AT THE SAME TIME
MEI SHEN'S POINT OF VIEW:
I watched them from the bed, my body still weak but my heart strangely… full. Lianwei stood near the foot of the bed, his posture effortlessly regal, though I could see the tension in his shoulders. He wasn't nervous, Lianwei Voss never got nervous, but there was a strange hesitance in his eyes. Not fear. Respect. And perhaps… the tiniest bit of dread. After all, it wasn't every day you had to introduce yourself to your wife's long-lost, very protective father, who just happened to be a war hardened general with a presence that could silence a battlefield. My father, Henry Blackstone, stood beside him, arms crossed and eyes narrowed just slightly as he studied the Emperor of the Realm like he was an unruly soldier on probation.
