“If I wanted to kill you,” Finn said, “don’t you think you’d be dead already?”
And that, at least, was one stroke of luck.
“And don’t bother trying to hide that Fount piece,” Finn continued. “The way Gabe took it wasn’t exactly subtle.” He leaned against the door, his nonchalant stance belied by the shrewd way he watched them, by the pistol glittering in his belt. “I could have taken it back. But that can be worked into our negotiations.”
A look slid between Malcolm and Gabriel. Malcolm kept the shard in his pocket.
“So what do you want?” Gabe didn’t mean to snarl, but his lip lifted with one anyway. Here they were, back at making bargains. “Negotiationsmakes me think you have a list.”
His snarl didn’t seem to faze Finn. “Exactly what you want. To stop the Empire, save the Queen.”
“And what do you get out of it?”
“Remains to be seen.” Finn shrugged. “A damn good story, for one.”
There was no way in any hell that was the whole of it, but if he was offering help, Gabe didn’t really care. “A pretender to the seat of the Prime Minister and his handful of rebels may have trouble ordering an army. This is a democracy, isn’t it? You can’t just take over his position because you killed him.”
“It is a democracy, and had we time to wait until the people of Caldien could vote, they would have kicked Eoin out on his ass.” Finn scoffed. “You think our operation is small? More than half of the Rotunda was tired of Eoin, and the rest of them are too craven to do anything but what a pistol tells them to. Most of the Brotherhood supported me.”
“I suppose I shouldn’t have burned them, then,” Gabe said.
“No, you certainly should have. Even the ones who supported us only did so in secret. Cowards deserve to burn.” Finn shrugged. “Your rampage helped my cause, really. The ones that are left now know we have a fighting chance of winning Auverraine.”
Oh.Thereit was. Gabe’s eye narrowed. “You’re after the crown, then.”
Finn smiled, a feral gleam of teeth, and didn’t answer.
Malcolm sighed and tipped his head back against the wall. “It seems coups are catching.”
“Do you want the Empire to go with it?” Gabe asked. “Or is the rule of two countries enough for you?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Finn kicked off the wall. “I don’t think I could do a worse job.”
Brow arched, Malcolm rolled his head to look at him. “You know, I can’t argue there.”
“Thank you, Malcolm.” Finn seemed sincere. “I’m after the greater good, really.”
“And you managed to convince a sizable part of a governing body that risk for the greater good was better than complacency?” Gabe was honestly impressed, despite himself.
“Well.” Finn shrugged. “Once they all knew what you coulddo, they became rather easy to convince that we could win. Both the remaining members of the Rotunda, and my friends left in the navy—which has been ready to sail for weeks, by the way. And yes, sure, I’m positive I can expect some attempts at backstabbing, especially if we actually manage to take over Auverraine. But right now, they’re in the palms of our hands.”
Ourhands. So he was dressing it up as allyship, but really, Gabe and Malcolm were the linchpins in his plan—the hinges it turned on. Gabe assumed they had been all along, that every shred of help the former pirate had offered was to lead them to this.
But that also meant they had the bargaining power.
Gabe stood, straightening to his full height. It made the top of his head nearly brush the ceiling. Malcolm followed his lead, but Finn didn’t look cowed. He peered at them with a cocked brow, arms crossed over his chest expectantly.
“So you want us to join you,” Gabe said. “To use magic to fight against the Auverrani army.”
“Should be an easy task.” Finn grinned. “You can burn the place to the ground or grow a huge tree through the middle of the Citadel, it makes little difference to me. And I’ll let you keep the piece, do whatever you want with it. It rightfully belongs to you, really.”
There was one hurdle passed. “You do realize that we’d be going up against a god?” Malcolm tried to look nonchalant, but anxiety thrummed beneath his voice. This was what they’d been working toward, but the prospect of being the front line was daunting.
“You’re gods,” Finn said simply, for the second time. “I don’t think that will be much of an issue.”
Gabe couldn’t decide if he agreed. Couldn’t decide if it was comforting.
Power changes things, Hestraon murmured.Power moves mountains.
