“I was fourteen when I packed a bag for me and Luc and stole passage to Colmur,” Dauphine continued, the heaviness seeping from her voice as she settled back on the armchair.
“Rather young to start on a life of organized crime.”
Dauphine flashed a sharp grin. “I’ve found it to be the fastest way to wealth, aside from being born into it.”
Aidon had been surrounded by sharp things his entire life. His sister’s sharp wit, his uncle’s sharp tongue, his mother’s sharp mind, his own sharp weapons. He knew sharpness well enough to know when it was wielded for protection, for distraction.
“And what of Luc?” Aidon pressed. “Surely he’s grateful that you removed him from such a situation?”
Dauphine’s grin faltered. “He was a child. His memories of our home are…different.”
Childhood did have a way of painting even the worst of circumstances with strokes of innocence. He tried to think of when he’d stopped seeing the world in such a way. Was it when his aunt, Madelyn, had died? Or when he’d started to experience Dominic’s coldness in the aftermath?
Perhaps it was far later—when he stepped into the room behind his uncle and his guards and had to witness the horror on Josie’s face when she saw her partner in chains.
Or just before that, when he’d made the decision to play a role, and realized even though he was pretending, he’d never forget the way his friends looked at him as if he was scum of the earth…the way hissisterhad looked at him as if he were a stranger to her, one whose throat she would willingly slit if given the chance.
Aidon took another sip of his drink. “I take it he doesn’t agree with your lifestyle.”
Dauphine chuckled into her glass. “That’s putting it mildly.”
“He must realize how much you’ve sacrificed to provide for him?”
She shrugged. “Does it matter, once they’ve decided we’re monsters?” She ran a finger over the arm of the chair, her nail scratching at the fabric. “Though I didn’t realize quite how much he hated me until he entered himself into the fighting rings in Dunmeaden.”
“I’m vaguely familiar with the custom,” Aidon frowned. It was quite exclusive to Tala. Trahirians gambled in other ways, most of them far less bruised and bloody.
“There’s an entire season dedicated to it,” Dauphine explained. “Fighters gain notoriety and coin, and sponsors. It can be incredibly lucrative, if you know who to back.”
Aidon shot her a bemused look. “Like an Anima?”
“Technically, Anima with a history of leveraging the death-bringing side of their affinity are banned. Healers, however…”
Aidon scoffed. “Is there a difference?”
“Between saving a life and taking one?” Dauphine smiled. “You tell me.”
Aidon rolled his eyes. Of course there was a workaround, and of course she had leveraged it.
“Anyway,” she continued pointedly, “it wasn’t an Anima this time. I had found a Zeluus to sponsor. He was brutal.” Her voice dropped with the remark, her eyes widening as she lost herself in the memory. “He’d left his last three competitors dead in under five minutes by the time I was able to provide sponsorship.”
Disgust roiled in Aidon’s gut, and Dauphine clocked it instantly. Her smile turned dark. “Did you expect a code of honor, Your Majesty? You’ll find no such thing in thefighting rings of Dunmeaden’s underbelly. The fighters know the likelihood of death. Why do you think the bets are so lucrative?”
She sighed as she tapped her pointer finger against the side of her glass. “Things with Luc had been tense for a while. By then, I had begun my mercenary work, and he didn’t approve.”
“Not a fan of loose loyalty, was he?”
Dauphine’s glare was as sharp as the grin she loved to hide behind. “From the man who killed his uncle.”
Aidon’s grip on his glass tightened.“You have no idea what you speak of,” he murmured.
“Don’t I?” Dauphine retorted.
“My uncle would have used me as a weapon to aid Kakos.”
“So my point stands: you of all people know that loyalty is not so simple.” Her anger dissipated as quickly as it had flared as she slumped back against the cushions, but the irritation remained, thick in her voice as she pressed on. “Regardless, Luc was not particularly pleased about the way I kept food on our table. Never mind it bought his education. His opportunities. Hislife.”
Her jaw shifted, and she took another sip of her drink. Aidon mirrored her, keeping his lips pressed tight. It was a delicate balance, maintaining this ruse. The room already had a hazy glow to it, his head feeling lighter than it had hours ago.
