Malachai turned from the window.
He thought about Eve in the outer hall yesterday. Chin level. Not looking around. Walking in like she had already decided the Court was worth her time. He thought about the presentation.....clean, correct, nothing that could be used against her. He thought about her sitting across from him in this study with her hands in her lap and her face composed and her eyes doing that thing her father's eyes had done, that quality of attention that processed everything and showed nothing.
He thought about her asking about the window.
He had told her.
He sat back down at his desk.
"She rejected the offer," he said.
"It would appear so," Vael said.
"She came into this building, sat in this room, listened to my terms, and used the meeting to extract the one piece of information she needed." He looked at the surface of his desk. At the pen he'd set down. "She never intended to consider it."
"No," Vael said. "I don't think she did."
