Chapter 12
Gavin confessed faster once Silas lost authority.
Predictable.
Without an older man’s certainty behind him, his ambition suddenly looked more like what it was.
Fear of irrelevance.
“I spent twenty years being your second.”
We sat in the empty council room.
“No.”
He frowned.
“You spent twenty years telling yourself second meant lesser.”
His face tightened.
“You got everything.”
“The chair.”
“Yes.”
“The responsibility.”
“Yes.”
“The blame.”
He looked away.
Gavin wanted the visible privileges of command without admitting he hated the parts that hurt.
Silas offered him temporary leadership because temporary power is the easiest bait for a man who believes status will repair insecurity.
“What did you think Maisie would feel?”
He stared at the table.
“I didn’t think about it enough.”
Better than a lie.
“Why?”
“Because Silas kept saying she would be safe.”
That word again.
“What did safe mean?”
“No physical injury.”
I nodded.
“And fear?”
Silence.
“Confusion?”
Silence.
“Believing her father hurt her?”
He closed his eyes.
There.
He had narrowed safety until his own conscience fit inside it.
I did not exile him.
He lost command.
Private crews.
Household access.
Council authority.
He could remain family.
He hated that.
“People will think I’m nothing.”
I looked at him.
“Then learn who you are when rank stops answering for you.”
He laughed bitterly.
“You make it sound easy.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
May you like
“I make it sound necessary.”
Maybe I was speaking to both of us.
