"No, there is no sleuth," his brother answers by way of reply, somehow losing even more respect in his brother's gaze. No sleuth? Not even some figurehead to pretend they were intelligent and ward off thieves?
What kind of kingdom is the czar running, then? Clearly there must be someone else keeping him in line and keeping this place from falling to the wolves. Knox doesn't trust his brother to do much anymore, he only trusts himself to lie and pretend he'll respect him, anyway.
Knox cannot help himself in missing the days of The Grey. Maybe Ktulu was still here, maybe someone with a bit more clout than his big-headed, small brained brother. Really, it was likely his brain was more battered from the last time, what with all that jostling that had been sure to happen over the years.
Manhattan yawns lazily, as if the sight of her old homeland now changed and her old pack member so unchanged means nothing. Perhaps she is disappointed—were Knox paying her any sort of mind at the moment, he might have noticed.
"I think you'll find my loyalty unfaltering, brother," he said with a flash towards Aylin's bright eyes. "I'll take back the shadow's crown, I can't imagine I'd fit anywhere else."
Not with my mind so overtaken and my reflexes so slowed—not with all the fight out of me.
Yuh must rummber yur talunts, sun.
Knox snorts, absently at first to dismiss his ancient father's optimism and then actively, with his face directed towards Archibald's. "Aylin is not your concern, Arch," Knox says with the faintest hiss as he reduces his brother's name to one meaningless syllable. It is only Manhattan that calms him enough so he does not wreck everything with his second reply. """I can care for my own. You need be nothing more than her Czar, please respect that."
What is that, jealousy or defense? Or maybe the horrible guilt that she is his burden only to bear, that her pain and her condition is his fault, his doing, his wrong and perhaps distantly his seed. He has to face that alone—if not, how will he ever be absolved?
""
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