"You think I could leave you?" My voice comes out harsher than intended. "After everything? You think I could walk away and not look back?"
"I think you should." But her eyes are pleading with me to say no. To tell her I won't leave her no matter what.
"I won't. So you're stuck with me, whatever happens."
A broken laugh escapes her. "You're an idiot."
"Yeah. Probably." I kneel beside her chair, taking her hand. "But I'm your idiot."
She threads her fingers through mine, holding on like I'm the only solid thing in her world. "We have until tomorrow evening. That's all the time we have."
"Then we make it count." I stand, pulling her up with me. "We’ll figure something out. We have to."
CHAPTER NINE
OLIVER
We spend the rest of the day in Primsyn's study, going over every scenario, every potential solution. None of them work. All of them end with us separated or worse.
By evening, we're both exhausted and no closer to an answer.
"I could just kill him," I suggest for the third time.
"And then what?" Primsyn doesn't even look up from the papers she's been staring at for the last hour. "You'd be executed. I'd be ruined for harboring a murderer. The council would seize my estate."
"But you'd be free of him."
"I don't want to be free of him at the cost of your life." She finally looks at me, her eyes red-rimmed. "Stop suggesting suicide missions."
I lean back in my chair, frustrated. The sun has set, darkness pressing against the windows. We're running out of time.
"There has to be something we're missing," I mutter. "Some leverage against him. Some way to turn this around."
"Thrain is powerful, Oliver. He has the council's ear. Even if we had something on him, who would believe us? A widow and her livestock against a respected councilman?"
A knock at the door interrupts us. Corvask enters, his expression grave.
"Madam, one of the human servants came to me with information. About Councilman Thrain."
Primsyn sits up straighter. "What kind of information?"
"It seems he has...proclivities. Violent ones. Several of his livestock have died under suspicious circumstances over the years. The servant used to work in his household before being sold to us. She was too afraid to speak up before, but hearing about today's visit..."
My mind races. "That's it!"
"It's hearsay," Primsyn says, but I can see hope in her eyes. "There’s no proof."
"Then we get proof." I stand. "We break into his estate, find evidence, and use it to force him to back off."
"Break into a councilman's estate." She stares at me. "That's your plan?"
"You have a better one?"
Silence. She doesn't.
"I can do it," I press. "I'm good at moving unseen. I survived in the wild for years by staying hidden. And I’m extremely motivated. If we don't find something on him, I'm dead anyway."
"Oliver..."
