Dean took a slow breath. "Lucas is a menace."
"He is a menace because you didn't call him in almost a month?" Sebastian asked without opening his eyes. "Dean, he heard about the timeline from Minerva, and before you ask, yes, they talk."
Dean froze.
Arion's expression shifted into the dangerous brightness of a man discovering a new alliance he approved of deeply.
Dean pointed at him at once. "No."
"I said nothing."
"You looked politically pleased."
"I am politically pleased."
Sebastian sank lower into the armchair, looking far too comfortable for someone delivering treason. "Lucas and Minerva apparently had meetings twice during the season."
Dean stared. "Twice?"
"Three times, if you count the call where Lucas added Ethan too, because they were in the same room." Sebastian opened one eye. "Congratulations. Two empresses and a grand duke are conspiring against you."
Dean went silent.
