Kaiden's eyebrow rose.
One brow, barely a centimeter. The rest of his face didn't move.
"You know who my mother is."
"I do."
"That's a very short list."
"It is." Eleanora crossed back to her chair, his tea in her hands, and set it in front of him with the care of a woman who'd just told a dangerous young man that she knew his biggest secret and wanted him to have a warm beverage while they discussed it. "Which should tell you where I sit in the food chain."
Kaiden took the cup. The chamomile and honey hit his senses, grounding and absurdly domestic given the circumstances. He sipped.
'She's higher up than I assumed,' he thought. The Association knew. He'd known that the Association knew. The government didn't let an Ashborn heir walk around unregistered without someone keeping tabs, and Kaiden had made peace with that reality years ago. But he'd expected the information to live in sealed files handled by high-level intelligence analysts who'd never meet him face to face.
