“That’s not a bad idea. But I wonder if he would truly let go so easily? It might just make him more persistent. He’s the type who wants whatever he can’t have.” I toed the flowers.
“I see you’re familiar with that perverse personality of his.” Araceli grinned. “We’d need to deeply humiliate him. You should bring more than one lover. Say the word, and I’ll find the most handsome male prostitute in the city.”
Bringing a prostitute to the new queen’s coronation? Objectively, this sounded like a terrible idea. But my temper had been hanging by a thread for the past day.
Everyone kept telling me I wasn’t enough like the Blood Duchess. Well, I bet I knew what the Blood Duchess would do.
I met Araceli’s eyes. “If we’re doing this … let’s go all out.”
A smile tugged at her lips. “I excel at that, Your Grace.”
I sat across the table from my prospective employee with my arms folded. Araceli stood guarding the door. The prostitute leaned back in the chair with his hands behind his head.
Steepling my fingers, I attempted to look stern. “I hope I’ve been clear about the terms of the job. You must be willing to immediately flee the country of Arahasnor.” I couldn’t let some innocent soul get mixed up in this in case the Blood Duchess took back her body from me later.
The young man nodded. “That’s why I volunteered. I already have tickets for a carriage out of town this evening. I’m here to earn some travel funds.”
“You aren’t involved in anything criminal, are you? Uh, I mean besides your actual profession …” I looked him over for any signs of connections with organized crime. Muscles bulged from every part of his body. A tattoo of a dragon curved down his neck. His left cheek had another tattoo with a character I didn’t recognize, but it looked like the language of Faan, where he probably came from. His jet-black hair had been cropped short. He had deep-set monolid eyes, long eyelashes, and a smile a tad too brightly red to be natural. I usually had a thing for the pretty-boy type—he had too many muscles for my taste. But purely objectively, he was a very handsome man. He’d need to be, in order to succeed in his line of work.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s not like that. I haven’t done anything wrong. I simply ran into some trouble with two clients. Naturally, most see me anonymously. How was I supposed to know two of them were mother and daughter?”
I winced. “Rough luck. So hideously awkward that I can see why none of you would ever want to see each other again … but why do you need to flee to another country?”
“The woman had a husband, who also found out, and now they’re getting divorced. Their son sent me a threatening letter saying that he’s the lover of a powerful and homicidal noblewoman, and he’s going to have me murdered for homewrecking his family, so I—”
“Hold up.” I raised my hand. “Is this son’s name Falael?”
“Whoa, was that a lucky guess or are you a Seer?”
“Do you mean to tell me that sitting before me is the man who fucked both Falael’s momandhis sister?”
He winced. “Do you know the guy? Please tell me he isn’t a friend of yours.”
I giggled. It turned into a laugh. I clasped my hands together, turned my gaze up to the ceiling, and prayed. “Sun God, I know I’ve never been a particularly attentive follower. After recent events in my life, I started to feel lost and alone, like no one was up there lookingafter me. But now, my faith has been restored! Everything happens for a reason!”
“Uhh …” My guest stared at me as if he feared I’d lost my mind. He glanced at Araceli. “Is she okay?”
“I increasingly doubt it,” Araceli said.
I reached across the table and grabbed his hand. “What’s your name?”
“Lao.” He sounded uncertain.
“My dear, wonderful, miracle-from-god Lao, remember how I told you that I needed you to pretend to be my lover so I could ditch an ex who wouldn’t accept we were over? My ex isFalael.”
Lao’s eyes lit up. “You mean you’re going to pay me to humiliate the guy who tried to murder me? I’ll give you a discount!”
My grin felt like it would split open my face. “No, I’ll giveyoua raise.”
While Lao ran off to fetch his outfit, Araceli rummaged through my closet. “We need the perfect weapon for your grand revenge.”
“But we already picked a dress …” And I didn’t want to even think about undoing all that lace.
“Not sexy enough. How about this one? The duchess got banned from her last church for wearing it, but since the Head Cardinal is now on our side, he can’t throw you out.” She held up a red silk dress with a scandalously low bodice. Holes between the laces would bare part of my stomach. Small rubies had been interwoven into the fabric. A slit ran down the side to reveal my leg from the thigh down. It would also expose a fair bit of my back.
I flinched. It was a lovely dress, and I knew it didn’t suit me at all.
Araceli beamed. “This is the perfect make-your-ex-regret-being-dumped-by-you dress. I’ll find the matching ruby necklace and—” She stopped. “What’s wrong? Does it show a little too much skin? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
