Lounging on the blue and gold sofa, I sipped at the expensive wine in my crystal glass. The afternoon sun shone in through the windows and filled the elegant living room with wonderful natural light. With one arm draped over the backrest, I stretched out my legs and shifted my weight on the soft cushions. As far as ambushes went, this one was definitely one of the more comfortable ones.
“Where do you buy your wine from?” I asked.
Carl looked up at me from his place on the floor and blinked in surprise. “I, uhm… I don’t know.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“It’s the cook who orders all the wine,” he added hurriedly.
Saying nothing, I just looked him over for a few seconds. He was handcuffed and on his knees in the middle of the room while Callan prowled back and forth behind him like a restless wolf. His gaze darted between me and Callan. Cocking my head, I continued watching him. He looked decidedly nervous. I couldn’t fathom why. We weren’t going to start threatening him until after his wife had showed up.
“Huh,” I said at last. After lifting one shoulder in a shrug, I swirled the wine in my glass and took another sip. “I might need to have a chat with your cook later then.”
Carl looked like he couldn’t decide whether he was worried for his cook’s safety or relieved that I had found someone else to threaten besides him.
From across the room, Callan met my gaze and raised his eyebrows in silent question.
“What?” I gave him my most innocent look. “I’m just getting a few friendly tips from the locals.”
He snorted and shook his head at me while amusement danced across his face.
A tapping sound came from the window.
Glancing towards it, I found Paige’s face staring back at me. She waved her hands around in front of her and then pointed in the direction of the door. I nodded.
“Well then,” I said. “I guess it’s showtime.”
Swinging my legs back down from the couch, I set my glass of wine down on the table with a soft thud and then pushed to my feet. The flowing dark green skirt rippled around my legs as I straightened. I smoothened it down while Callan touched his palms together and summoned a force blade.
Fear washed over Carl’s face. “No, wait, what are you—”
“Unless I give you permission to speak, you’ll keep your mouth shut,” Callan said, and leveled the force blade at his neck. “Understood?”
He flicked a glance towards me.
I just raised my eyebrows expectantly and jerked my chin towards Callan. “I’d suggest answering him.”
Snapping his gaze back to Callan, he swallowed and then said, “I understand.”
Before Callan could say anything else, a lock clicked. A moment later, the sound of the front door being opened and closed echoed through the silent house. It was followed by a feminine voice.
“Honey?”
Callan kept his vibrating blade steady next to Carl’s neck and said in a quiet voice, “Tell her to come in here.”
“I’m in here,” Carl called in a surprisingly strong voice.
Footsteps sounded from the corridor outside the living room. I used the time to move over to the white marble wall halfway between the open doorway and where Callan and Carl were waiting. Leaning back against it in a casual pose, I brushed my palms together and called up a tendril of poison that snaked lazily around my forearm.
“You won’t believe who I saw on my way back.” The voice was coming from right outside the living room now. “And what they were doing. By the Current, when people find out that she…”
A gorgeous woman with loose blond curls and blue eyes walked around the corner and then screeched to a halt a couple of steps inside the room. Shock and terror flashed across her beautiful face as she stared in open-mouthed disbelief at Carl and Callan.
“Hello, Elise,” I said.
Elise Dawson jumped in surprise, making the small package she had been carrying slide from her hands and hit the hard floor before her. The sound of shattering glass filled the room while she whirled towards me.
Raising my hand, I curled my fingers in a mocking wave while the green poison tendril continued slithering around my wrist. She flinched. I just flashed her a wicked smile.
Her gaze darted between me and Callan and her husband while she edged a step back.
“Please, I’m sorry,” she blurted out. “We didn’t want to tell the constables about you, but we had to. We had to tell them everything. The Chancellor himself was there, and he insisted. Please.”
Disapproval swirled through me, and I drew my eyebrows down in a scowl. “You ratted us out to the constables?”
