The car moved through the evening traffic. Derek sat in the back seat of the moving car, one elbow resting on the door as the city blurred past the tinted windows.

Beside him, Kai was lounging with his usual effortless grace, one leg crossed over the other, listening to him.

Derek had been talking for ten minutes, recounting the disastrous exchange he’d had with Kira that morning. He needed Kai to validate him.

"She’s being unreasonable," he said.

"Oh, really?"

"I explained myself. I gave her a clear, logical reason why I wasn’t there. She said she understood, and then proceeded to behave as though I had committed a criminal offence."

"Right." Kai nodded thoughtfully. "And you think the problem is her."

"I think the problem is that she won’t accept a valid explanation."

Kai looked at him for a long moment. "Valid? Derek, you absolute iceberg. Is that really the word you used with her?"

Derek’s jaw tightened. "I’m being serious."

"So am I."

"Why would the truth be a problem?"

"Because," Kai said, throwing his hands up as if pleading with the heavens, "that is not how women or humans in general actually work!"

Kai shifted to face him properly.

"Listen to me carefully because I am only going to explain this once. Kira was not angry because you missed the event. She was hurt because in the middle of something that mattered so much to her, something she had worked on for weeks, she was alone and couldn’t reach you and didn’t know why. That is not a logic problem, Derek. That is a feelings problem. And the solution is not to hand her a better argument."

Derek opened his mouth.

"Don’t," Kai said. "Don’t tell me your reasons were valid. I know your reasons were valid. That’s not the point. Kira didn’t need a lecture on ’valid reasons.’ In that moment, she needed you to validate her feelings."

Derek looked out the window, watching the buildings slide by. He said nothing.

Kai sighed. "Just apologise, yeah? Properly. Also, your coronation is around the corner. I would strongly recommend not walking into it with your wife barely speaking to you."

Derek kept staring out the window. He knew Kai was right, but he wasn’t going to say it to him.

The silence in the car stretched.

As the silence stretched, Derek’s mind began to drift back to the night of the fundraiser. It had been picking at the back of his mind since yesterday.

Nana suddenly oversleeping, even though she had been ready. Kai getting held up at the last minute. And that Umbra alert turned out to be nothing but a false alarm. It was too convenient. Too perfectly timed to pull every important person away from Kira when she needed them most.

Three separate things. Three separate people. All of them were removed from Kira’s orbit on the same night.

He turned it over carefully. If someone had wanted Kira exposed and vulnerable in that room, they had done it remarkably.

But who?

"Driver, pull over here. I’ve got some errands to run."

Derek surfaced from his thoughts. Kai was already reaching for the door handle. He stepped out onto the pavement and then ducked back down, one hand on the roof of the car, looking in at Derek with an expression that had lost its usual lightness.

"Think about what I said," he told him. "Not the logic. The feelings." He started to straighten up, then stopped himself. "And Derek. If you actually care about her?" He held his cousin’s gaze for a moment. "Maybe it’s time to tell her the truth."

"Goodbye, Kai," Derek said.

Kai grinned, patted the roof twice, and straightened up.

He instructed the driver to move on without another word. The car pulled away, leaving Kai standing on the pavement.

When they finally reached the mansion, Ruby was already waiting on the outside steps, dressed elegantly in a soft cream blouse and tailored trousers. She smiled brightly as the car stopped.

"Your Grace," she greeted.

Derek nodded at her in acknowledgement and started up the steps. But as he started up the stairs, something made him pause. He turned back.

Ruby was following behind him.

"The Umbra alert you brought me," he said. "Did you cross-check it before you came to me with it?"

Her smile dropped instantly, and she stared blankly at Derek for a moment, her mouth open, but no words came out. Her heartbeat spiked instantly.

Derek caught the increase in her heartbeat and narrowed his eyes, staring quizzically at her.

Ruby quickly regained herself, willing her heart into something normal.

"Oh, Derek." She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "I... I didn’t," she admitted, sounding perfectly reasonable.

"After everything that happened at Snow Crest, when I saw the report come through, I just... I didn’t want to waste time verifying it. I guess I panicked." She tilted her head. "Is there a problem? Was there an actual lead?"

Derek watched her silently for a long moment.

Kai’s voice came back to him, unhelpfully clear. Don’t underestimate the power of a scorned woman.

But was Ruby a scorned woman? He had known this woman since they were children running through the same corridors. She had been a fixed point through the worst years of his life, steady and present and always, always there.

They had crossed the line a few unclear times, yes. But he had never tried to take Ruby’s importance from her. He knew many pack members thought Ruby would be queen, but he had been very clear with her. They understood each other.

She was petty, yes. Spoilt, certainly. But was she capable of something so... evil? He pushed it aside.

"Always cross-check before you bring something to me," he said. "No matter how urgent it seems."

"Of course," she said. "I’m sorry."

He nodded and walked inside.

He made his way toward the kitchen, his stomach reminding him he hadn’t eaten since the morning. Inside the kitchen, Ishita was arranging fresh fruit on a platter when Derek entered.

She looked up from the counter when he came in and gave a small bow. "Your Grace."

"Has the Queen eaten?" Derek asked, moving to the fridge.

"The Queen isn’t back yet, Your Grace."

He looked up. "What?"

"She left for the university this morning. She hasn’t returned."

He reached for his phone, checking the clock on the wall. It was late, and almost night. He was halfway through pulling up Connor’s number when Ishita stepped closer.

She was holding something in both hands, a small container, turning it over carefully as if she hadn’t decided whether or not to show him.

"Your Grace," she said carefully, "there is something you need to know."