38. Kira
Chapter 38
Kira
WE HAVE THE BAIT
“ H e did wear the amulet,” I begin.
Fyrris and the woman both lean in closer, their eyes wide and gleaming, like wolves watching a wounded deer. I shift on the chair, the live coal of shame burning in my gut. Good. That will make this little fable all the richer.
“I didn’t notice at first,” I continue, spinning the lie like I spun so many nighttime stories for the children in the orphanage. “Because he wore it under his clothes. Next to his skin.”
The sound of footsteps echoes through the room, drifting in through the open door behind me. Guards, probably, making their evening rounds.
“I’m not a thief,” I say, although the memory of the golden necklace I pulled from the mud of a Crown Day festival burns in my mind, just one more lie added to my tale. “I couldn’t sneak into his quarters to take it from him while he slept. I mean, not with all the magic and traps he has.”
Fyrris and the woman both nod.
“So,” I continue, letting my voice drop as I turn to stare at my fingers tangled in my lap. “I seduced him.”
The woman makes a little grunt, like that’s exactly what she expected.
“That’s how I found the amulet,” I continue. “And, once he fell asleep, I was able to take the amulet from around his neck.”
My vision prickles with the hot burn of tears. This must be exactly what Reznyk thinks happened.
“What else did you notice?” Fyrris says.
I glance up, fear and disgust waging a little war in my stomach. If Fyrris is about to ask what positions we used, I swear to the gods?—
Someone clears their throat behind me. I jump in my chair. Fyrris glances up, then makes an impatient hand-waving motion.
“Yes, come in,” he snaps.
The sound of footsteps fills the room. I turn and see Zayne enter, followed by Barrance and Girwin. Zayne gives me a polite little nod. My fingers fold into fists as I remember my promise that I’d punch that bastard the next time I saw him, even as my mind screams about what a terrible idea that would be. Barrance gives me a lascivious grin that destroys any hope I might have had that the mercenaries hadn’t overheard my whole seduction story. Girwin says nothing. Of course.
Matius isn’t with them. I stare at the empty hallway behind Girwin for another heartbeat, waiting to see the man I’d come to think of as my friend melt out of the shadows. But there’s nothing.
My heart sinks as I turn back to Fyrris. I can’t blame Matius. Of course he doesn’t want to set foot in the Towers. Still, I’m surprised at the dull ache in my chest I feel in his absence. It’s a strange reminder that some small part of my heart might still be alive.
“Tell us more about the Godkiller’s tower,” Fyrris says, once Zayne and his mercenaries are settled around the table.
I take a deep breath, then tell Fyrris exactly what he wants to hear. I lie beautifully, extravagantly, describing exactly the kind of place a Godkiller would have for his lair. Magic. Traps. Wolves.
Fyrris and the woman eat it up. Zayne brings his hand up to cover his mouth. Finally, I run out of things to say and shut my mouth.
“Exactly what we expected,” the woman says to Fyrris.
Fyrris nods. “An attack would be…difficult. We’ll send a messenger first. Make an offer.” He turns back to me. “Kira, tell me. Did the Godkiller talk about anyone else? Anyone who was special to him?”
My gut clenches like a fist. We know what he wants, they said as I lurked in the shadows outside the door. Was I really foolish enough to think they were talking about me?
“Did he mention, perhaps, a woman?” Fyrris continues.
“He did,” I admit. My voice trembles, and the back of my throat tastes bitter.
“What about her?” the woman asks. Her eyes gleam like she’s about to pounce. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her look so interested in what someone has to say.
“He said there was—someone,” I begin, forcing the words out. “In Silver City. He wanted to, uh, bring her up there. To his tower,” I add, trying to build the story they want to hear.
“Who is she?” Fyrris asks.
“I don’t know,” I say, as my mind screams her name. Lady Lenore Castinac . I feel like the walls of the room are closing in all around me. “He just said she— She looks like me.”
I let my head drop and blink as my vision swims. The woman hits the top of the table with her open palm.
“There,” she declares, like she and Fyrris have just resolved a long-standing argument. “We have the bait. We set the trap. We’ll bring the Godkiller back and make him fix the damn thing.”
A chill dances up my neck. They really are going after Reznyk, then. It’s not enough that they have the amulet I stole.
My mind conjures up another picture of the cabin in the snow, only this time the windows are broken, the door is kicked in, and Xavier hides shivering under the bed.
“But how are we going to acquire her?” Fyrris asks. “You can’t just grab a Castinac off the streets.”
A Castinac. The woman’s words come back like a scream in the night. You’re one of Lord Castinac’s many bastards.
“That must be where we come in,” Zayne says, in a voice like a low rumble of thunder in the distance.
I stare at Zayne for a moment, wondering what in the nine hells he could do to help me now, before I realize he isn’t talking to me.
But by then it’s too late. Because even as Zayne and the mercenaries start haggling about levels of criminality and reimbursement plus expenses, my mind has already settled on a very specific way Zayne could help me.
I stare at my own hands until Fyrris finally notices I’m still here and barks that I’m dismissed. No one even looks at me as I slide my chair back and walk out of the room, closing the door behind me. Gods help me, I’m invisible again.
Which is why no one cares that I stand in the entrance to the dark hallway, rocking slowly on the balls of my feet, as Silver City’s bells toll and another Guard walks by, nodding his head without bothering to ask what I’m doing.
I wait in perfect, uninterrupted silence for the mercenaries. Because I have another job for them.
After all, I did steal the amulet. No matter what I intended when I picked the damn thing up, I left the Daggers with Reznyk’s magical amulet in my hands. I thought I gave him what he wanted, that we’d both be safe once the Towers had the amulet.
I was wrong.
And now I need to warn him about what’s coming.