“How else can we accomplish this?”
He shifts. “If the funds cannot be paid for up front, then they can be put into the debtors’ system as an individual balance.”
“I will assume the debts.”
I gawk at her. “Mistress, I—”
“I said stop calling me that.”
Shoving up a sleeve, I protest: “You do not want this debt. Itmay be difficult to pay off, especially if Dominik is unwilling. When the interest collects—”
“Do it, Executioner. I will take on the cost of the funerary expenses personally.”
“Can House of Death forgive this one time?” I ask him. “Must we charge in a tragedy like this?”
The executioner’s amber eyes sharpen.
“Speak,” Kassandra demands. “Whatever it is, your secret will be protected. She’s under oath and I don’t have the energy to share.”
He clears his throat, shifting. “The…the House of Death does not dole out or reap any debts.”
I lean forward. “What did you just say?”
“House of Death protects us from the creatures in the borderlands and the Amyrian Desert, does it not?” Kassandra asks.
“It does.”
Blinking, I point to a ring by my elbow. “What’s this for, then? Who do we owe?”
He opens and closes his mouth, an oath silencing him. An oath to his own House?
“House of Reign,” Kassandra answers. “House of Reign charges and collects the military fees.”
The executioner says nothing.
“It can’t be.” I toss the canteen aside. It seems that everything is House Reign—everything. The four Houses are like a shimmering mirage that even their leaders fall for, an illusion of choice and diversity. “Is your House truly banished to the borderlands?”
His head turns slowly in my direction, like a surveying owl. “Yes. Where else would it be?”
“I don’t know, buried?”
“Avery, will you stop bothering her with these mindless questions?” Kassandra sighs.
My mind halts like a rearing horse.Her?
“Who?” I demand.
She glowers at me, gesturing at the executioner. “What do you mean, who? The executioner.”
Between us, Death has gone still.
“But the executioner is a male.”
My mistress groans. “Are you not the one always bemoaning how the High Fae favor one sex over the other? Why is it so hard to understand that Death can be menacing and still have tits!”
“I don’t understand, because I don’t see that.”
“How—” Kassandra stops.
