak to him. Where had Tyler gone?She went to Don Camilla's table first. The heap of food was still there, half eaten, with a pile of fried chicken bones on one plate. But the chair was empty."Excuse me," she asked a waiter. "Have you seen Tyler Grant? Tall, plain suit, eats like a starving wolf?"The waiter stared at her, starstruck, and shook his head.The news of Tyler fighting a captain of the royal guard had traveled. Was he okay?Ivy bit her lip and hurried on. At the stage tables, Julian Ashford's chair still lay on its back where he had stormed off. On the duel floor, waiters were sweeping up shattered glass around the two halves of a sword.Tyler Grant had left a trail of chaos across the whole ballr

The royal limousine rolled through the iron gates of the County Palace.Denter County was far larger than Petra, and far older. Its towers and cathedrals had stood for centuries, and it looked like an ancient kingdom out of a storybook.But it was a kingdom losing its light. The few people on its streets were pale and listless, as if every step cost them their souls. The whole county lay under a permanent shade, and the sun barely broke through.Over the palace, it was worse. A thick, dark cloud hung directly above the towers, low enough to swallow the spires. It did not move with the wind. It simply sat there, like a malevolent hand pressing down on the royal family.Vivian shivered and drew her shawl tighter. "What happened to this place?" she whispered. "It used to be so beautiful!"Leopold didn't answer. He was ashamed to let outsiders see his land and its people like this.Tyler looked up at the dark clouds. To everyone else it was only bad weather. Tyler could feel something coi