George grinned. "Not when you are trembling with Agaron's crown prince in the room."
Felix's expression did not change.
That was the first warning.
A smarter man might have stopped there. George was not a genius like Felix, and he was certainly not a genius like Liam, but he was not entirely stupid either. He knew men. He knew fear when it wore perfume. He knew when an old monster had seen another monster enter the room and remembered, very suddenly, that age did not make teeth sharper forever.
Felix was afraid of Arik.
Not unsettled or irritated, but afraid.
George had seen it in the corridor when Arik's voice changed. He had seen it again when Arik leaned into Liam's hand and filled the hall with dominant alpha pheromones as if the palace belonged to him by biological law. He had seen Felix calculate, then fail, then retreat behind silence because silence was the only thing left that did not betray him.
And Arik's eyes.
Those impossible golden eyes.
