“Not that, your pink bits would freeze,” I said, feigning annoyance. “This is more…an educational opportunity.”
“Educational? You can’t talk to a woman like that in current year.”
Now I felt like there was context I wasn’t getting, but I ignored it. “I’m serious. We’ve done a few little trades. Maybe it’s time for a bigger one.”
“Interesting,” Lara said. “What do you have in mind?”
“I need to know about the White Court,” I said. “Where you come from. How it works. What happens when a Hunger gets successfully cut off. Exactly the kind of process Thomas is going through. I need to know everything.”
Lara’s eyebrows couldn’t levitate off the top of her skull, but they tried. “Surely you aren’t serious.”
“I’m always serious,” I deadpanned. “And stop calling me Shirley.”
She idly picked up a handful of snow in her glove. “You realize what you’re asking me, yes?”
“Me, a wizard, the walking, talking personification of ‘knowledge is power,’ is asking you to give me power, possibly over you and your whole Court,” I said. “And only a few years after I wiped out the Red Court. Every single one of them.”
“Well put,” Lara said. “Why should I take that kind of chance?”
“Because I won’t share what I learn with anyone else. I will only use it to help Thomas. I swear it by my power.”
Lara’s head rocked back a little as I spoke the quiet oath.
“Okay,” she said a moment later, her expression pensive. “What’s my cut?”
“This is your cut,” I said. “You talk to me, I use it to help me figure out a course of action, then I save Thomas’s life. That’s what you get.”
“What does it cost me?” she asked. “Other than the potential enslavement or destruction of the White Court?”
“I need Etri off my back,” I said quietly. “I need your help talking him down.”
She replaced the snow from where she’d taken it and began trying fruitlessly to smooth out signs that she had. “That’s a tall order. The svartalves may look all Roswell, but they learned their fighting in the fjords. They play by an older set of rules.”
“New, old, they’re all made to be broken,” I said. “I need your help figuring out a way to convince Etri to do it. Otherwise, there’s no point in saving Thomas from his Hunger. He’d still have to stay hidden on the island.”
“Please tell me what I’m missing here,” Lara murmured. “It sounds like I’m going to be doing you favors on both sides of this deal.”
“You get Thomas back,” I said. “And you smooth over a situation with Etri before it becomes a headache for you, too.”
“That’s me getting two things that you also want,” she said, amused.
“Isn’t it great when a deal profits everyone involved?” I asked rhetorically. “Look, I had to get involved in removing a curse and…long story short, I liked the work. I’m still not at my best. But things are starting to function again, and by God it felt good to be useful. I want more of that. I want to help Thomas. But I can’t do it alone.”
“Next time lead with that one,” Lara suggested. “It sounds much better than where you try to get me to whitewash your fence for you.” She glanced at me, and her smile faded a little. “You’re asking for a lot of trust.”
“And you’re not, Miss Smoochie Face?” I demanded.
“Touché,” she acknowledged.
“Which is my point,” I said, more earnestly. “I can’t say I’m thrilled with the idea of Mab ordering me to marry anybody, but maybe it would be smart to find out if we can work together now, rather than finding out we can’t when it’s all too late to change.”
“If I was really playing you,” Lara said, “I’d agree to this right now. Just to get things moving in the direction I want.”
“Yeah, you would,” I said, and stood up.
I offered her my hand.
She blinked at me for a second. Then she reached up, a little tentatively, took my hand, and came to her feet with my help.
