“Are you going to sit there and brood all night?”
Aidon glanced up from the book in his hands to see Dauphine standing on the stairs, her skin dewy from her bath. Thin cotton shorts showed off long, tanned legs, her top large and sagging where she’d tucked it in.
A man’s shirt, if Aidon had to guess.
He snapped his book closed, settling further into the couch cushions. “Is reading brooding?”
Dauphine fixed him with an exaggerated pout. “You don’t want to keep me company.”
He hardly had a choice. There wasn’t much to do in the safe house besides bathe and eat, and he’d already done both. He glanced down at his own attire—light linen pants and a loose linen vest.
If nothing else, Dauphine was a gracious host.
Gracious, and beautiful, and probably deadly.
“Rather bad form for a king to associate with a mercenary, is it not?” he asked lightly.
Dauphine smirked. “Depends on the king.”
So it does.
What sort of deal had his uncle made with her? Hedoubted Dauphine was providing weapons to Kakos during the embargo, not with the ire he’d detected in the brothel when she spoke of Kakos’s decimation of Sitya.
But he couldn’t be sure. He didn’t suspect Dominic was willing to partner with the Southern Kingdom either. Not until it was too late.
“Have a drink with me,” Dauphine said, her bare feet padding toward the kitchen.
He watched her go, her hair curling as it dried. It was a darker red now, still wet from her bath, and it reminded him of his mother’s favorite wine.
Aidon pushed himself up with a sigh. It would not do to be distracted with thoughts of his family. Not tonight.
He followed Dauphine into the kitchen, where she was gazing up at a shelf lined with liquor bottles, her lips pursed in contemplation. “I’m thinking gin.”
She pushed herself up onto her toes and grabbed the clear bottle off the shelf before swiping two glasses from the one below it. There was an ease to her movements that spoke to an intimate familiarity with this place.
Not just a well-worn safe house, then.
Before he could press the matter, a knock sounded on the door. For a split second, Aidon froze, his gaze locking with Dauphine’s.
Fucking hells.Will was right.
Aidon flung himself across the space. The glasses in her hand shattered as he pinned the mercenary to the wall, his grip tight on her wrists, waist snug against hers to keep her from throwing him off.
“Traitorous bitch,” he bit out. “I am not the least bit surprised.”
The air around him swirled, but Aidon pulled his shield close, creating a buffer against her magic. A surge of pride ripped through him.
He’d gotten better.
It lasted less than three seconds before his shield was buckling under Dauphine’s gust of wind. Aidon fell back against the kitchen sink, a frustrated growl bursting from him as he called his fire forward, danger be damned.
But Dauphine extended her hands and twisted, yanking her arms back toward her. The ball of fire in his palm extinguished, suffocated by the air Dauphine took with it.
“You’re better with the weapons you know, General.”
Perhaps he was.
Aidon snatched a knife from the block on the counter and flung it as hard as he could across the kitchen. It slammed into the wall with a resounding thud right next to Dauphine’s head. She pulled away from the blade slowly, her finger touching the skin of her ear. It came away red with blood.