“I, uhm…” Surprise, hesitation, and then regret flickered in her eyes. “Well…”
“Yes, they did,” Callan said.
I turned towards him and raised my eyebrows. “How do you know?”
He jerked his chin towards Carl. “He said the same thing when we ambushed him up by the market.” Meeting my gaze, he shrugged. “I was gonna tell you when we got back.”
“Huh.” I slid my gaze back to Elise. “Well, now I feel a bit less bad about blackmailing you.”
“Blackmail?” she stammered.
“Oh, who am I kidding? I never felt bad about that at all.”
Callan chuckled. It made the force blade shift closer to Carl’s exposed throat. He flinched, trying to discreetly lean sideways. Worry washed over Elise’s face, and she took a couple of steps towards her husband before Callan stopped her with a commanding stare.
“Are you okay?” Elise asked, her eyes on Carl. “Did they hurt you?”
Still on his knees, Carl looked up at Callan, silently asking for permission to speak.
Callan clicked his tongue. “You can answer her.”
Tilting his head back down, he met his wife’s gaze and said, “I’m okay. They haven’t hurt me.”
A sigh of relief whooshed out of her lungs. She had been twisting her fingers in her pale blue skirt, but now she forced her hands away and let her arms hang by her sides while she straightened her spine and looked between me and Callan. “What do you want?”
“You’re going to host a charity event,” I said.
Shock bounced across her features as she jerked back a little and blinked at me. Whatever she had been expecting me to say, that had apparently not been it. “Why?”
“Because we said so.”
She raised her chin. “And if we refuse?”
“I don’t think you want us to answer that, Elise.”
Her gaze drifted towards Carl again. Callan shifted the force blade closer to his neck.
“And don’t even think about trying to contact what remains of the constables in Eldar,” I continued. Then I paused, waiting for her to drag her eyes back to me. When she did, I held her gaze to let her know that I truly meant what I was about to say. “If you make one single move that we don’t like, anything at all that we think looks suspicious, we’ll make you watch as we kill all of your friends. One by one. And then we will kill you.”
Her face drained completely of color.
“Am I making myself clear?” I demanded.
“Yes,” she breathed.
Pushing off from the wall, I started towards her while pulling out a folded-up paper. Elise flinched and made as if to back away. But when I cocked my head slightly, she froze in her tracks again and just stood there while I closed the final distance between us.
“Here’s the list of people you’re going to invite.” I shoved the paper into her hand. “Make it happen in two days.”
“In… two days?”
“Yes. Problem?”
She shook her head vehemently.
“Good.” I stabbed a finger against the paper she was now clutching in her hand. “Make sure every single person on this list is there. If even one person is missing, I will hold you personally responsible.”
“I’ll… I’ll make sure they’re all here.”
“Excellent.” I slid my gaze to Callan. “Shall we?”
He gave me a nod and then let his force blade fade out. Both Carl and Elise heaved a sigh of relief. Bending down, Callan unlocked the manacles around Carl’s wrists and then strode towards me without another word.
Our footsteps echoed into the crackling silence as we made our way towards the front door.
Elise Dawson was at the top of the social hierarchy in Eldar. If anyone could throw a party and make sure that all of the parliament members’ loved ones were there, it was her. Then, we just had to grab them all.
Sunlight washed over me as we stepped back out into the small garden, and I had to shield my eyes with my hand until we reached the street and turned away in the other direction. Three people fell in beside us.
“So,” Paige began from where she strolled next to Henry. “It went well then?”
“Yeah,” I said, and flashed her a smile. “Thanks for being the lookouts.”
“Anytime.”
“She’s gonna invite them all?” Henry asked, looking between me and Callan.
Callan nodded. “Yeah. In two days. So now we just need to find a way to keep them all compliant once we make our move.”
On my other side, Levi slid his hands into his pockets and then lifted his broad shoulders in a casual shrug. “I can take care of that.”
I turned to face him and raised my eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yeah. Just get me some metal.”
