“Why me?”
“You already know my secrets.” His eyes cut away briefly before looking at me again. “And you will not use this knowledge against me because it serves your interests to keep me effective and guard the Wiolants.”
I watch Shade carefully, noting every subtle shift in his posture.
He’s fuckingserious about it. Decades in the most lethal profession in Tiamat. Can’t read a word. I almost respect it. Thefact that he’s still breathing is either a miracle or a testament to how dangerous he truly is.
But why now after all theseyears.
“Why do you need to read?” I ask again.
“That’s not part of the deal.”
“There is no deal yet.”
He considers this for several heartbeats. “I want to send a letter to my mother.”
Of all the answers he could have given me. I wasn’t prepared for that one. Something in my chest twists uncomfortably. I think it might be sympathy.
“How have you survived this long?”
“Luck and good friends.” The brief vulnerability from earlier vanishes from his grey eyes. “No one knows this except you, wolf, and kitty.”
Who the fuck are wolf and kitty? His pets?
“Besides,” Shade continues, “I know you won’t tell anyone.”
I have no interest in losing one of Rhianelle’s protectors, no matter how much he annoys me. Shade is useful.
“And in exchange, you’ll tell me who hurt her?”
“Everything I know,” he promises.
I want that information. The hunger for it rivals my thirst for blood. Someone hurt Rhianelle, left her broken and bleeding. When I find them, I’m going to tear them apart so slowly they’ll beg for death.
“Fine,” I hear myself say. “But we do this my way. You show up when I say, where I say. And if you’re too stupid to learn, I’m not wasting my time trying to pound letters into your thick skull.”
“Acceptable.”
I push off from the wall. “Bring your own parchment and ink.”
He nods and begins to melt back into the shadows as silently as he appeared, then pauses. “Vampire?”
“What?”
“Thank you.”
The words are so unexpected that I’m still standing there when he vanishes completely.
I run a hand through my hair. Teaching an assassin to read. What could possibly go wrong?
But he knows who hurt Rhianelle. For that information, I’d teach a thousand Grimsbanes to read and write. Hell, I’d open a damn school for them.
I have a growing certainty that I have just agreed to something I will deeply regret. But that’s tomorrow’s problem. Tonight, I have my wife’s warmth to bask in.
I continue down the street leading to the castle and straight toward the royal wing.
The guards outside our chambers nod as I pass. They’ve learned not to question my comings and goings at odd hours. I push open the heavy door quietly.
