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Winter's Verse - Copper & Snow and Polar Axis
Copper & Snow 2.3 Silk Bindings

Copper & Snow 2.3 Silk Bindings

Axis despised dining with his father, but on condition of remaining the Flicker heir, he was required to eat with the monster at least once per week. Fortunately, a long dining table of iron-wrapped wood separated them in the formal space. The servants had parted the red velvet drapes to reveal the city’s seasonal light displays. It was a cheery backdrop to a drab evening.

One day, Lexia’s kind eyes and radiant skin would lift this house into a home.

One day.

Until then, Axis tolerated his father’s chronic chest congestion, reverberating off the walls and putting Axis off his meal.

Valve coughed into his Tempest linen napkin, but managed to suck in enough air to say, “I understand Snow has invited our darling Lexia to the Founding Ball this year. It makes one nervous, does it not?” He quirked a heavy burgundy brow on his thick face.

Axis hated to admit it, but Gauge’s interest in Lexia had been on Axis’ mind. He said, “It only makes sense. She is the crop heiress.” And that’s all the stakes Axis hoped Gauge had invested in her.

Valve gulped for air, and somehow smirked while doing it. A knowing, rotten expression. “Let’s hope he behaves himself. You know how laser-focused he can get. Do you have any diversions planned to spare the poor girl from his attentions?” Where Axis’ green eyes were soft, Valve’s were hard as stained glass, and they shone with malice.

Axis had one diversion in mind, but he wasn’t about to share it with his father. Instead of answering, he tapped his napkin to his mouth and pushed his untouched plate away. “It’s been miserable, as usual, father, but I must see to some business—”

“Light my cigar first before you go.”

Bastard.

All the muscles in Axis’ body seized, and he clenched his jaw to keep from shouting. “No.”

Valve chuckled as he lit the Snow exclusive himself. The round cherry glowed when he took a drag, and Axis shuddered. His father ignored him, saying, “The doctors tell me my one vice will eventually be the death of me.”

It certainly seemed so as a coughing fit seized the heavy man. He gasped for air like this breath would be his last. One could only hope.

Seeing the weakness in Valve returned Axis’ strength, and he stood, gliding to his father’s end of the table. He glared at the coughing tyrant. “Whatever you’re scheming, leave Lexia out of it.”

Valve’s fit eased, and he wasted the air in his lungs to say, “Be sure to tell Snow the same.”

Before Axis left the dining room, he turned back to see Valve staring at his napkin.

It was coated in blood.

Axis couldn’t wait for his father to die, and it looked like he wouldn’t have to wait much longer.

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The factories on Flicker Avenue were quieter than usual with most of the staff off for the Founding Season. Axis met the inspection teams at the site in the Factory Master’s offices, spanning the entire top floor of the textile mill. It was the closest to the Avenue with the paper mills being the farthest to keep the smell from permeating the more populated areas under the dome. Acres and acres of factories stretched out to touch the horizon and then some.

It wasn’t a small dominion to inherit, and Axis took his role seriously. To the inspection teams, he said, “Check every safety precaution, including pinch points. Update the documentation to reflect any hazards, and I expect recommendations on how to prevent them. We went an entire year—” An entire year since the last Founding Season when Axis took over, “—Without a single injury. I plan to keep the streak going.”

“Yes, sir!”

Axis beamed at them, saying, “See to it.”

All but one took off to their respective tasks. A petite woman with long black hair and big blue eyes lingered.

Axis hated to ask this of anyone, but… “Do you understand your role, Ms. Cloud?”

Tija Cloud lifted a compact and applied some bright red lipstick in the mirror. She said, “It will be done, sir, and don’t worry. I’ll enjoy this.” She gave him a wink.

It actually made Axis laugh. “All right. If you run into trouble, come find me.”

The young woman smiled and headed out. She stopped in the doorway to say over her shoulder, “Ms. Tempest is a lucky girl, sir.”

“You’re dismissed, Ms. Cloud.”

The salute she gave as she went about her business left Axis incredulous. He chuckled into the files on his desk. There was no shortage of young women and men with compliments for Axis, but he found only one person desirable. He knew the same was true for Lexia. They were made for each other.

Tija was a friend, but… Well, there were more reasons than her looks for why he’d selected her for the task. Hopefully, this would reveal the truth.

After some time at work, Axis pulled up his sleeve to check his timepiece. An hour had passed. How long should he give Tija to work? He considered the glossy red of her full lips and decided she’d had enough time to draw some attention.

Axis left the office and tried to tread lightly as he strolled from dyes to the looms and deeper into the textile plant. He kept his hands in his pockets, trying to appear casual as he encountered a few of his inspectors. It was a required chore of the foremen, but Axis was searching for one in particular.

Mrs. Tenz had complained about a lineman on the looms, and the foreman in charge was equally aggressive when she filed her formal complaint. Walker was his name, and Axis sought him for answers—

A crash sounded from above in the crow’s nest, and a woman’s scream resounded.

Axis bounded up the stairs into the foreman’s office and…

Lost his damned mind.

Walker had wrenched Tija’s wrists behind her back and bent her over his desk. Axis arrived just in time to stop the bastard from hurting her. He gripped the broader man by the shoulders and threw him across the room.

“Tija, are you all right?”

She cried, “Look out!”

Axis stepped aside before the Foreman could drop a terracotta pot on Axis’ head. Was this fool trying to kill the heir to one-third of the occupations on Winter?!

Axis punched the man in the throat and kneed him in the crotch.

Walker fell to his knees, clutching his sensitive areas as all the air whooshed out of him. He turned red in the face and spittle gathered on his lip like he was about to vomit.

Axis growled, “Stay down.” He turned to the woman. “Tija?”

One of her eyes was wincing closed with purple swelling at the site. “I’m fine,” she lied while blood dripped onto her lashes.

Axis grabbed her by the biceps and looked her over. “It’s bad. I think you may need surgery on the bone.” Hot rage boiled in his veins. “I’ll kill him.”

“No, no, Prince. You got what you needed to bar him from any employment. It’s better than he deserves, but you’ve done enough. Thank you.”

No matter how Tija put it, guilt and shame suffused Axis and dampened his anger. He’d put her in this position, exploitation and all.

Under Winter’s watchful dome, was Axis any better than Gauge?