POV: Emilia Conti
The house didn't sleep after the announcement.
I noticed it in a quiet way first. Doors opening and closing more often than necessary. Footsteps that paused outside rooms they usually passed without hesitation. Conversations that dropped into murmurs the moment I entered a space.
The building was listening to itself.
I felt it when I stepped into the corridor the next morning. The guards were the same men, standing in the same positions, but something in them had shifted. Their posture was tighter. Their eyes are more alert. Not toward me exactly—but toward what I represented.
Whatever Alessio had declared the night before hadn't settled.
It had spread.
Sofia met me outside the dining room, her expression carefully neutral. "Breakfast is ready."
I nodded. "Is he up?"
"Yes," she said. Then, after a beat, "He's already meeting with the council."
That tightened something in my chest.
"Already?" I asked.
She hesitated. "They requested it."
