And standing by the fire was?—
I stopped short.
It was a woman, and I knew her face, though I’d only seen it once before, at the wedding when she was talking to Lochlan. But she looked familiar even past my recollection of her at the wedding. That was the most confusing bit of all. I always remembered faces. Had I seen her when I was much younger and her face had changed with age? I couldn’t imagine that was the case but couldn’t think of what else it could be.
I stared, unabashed, trying to bully my brain into placing her. She wasn’t young but not particularly old either. Her dark hair had silver threaded through it and was pinned neatly at the nape of her neck. Her posture was straight, and her clothes reminded me of what a noblewoman would wear, not some hardened warrior who was part of the Nightsworn.
For a heartbeat, I stared, then looked around the room, waiting to see if some other figure was looming in the shadows, waiting to announce their presence. The woman studied me with a cool, impassive expression on her face.
“You’re smaller than I expected,” she said at last.
“You are as well. I was expecting someone much more intimidating to interrogate me.”
The corner of her mouth twitched. “Sit down, Jillian.”
I didn’t move. “I’m Gil,” I told her. “And you are?”
“My name is Marta, and I command the Nightsworn. Would you like some tea?”
“No.”
“Tea, Lochlan?” Marta looked up to address him.
He sat on one of the cushioned chairs. “Yes, I’ll have some.”
I watched in bewilderment as Marta poured herself and Lochlan cups of tea. This was to be my interrogation? A tea party?
“You can sit down,” she repeated. “You’re not in any danger.”
Slowly, I lowered myself into a seat, muscles still tensed in case I needed to run.
“I imagine you have many questions,” she said, taking the chair across from me and pouring a cup of tea.
“Why is there a reward out for my capture?”
She smiled. “Ah, a woman who dislikes small talk as much as I do. Very good. You see, your Syndicate’s beloved Employer recently put out a bounty for you, and I knew they wouldn’t be as forgiving as I. We saved your life by putting up those posters.”
“A life in a cage is no life at all,” I shot back. “And I never heard about a bounty.”
She sipped her tea. “Elvin’s been keeping the Nightsworn well informed on the Syndicate’s activities for a few years, just as Lochlan has been keeping us informed about Roderick’s plans. Ambrose offered the bounty to Elvin first, and Elvin said he would take it, then ran straight here to tell us so we could take you before word got out to the other hunters. We deployed a team to raid the Syndicate and capture Ambrose before he could tell anyone else.”
“I suppose Elvin told you where to find us?”
She let out a harsh bark of laughter. “You think we haven’t known all this time? You may think that you cover your tracks well, but we’ve watched people going in and out of that house for years. We’ve known exactly where you were for a long time. That’s how we were able to get Elvin in.”
“Then why not raid us years ago?” I asked. I wasn’t sure why she was telling me so much.
“Because you’ve been helping us rid the streets of criminals. There is a lot of paperwork wrapped up in each mission withthe Nightsworn, you see. Your method is dirtier, but there are far fewer rules. In short, the Syndicate has been helping us all along, even though they didn’t know it. When we see bounties issued for certain targets, we don’t need to expend people to complete the same task and can focus on targets the Syndicate isn’t interested in.”
“Then why step in now? And why issue a reward for me? You haven’t done it for anyone else that I know of.”
Marta tapped her nail on the table. “Elvin says the Employer rarely takes personal interest in the bounties placed, and he says Ambrose was adamant that you were to be brought in immediately.”
I clamped my jaws shut. Did they think Ambrose was the Employer? Or were they simply hoping for information from him?
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I told her. “Why me?”
Lochlan stepped forward. “We don’t know why the Employer is interested in you, but we think this is the perfect opportunity to intercept his orders. The Syndicate operates very efficiently, but we’d like more oversight into what the Employer does and maintain control over bounties issued.”
