46. Henry

Henry leaves Harlow’s room and spars verbally with her bodyguard, Gaven. Internally, Henry resolves that he will eventually need to kill Gaven, but only after extracting more information and staging it as an accident to preserve Harlow’s fragile trust. He asks Gaven to keep Harlow in her room during the upcoming hunt night, and Gaven reluctantly agrees.

Henry meets his parents in their private sitting room. He floats the Rochelli letter issue, saying the handwriting seemed like Gaven’s; his parents show little reaction. He updates them on his failure to identify most of Harlow’s siblings’ magic and notes that the city’s mayor holds a potent manipulation blessing from Polm, is courting the unblessed, and is aggressively undermining the Carrenwells.

Henry adds that Rafe may have set him up at a rebel bar, where Kellan arrived after a tip about a meeting. He reports the Drained breach at North Hold and the Breeders’ abduction of women from the pleasure district, broadening the threat beyond the countryside. Concern for his mother’s strength prompts his father to try to end the meeting.

Instead, Henry presses harder: he reveals he recognized his father’s handwriting on the Rochelli letter and burned it to protect their plan, demanding the truth. His father cites need-to-know secrecy, but his mother argues Henry needs more information to avoid undermining their long-game revenge.

Confronted, Henry admits he likes Harlow and that her trust has grown. His mother identifies that Harlow makes him feel known and suggests he can offer Harlow something she wants enough to betray her family. With that acknowledged, Henry again asks why the letter bore his father’s hand but Rochelli’s name. His parents tell him to sit, signaling an impending confession.