Rina froze.
For one second, Sylvia thought Thomas had overestimated the threat.
Then Rina's face went through an entire imperial crisis in silence.
"You would not," Rina said.
Thomas looked at her.
Sylvia, who had only been inside Alamina's court indirectly and mostly by watching Dean refuse to behave normally in sacred buildings, still understood one very important thing.
Thomas would.
Rina understood it too.
Her hand lowered slowly from where she had been pointing at him. Her eyes narrowed, then flicked to Sylvia, then to the door, then back to Thomas, calculating routes of escape, degrees of humiliation, and the possible number of royal relatives who would become involved if this information reached Emperor Otto.
Apparently, that number was horrifying.
"You are weaponizing my father," Rina accused.
"You weaponized Sylvia's phone."
Rina opened her mouth, then closed it, because apparently even she had limits when confronted with the truth.
