"Maeve's not going to cooperate with me."
"I noticed." A ghost of a smile crossed Varric's face. "Work around her if you have to. But keep this quiet. The momentHector knows we're investigating him specifically, he'll cover his tracks."
"What about Emmett?"
"He knows you're here. Knows why. But he can't help directly without compromising his Council position." Varric gathered the papers, tucking them back into his robes except for one page. "This lists the damaged shipments. Dates, suppliers, what was ruined. Start there. Find the pattern."
Dante took the page, folding it carefully. "Does Maeve know about Hector's complaints?"
"She knows something's wrong with her shipments. She doesn't know why." Varric turned toward the path that led deeper into the woods. "Keep it that way. If she finds out before we have proof, she'll handle it her way. And her way ends in blood."
"She is not going to like me sniffing around her business."
"No." Varric paused, glancing back. "But Callum seems to think you're stubborn enough to handle it. Don't prove him wrong."
The elder walked away, his footsteps silent on the frozen ground. Magic shivered as he passed through the glade's wards, and then he was gone, leaving Dante alone with a list of sabotaged shipments and the weight of expectations he wasn't sure he could meet.
He looked at the Council registry again. Callum's name, written in the same careful hand as the others. Proof that his friend had made something lasting here.
Proof that Dante had chosen wrong ten years ago.
His lion rumbled, restless and ready to hunt. It didn't care about politics or old grudges. It cared about territory and pack and the lioness who'd thrown him out of her bar last night.
The lioness who was being targeted by someone who wanted to destroy everything she'd built.
Dante folded the registry and tucked it into his jacket alongside the shipment list. The snow had started falling again, fat flakes that caught in the trees and muffled sound. He needed a place to stay. Needed to start tracking down suppliers and shipment routes. Needed to figure out how Hector was pulling this off without Maeve noticing.
But first, he needed to face the fact that protecting Maeve meant working around her.
Which meant more fights. More of her fire and fury. More of that heat that crackled between them like lightning looking for ground.
His lion purred at the thought.
Dante told it to shut up and started back toward town.
This was business. Council business. Nothing more.
He just had to keep telling himself that until he believed it.
5
MAEVE
The Silver Fang buzzed with gossip by noon, which meant Maeve was already tired of hearing about it.
"Council enforcer," Breck said from his usual stool at the bar. The bear shifter nursed his beer like he had nowhere better to be, which he probably didn't. "First time in years they've brought someone in from outside."
"Temporary assignment," added Sylvie, a wolf who worked at the Hollow Mercantile. She sat two stools down, picking at a basket of pretzels. "Heard it straight from Rufus Tansley this morning. Council business. Very hush-hush."
Maeve wiped down the bar and said nothing. Let them talk. Let them speculate. It had nothing to do with her.
"Must be something serious," Breck continued. "Can't remember the last time Varric called in outside help. We've got Emmett on the Council now. Alaric handles enforcement. What do they need with someone else?"
"Maybe it's about those shipment problems," Sylvie said, lowering her voice like that made it less gossip. "You know, the damaged goods and missing inventory everyone's been whispering about."
Maeve's hand stilled on the bar. "Those problems are handled."
"Are they?" Sylvie's eyes gleamed with curiosity. "Because I heard another crate got damaged just last week. Wine from that vineyard you like, all of it spoiled."
