After several minutes, she breathed a sigh of relief and began gathering up her things.
Ronin eyed her with a new respect. “You’re good at this.”
“What, did you think Skanisse was lying when he said I was a skilled field agent?” Mireille fluffed out her costume and hung it on a rack in the corner.
“No, I…” Ronin leaned a hip against her vanity. “You’re just so…”
She whipped around, hands on her hips. “I’m just sowhat?”
He scratched his cheek. “Different than I expected.”
Mireille snorted, bending down to pluck up her discarded tights. “Wish I could say the same. If slovenly beast was the look you were going for tonight, bravo, you’ve succeeded.”
Ronin tipped his head back, releasing a hooting laugh. “That’s more like it. Never change, Valette.”
He could’ve sworn he saw her lip twitch as she shrugged on her jacket and looped her bag over her shoulder. “See you at the archives hall tomorrow?”
Ronin nodded, then pushed up off the vanity and strode to the door.
As he stepped into the darkened hallway, he tossed a farewell over his shoulder. “Goodnight,my love.”
And tried not to snicker at the little growl of frustration Mireille released in his wake.
CHAPTER TEN
Mireille arrived at the archives hall the next morning at eight o’clock sharp, bright and early as usual. She’d already been awake for several hours anyway, had spent the morning in the practice room at the Grand Ethyrian, blissfully alone now that the company’s season had officially ended.
She’d gone back to her apartment to shower and change, then come here to IA HQ to continue her research. She figured she’d have at least several hours to herself before Ronin showed up.
She pushed through the windowed door. “Morning, Sonya.” She folded her arms—pleasantly sore from her rigorous practice routine—upon the desk. “Can I get the key card, please?”
Sonya gave her a sly look. “Your partner’s already back there.”
Mireille nearly choked on her tongue. “Mypartner? Ronin Matakos?”
Sonya nodded. “Arrived about an hour ago. Seemed pretty excited, too, about whatever he has to share with you.”
Mireille let out a small shocked sound, then leaned across the desk and lowered her voice. “Any news on that other matter?”
Mireille had been asking Sonya over the years if there were any records of a male that might have been associated with her mother, or any filings about Mireille’s birth. Sonya was discreet, one of the few—really the only—colleague that Mireille trusted at the IA, so she didn’t worry about revealing her true last name to the kind, motherly Windrider.
And now that the Empire had claimed to have learned her father’s identity, she’d hoped that maybe Sonya would find something new in the system.
Sonya dipped her eyes, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, my dear. There’s still nothing other than what I’ve already given you.”
Which was nothing more than Mireille herself had already known. A report detailing Vivienne Valois’s abandonment of her pack and the birth of her daughter, with no name of the father listed on the certificate. Mireille had often thought about trying to find her mother’s pack, visiting them under the guise of a veiling potion to see if she could tease out any information about her father. But it was a risk she was unwilling to take, given what had transpired at the cabin.
Mireille sighed, pushing back from the counter. “Thanks for checking again,” she called over her shoulder as she strode to the room at the back of the hall.
Shock stilled her feet when she opened the door. Folders, books, and documents were scattered across every surface, and an array of papers rustled from where they’d been pinned to the corkboard.
Ronin sat at the table, buzzing with excitement. “Valette.” He gifted her a genuinely delighted smile, and her stomach flip-flopped.
“Matakos,” she answered carefully. “Are you messing with me? What are you doing here so early?”
He stood and pulled out a chair, angling it toward the board and encouraging her to take a seat. “Just eager to show you how wrong you were about my ability to find anything useful.”
She huffed a short laugh. “Or how right I was to challenge your studying skills.”
