41. Ayres
Aname that was becoming way too familiar was all it took to obliterate the appetite Ayres had worked up all day.
“I need you to fix your shit with Greywood. I’m going to ask her to let us be her Protectorate.”
Piers, who was sitting across the table from Ayres drinking from a mug of ale, choked so hard his drink sprayed out his nose.
Ayres”s hands froze mid-cut, the knife he’d been using to slice apart his steak coming to a standstill.
This wasn’t just any steak. It was one of his favorite cuts of meat from his favorite butcher in Bafta. Ayres had even bribed the castle cook with a heavy bag of silver to let him and Piers use his kitchen to prepare the steak perfectly. They were eating in the mess hall, on a table in the back corner opposite from where Rorax normally sat, away from everyone’s prying eyes and nervous stares.
Ayres ignored Piers’s sputtering and narrowed his eyes up at Milla who stood over him with her arms crossed, her expression daring Ayres to argue.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Ayres growled over Piers’s violent coughs.
Conversations ground to a halt at the surrounding tables, and Ayres felt the nervous gaze of at least twenty people.
Milla leaned closer to him and pinned him with a glower.
“Fix. Your. Shit. With. Greywood,” she hissed under her breath.
Piers wiped away a tear that had leaked out of the corner of his eye and croaked, “Holy fuck.”
Ayres trusted Milla with more than just his life. If he, Rosalie, and then the rest of his siblings were killed, Milla was next in line for House of Death’s throne, unless she was challenged by another family. Over her last 400 years she had become one of the greatest spies, soldiers, and consultants the House of Death had ever seen. Her instincts were impeccable. They had been raised so closely together she was like another of his siblings.
However, right now Ayres was more than a little convinced she had lost her gods damned mind.
“Rorax knows about our mission, and not only are you not planning to kill her for it, but you also want to invite her to be our Contestar?” Ayres asked incredulously.
“Listen to me, Ayres. Not only could Rorax be an immeasurable help, but she is also one of the only Contestars who we know for sure doesn’t have a House of Alloy agenda, someone they can’t corrupt or buy out.”
“Milla, this is the Pup. She laid siegeto our people, the queen would never agree to it,” Ayres snarled.
Milla sat down and folded her hands on the tabletop with excited energy. “Rorax doesn’t actually want to be the Contestar, and if we agree to be her Protectorate, we will also agree to help her find a way out of the Choosing in exchange for her helping us.”
“You’re telling me you believe that a fucking Heilstorm doesn’t want anything to do with the power and the money that Guardians have?” Ayres eyed her. “Right.”
“I wouldn’t say that it”s the power she doesn’t want . . . but the responsibility. Rorax is vehemently against it. She’s searching for a lost brother who is currently being held captive in Lyondrea. She just wants to be free so she can search for him.”
Ayres couldn’t believe he was hearing this.
Milla turned to Piers. “Piers, remember the night of the festival? She sat on the roof, just watching everyone. She came down and told us she was scouting out who she wanted to choose as the Guardian. I thought she must have hit her head too hard, but she was dead serious. She has an insider”s view and she’s going to make the most of it.”
Ayres gave a disbelieving hum, taking a deep swallow of ale.
“Listen, Ayres, I was skeptical, too, but she and her friend—”
“The one with the purple hair who almost beat Cannon in the Tournament?” Piers looked up at Milla with tears in his eyes, his face still bright red after finally having coughed up the ale he inhaled.
Milla nodded. “Yes, that one!”
“Get to the point, Milla,” Ayres snapped.
Milla crossed her arms and scowled down at them in turn. “They spend hours every night at the library, digging through old books, trying to find a loophole through the tether that binds Rorax to the Choosing. She’s spent days in there by now, trying to find a way out of the Choosing without any more bloodshed.”
Piers’s body jerked forward. “Wait, has she found anything?”
Milla shook her head sadly. “I don’t think so. Not yet. They’re there right now, though.”
“Huh.” Piers’s eyebrows pulled together, and he looked as confused as Ayres felt.
But as much as Ayres”s head told him there was no way in hell a Heilstorm wouldn’t want the Guardianship, he trusted Milla’s instincts more.
Milla knew what was at stake, and she would have a damned good reason to think Rorax was trustworthy before coming to him.
“So, I think if we helped her figure out how to free herself from the Choosing tether, we could get her to help us direct this competition in our favor.” Milla plopped down in the empty spot on the bench next to Piers across from Ayres and slapped her palms on the tabletop. “She could help us choose the best Contestar, be the eyes on the inside during the trials, and help get the Contestar of our choosing to win.”
A little frown tugged at the corner of Ayres’s lips. “She might not say yes to working with me.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Ayres. She doesn’t actually care about you.” Milla waved her fingers dismissively at him. “But don’t push her buttons for gods’ sake. Don’t fight with her just for fun and don’t be your usual asshole self. She could kill you, you know. She’s dangerous, and we need to assess the risk before we turn our backs.”
Ayres’s mouth flattened. “My usual asshole self?”
Piers laughed and slapped Milla on the back. “I’m in. I’m interested to see how a Heilstorm thinks. She could teach us some things. Her team broke into our barracks in Morvarand last summer. They were back across the border for weeks before we realized something was even missing. The only reason we knew it was them was because someone found a body whose neck had been—” He dragged his thumb across his throat.
“I overheard Elios talking about her though, Ayres,” Piers continued “You might want to mention to him that we’re thinking about picking her up. We have first pick at the Selection, thanks to Cannon.”
Ayres swore under his breath. Elios wanted her? The memory of seeing Elios and Rorax together in the hallway flashed through his brain, and it set his teeth on edge.
“Does he know she’s a Heilstorm?” Piers asked, and Milla nodded eagerly.
“He was telling one of his men to be prepared for a Heilstorm.”
Piers laughed. “I bet his man peed himself.”
Milla laughed, too, before she noticed the scowl on Ayres’s face. “We can handle her, Ayres. Don’t worry. The influx makes Contestars more powerful and violent for a few minutes, but it also distracts them. It makes them lose some of their cunning for those minutes, like an angry bull.”
Ayres shook his head, waving away Milla’s misinterpretation. “It’s not that.”
Milla looked around to make sure no one was close enough to hear her before focusing on them again. “I also think we should try and recruit Jia . . . for the hunts. One Heilstorm would help, but two? Ayres, we could send a battalion of men back to the front line for Erich. That’s a game changer. Our reinforcements won’t be done training with the House of Ice for another four moons.”
His back jerked straight, and he had to bite his tongue to trap the “no” that immediately wanted to burst from his lips.
Milla saw his expression before raising her palms. “Just think about it. Like I said, reinforcements won”t get to the front line for another four moons. Erich needs the help, and we have an opportunity to recruit the two best stealth soldiers in the country.”
Piers took another big drink of ale.
A shadow crossed over Milla’s face. “You can’t keep doing this all by yourself, Ayres. You need help.”
Ayres dropped his gaze back down to his tragic, now unwanted steak. “I need some time to think about it, Milla.”
She nodded once. “I am going to send a raven to Rosalie to get her approval in case you say yes. The Selection is in seven days.”