She raised her chin, crossing her arms and mimicking his protective stance. “When did it happen? And does the Empire know?”
“I’m not sure that I should trust you with that information.”
Mireille finally exploded. “She would be dead right now if it wasn’t for me! Whatever intentions the Creator has for Cassandra, whatever help I’m supposed to provide her, preparing for it was the only thing keeping me going these past two centuries.”
She didn’t tell him how many times she’d wished for True Death. How many times she’d come so close to falling into that dark embrace. How it was only the thought of that young girl’s face in the Halfway, so fragile yet so strong, that had Mireille clinging to some small shred of hope.
Whatever shit Ronin believed about her, she wasn’t going to let it stand in the way of fulfilling her destiny. She couldn’t. If she did, then everything she’d endured would have been for nothing.
“Her Turning happened very recently,” he said, softening slightly at her outburst. “She transformed shortly after she was delivered to her cell in the intake tower. And thanks to the veiling potion you provided, the Vicereine only saw her as human. The Empire doesn’t know what she’s become.”
Mireille jolted. “Varuna Lykan came to deliver the sentences? Not Eamon himself?” That was odd. Went against the protocol that had been established for new prisoners.
Ronin shook his head. “The gears of war are turning out there. The continent is poised to tear itself apart, and if we don’t intervene soon we will all be destroyed. We need her to defeat the Koenig. And then we need to figure out how to get the fuck out of here.”
“You don’t have to keep telling me that. I understand how important it is that she wins.”
“What are you going to do to help her, then?”
“I know the Koenig. I’ve seen him fight. And I know his Brethren. Some of them intimately. I can help her learn their weaknesses, prepare her for the battle.”
“Good,” Ronin said absently. As if still stuck on the wordintimately. “She’s going to need it. She’s doesn’t even know how to wield her new Fae strength yet.”
“We’ll prepare her as best we can.”
Devastation flashed across his face, there and gone in an instant, when she’d referred to them aswe.
He fidgeted, then spat out a question he couldn’t seem to keep himself from asking. “Is that what you’ve been doing to inspire the Brethren’s generosity? Fucking them?”
His judgmental tone landed a powerful strike, drawing rage instead of blood. “What would that even matter to you?Whatever promises we made to each other died outside that cabin. The choices I’ve made to survive in here arenoneof your fucking business.”
Ronin snarled, hate simmering in his eye. She was wrong; this was so much worse than his indifference. “So, we’ll be civil to each other to help Cassandra and that’s all, right?”
She nodded stiffly.
He prowled in closer, towering over her, barely an inch of space between them. “Then stay out of my fucking business as well.”
“With pleasure.” She side-stepped as he shoved past her. She shouted over her shoulder as he stalked down the hallway, “I didn’t ask for this, Ronin.” His back stiffened at his name, and it felt like a small victory. “You play your part and I’ll play mine.”
“You were pretty good at that, if I recall,” he said, refusing to look at her as his pounding footsteps faded.
His bedroom door slammed, and she dug her nails into her palms hard enough to break skin.
Well,her wolf purred.That went well. You probably should have?—
I don’t need your advice on how to handle him.
The beast licked her paw.Are you sure? He seemed rather jealous when you mentioned the Brethren. Quite a strong response. Curious, don’t you think?
Mireille sighed.It’s not important. How we feel about each other doesn’t?—
He looks just as delicious as I remembered. Maybe even more so with that glorious scar.
Mireille didn’t have the energy to argue. Some small, starved part of her maybe even agreed. But the exchange had exhausted her. She’d been prepared to encounter his hatred.
But she hadn’t expected it to hurt this much.
Ronin slammed his bedroom door,then leaned against it and dipped his head into his hands.
