#Chapter 41 The Weight Between

Kaine I sit at my desk, but I haven’t turned a page in ten minutes. Ember’s report is still open in front of me, marked in her neat handwriting. She’s underlined key entries, added margin notes where gaps in the records suggest something was altered or scrubbed. It’s sharp. Precise. Her work always is. I read the same paragraph again and still can’t focus. What sticks isn’t the report. It’s her voice. The way she stood in front of me yesterday and reminded me, without flinching, that she’s a palace guard. That she’s here to do her job. She was right. Jasper’s interest in her isn’t something she asked for. She’s done nothing but keep her distance, but I let the sight of them together twist something in me. I used propriety as an excuse to lash out. I lean back in my chair and press my thumb to the corner of the page. It should have ended there with a brief exchange, a lapse in judgment and then we both move on. I haven’t. I keep returning to it, to her voice, to th