I smiled humorlessly. “If the Prince truly wakes, we’ll probably get Édouard’s wish. Frankly, I'd rather get it over with sooner than later. It's the waiting that kills me.” I took a deep breath. “Our armory is depleted and our funding is running dry this quarter. So we move out. Burn the house, incapacitate the guards. No mistakes.”
Juliette sheathed her final knife. “Fine, we’re wasting moonlight.”
We headed out in black, molded leather armor, blade-resistant pants and long-sleeved shirts, silent on cobblestone streets builtdeliberatelynarrow to accommodate the width of no more than two carriages. Vine-covered townhouses of dusky stone, two or three stories high, blocked much of the moonlight and cast us into shadows despite black lamps and the glowing amber circles they cast.
When we entered Labornne, the streets were better lit and the whitewashed buildings in fresh repair.
“Labornne district smells like teen spirit,” Tereille said in a cheerful whisper. “Or is that the stench of shameless sycophants?”
“Baroun likes to pay Keysia for it,” Juliette snapped. “It’s the only way he can convince a female to kiss his ass.”
A smattering of muted chuckles.
“Tonight, let them kiss ours,” I said.
Not exactly poetry to encourage warriors on the eve of battle, but we were a simple House. Juvenile humor worked fine.
By the end of the night we gained a cache of new weapons, and six fewer enemy warriors.
Butthough the strikewastextbook, I worried, casting my gaze east towards the palace, fearing the quietwassimplythe eye of the storm.
Darkan,I'm going to need you.
Ifelthis attention on me, but no impression of thought or comfort, instead a new heaviness to his presence.
Itseemed as if hewas. . .gathering.
ChapterThree
Montague retaliated against one of our safe houses a week later. A real one, not a decoy we’d dangled as bait to ferret out leaks in our operation or to determine Baroun’s current strategy.
Édouard worked our operatives until they uncovered intel on a meeting between Montague and potential allies among the neutral districts, in the forested territory outside Everenne.
I entered the commander’s office, a document clutched in my hand.
Tereille slid off Édouard's desk and bowed briefly. He wore his wheat and amber streaked hair clipped short on the sides, longer in the front, his antique bottle green eyes twinkling at me through a lock falling in his face.
I dropped the report on Édouard's desk. He pretended to ignore me. “Lord Étienne successfully negotiated the preliminary reparations agreement. Labornne’s official protest over our breach of their district will soon be resolved. Whiners.”
Tereille picked up the report and skimmed, whistling low. “Expensive. Maybe we should have let it go to the Prince’s Court. Payment by beheading is cheaper.”
I pinned Édouard with a look. “You’re certain your lead for today is good? Labornne didn’t leak false intel to set us up in retaliation? Since when does Montague so poorly secure their tête-à-tête’s?”
The commander finally set down the notebook he was writing nothing sentences in, hoping I’d go away. “If you don’t think I can do my job, demote me,Lady.I could use a vacation.”
Such a damn attitude. “If I demoted you, I’d have to give Tereille your office.”
Tereille tugged at one of my dark curls. “I think not.” His lips curved. “I’d have no time for my swains.”
“Gods, that would be such ashame.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “Fine. At least if we damage a tree, we’ll be spared the cries of reparations.”
“What has the world come to?” Tereille echoed mournfully.
I considered the commander, choosing my words with care to better avoid the thorns underneath the attempted silent treatment. “What’s the purpose of today? Remind me. What do we hope to accomplish?”
His black eyes hardened into chips of cold lava. “That falls under the category of telling me how to do my job.”
“Don’t be a prickle ass, Ard,” Tereille said, perching on the edge of the desk again. He tilted his head, and reached out to tug on Édouard's pointed ear tip. A sharp tug, followed up with a sensual caress of his fingertips. Darling Ard ignored him. “I’d like to know too. I’m too lovely to die by ambush today.”
