The corner of her lips quirked—an acceptance of a challenge.
“I don’t imagine you’re afforded much of that are you, Your Majesty?”
Aidon’s face didn’t show a single sign of surprise. They’d prepared for this—that Dauphine, with her connections across kingdoms, might recognize him, and that she would use such information to unsettle them.
So they lured her in instead.
“Unfortunately,” Will interjected, pulling the mercenary’s attention back to him, “we’re not here for such pleasantries.” His gaze flicked to Aidon, who was still sizing the woman up.“Though if he wants to repay you in such a way, I certainly won’t stand in his way.”
Aidon looked at him with disdain while Liam snorted a laugh. Dauphine grinned, but it was sharp, a threatening slash of white that was more predatory than kind.
“And what would one be repaying mefor, exactly?” she asked before holding up a hand. “Wait. Let me guess. A missing king. A treasonous Enforcer.” She flicked an unimpressed look to Liam. “You.” She made a show of pretending to think, a finger tapping at her chin. “You’re seeking refuge in the Midlands. You want me to make sure your new queen doesn’t get her hands on you.”
Will had forgotten how irksome she could be. Never one to just come out with it—no, it was always some elaborate cat-and-mouse game.
He did not have time for it.
Yet it didn’t surprise him that she knew of the price on his head. She was too tied to Mathias to not be apprised of what was happening in Tala.
“Oh, Dauphine,” Will sighed as he settled back on the chaise. “You’re not usually so far off base.” Dauphine’s blink was her only sign of surprise, but Will didn’t give her a moment longer to process it. “We need a team for an assignment.”
“You can’t afford me,” she remarked.
Will bit back a scoff. “Nor do I want you,” he admitted. “We’ll take Zeluus, though. And Anima who prefer the death-bringer side of their affinity.”
“Have something against Caeli, do you?” Dauphine asked. A flutter of air blew across the room with the flick of her wrist.
“On the contrary. My trust in you simply doesn’t extend further than assembling a team for me.”
“I’m a mercenary, William,” Dauphine drawled, “not a weapons dealer.”
At least she had the decency to admit Visya were weapons.
“Don’t pretend you aren’t involved in the fighting rings, Dauphine,” Will insisted. “I know for a fact the Anima who won in Dunmeaden last year was indebted to you.”
He’d cheated, too. Will could have reported it, but he’d had no reason to. He’d betted on him as soon as he caught wind Dauphine was his sponsor.
“Anima are banned from the fighting rings,” Liam muttered from the door.
“A technicality,” Dauphine dismissed with a wave of her hand.
“We’ll pay you handsomely,” Will assured her, shooting Liam a pointed look as he went to argue with her. They did not havetimefor this.
Dauphine grinned. “As handsomely as Queen Nyra would pay if I were to deliver you to her door?”
This time, Will could not mask his reaction. His eyes narrowed, and Dauphine latched onto his surprise like a snake zeroing in on its kill. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know, Enforcer. You’re a wanted man in the Midlands, too.”
Will swallowed. So Hyacinth’s orders had reached the Midlands queen. He had hoped Nyra would be too focused on her own affairs to lend aid to Hyacinth’s hunt.
“Hyacinth’s claims are grossly—”
“Nyra doesn’t care about the accusations of your new pious queen,” Dauphine interrupted with a scoff. “In fact, capturing you would thwart the very people she’s sworn to let suffer.”
There was a sharpness to her words that Will hadn’t expected, and from the way Aidon leaned forward, his arms bracing on his knees, Will knew he’d heard it, too.
“The Midlands and Tala have long been allies,” Aidon remarked quietly.
“Well met, Your Majesty,” Dauphine retorted. “And yet Tala stood by when Kakos rained the hells down on Sitya. You were a general once, yes? Tell me, is that typical protocol when assisting an ally?”
