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I rolled my eyes. “If you follow this up with boss babe or girl power, I’m going to run away screaming.”
Ari laughed.
This felt like the world’s weirdest MLM pitch. “I have a job.” When I wasn’t being held prisoner. “And if you haven’t noticed—” I wiggled my arms around. “I don’t have wings.”
“The wings come during the ceremony. If you’re found worthy.”
Whatever the hells that meant.
“As far as the other,” she continued, “you can keep your job, but you must respond when there’s a threat.”
I glanced at Ari, who was carefully not looking at me.
“You want me to be a part-time superhero. Do I get a cape?”
Ari pressed her lips together. “That’s what the wings are for, I think. Right, Andi?”
“I see you are not ready,” Andraste said primly. She took a step away. From her back unfurled wings of pure white.
My breath caught. Whoa. Awesome. I thought about what I might look like with wings and couldn’t picture it. But how cool would flying be?
“Sorry. I don’t mean to joke, but this entire thing is a little strange. You want to recruit me for a part-time job that you won’t tell me anything about, other than I’ll be a warrior.” I tilted my head and studied her. “I’d be killing people, wouldn’t I?”
Andraste lifted a shoulder. “Here and there, yes.”
I chuckled. “On whose orders?”
“Mine,” she said simply.
“And who do you work for?”
Her eyes flickered. “Does it matter?”
“Very much so. I’m not an indiscriminate killer. Who determines who lives and who dies, and why does anyone think they get to decide such a thing?”
Andraste’s lips twitched. “Ah. You’re an idealist.”
“Not really. Especially not after the last few months I’ve had. I don’t believe in a perfect world. I believe people are flawed, sometimes fundamentally so. I am one of those people. Do I deserve to die? Does Ari? For some perceived slight some royal ass experienced that he or she thinks I caused?”
“You are deliberately misunderstanding my position.” Andraste’s eyes had taken on a strange golden glow, one that reminded me of the Shifter Lords’ eyes when driven to high emotion. But this woman was not a shifter.
She was something entirely different.
“I don’t believe in a world where someone can be sentenced to death upon the whims of someone who won’t do the dirty work themselves.”
Ari grimaced.
Instead of getting pissed, Andraste laughed, a bright and merry sound that made me very nervous. “You’re exactly what I’ve been looking for,” she mused. “Every woman under my command has physical strength and magic, but many warriors do not have the ability to think for themselves during battle. They want orders. When they receive them, there is nothing to sway them from fulfilling them. But many are mindless. They are followers.” She crossed her arms and smiled, her eyes glittering. “You are not, Moira.”
Andraste paused for a moment. “I know where that woman is.”
I froze.
“The one inside. Her fear tails her like the end of a comet.”
Ari closed her eyes, something akin to grief sliding over her features.
“What would you like for the information?” I said, knowing exactly where this was headed.
