Chapter 59

Ronan's POV

Tamsin assigned two guards to Gideon. He objected until she told him the arrangement also kept Severin's agents from getting near Vivian's door. Then he asked the guards to pull their chairs farther from the nursery so they would not wake Clara.

“He's going to be intolerable as a father,” Tamsin said after he left.

“Maeve has already informed him that newborns outrank Alphas.”

“She should embroider it on a pillow.”

We were both tired enough to laugh. Tamsin went back to the east watch, and I climbed the west stairs with every muscle protesting. I wanted to check whether the First House had left anything inside me that I hadn't agreed to carry. In the tower, the night was quiet; a watchman's lantern moved on the wall below. No one knelt when I entered. No stranger's fear pressed into my ch