“I canceled the contract.”
I paused and turned around. “What?”
“I canceled the contract that hired me to kill you.”
“But…everyone told me you’ve never failed before.”
He shrugged. “Everyone also said there would never be anything less than a full-blooded fae on any Court’s throne.”
“Touché. Care to share who commissioned the hit?”
Rigel stared at me.
I shrugged. “I had to try!”
My guards had jerked to attention, but at Rigel’s announcement I smiled and waved to them to show I was okay.
The guards exchanged a few hand signals before one settled in to watch Rigel and me and the others went back to scanning the surroundings.
“I take it now you want me to tell you why I held the social here?” I guessed.
Fae aren’t known for their generosity. They expect equivalent exchange.
Lord Rigel fell back on his old goodie behavior and stared at me.
“I’m going torequirea verbal answer for this one,” I drawled.
“I want to know how you intend to play this game of power.”
I snorted. “Buddy, have I got news for you—I amnottelling you my entire strategy. That’s not worth knowing the contract was canceled!”
“It’s obvious you’re hoping to change the game,” Rigel ignored me and continued. “You held a social here—correctly assuming that the foreign setting would challenge the Court and shake them out of their usual behaviors.”
Huh. I would have thought he’d vastly underestimate me, not totally miss how little I actually care about how the Court feels.
“You have sold the sun stallions and brought in the night mares to disconcert the Court because it underlines how the night mares—a creature of the Night Court that symbolizes our power—have been neglected, and you have given the wild glooms and shades ridiculous names to accomplish the same as well.”
“HAH! I knew I saw you that night I met them!” I pointed a finger at him. “But that’s a solid miss.”
Lord Rigel narrowed his dark eyes. “Then what are you trying to accomplish? You dare to shoot back at a fae that bothers your companion—”
“—shooting at Indigo isway morethan bothering her!”
“But you don’t immediately eliminate a threat against your life.”
“Yeah, becausedue processis a thing! I’m not gonna let heads roll without evidence!”
“You act strong when your life is in danger to impress your Court, but then make your personal seal the vermin of our realm?”
Oh-ho-ho, we’ve got ourselves a nosebox here!
“You are wildly unpredictable, and you’re acting in an unstable way that could topple what little balance of power we’ve managed to achieve in the Court,” Lord Rigel said.
Never mind. He’s just obsessed with this stupid game of power.
“As best as I see it, you are either wholly oblivious and an idiot in your humanity,oryou so deeply despise fae that you intend to destroy us.”
“Hey, now. I don’tdislikefae. I just find you all excessively annoying.”
