“It wouldn’t be real. You’d only be a Guardsman until I give youyour portion of Avington, and I’d make sure you’re assigned perimeter checks and hallway patrols—nothing that would put you in the line of fire. I’d pay you the standard salary, fifteen thousand a month, and you’d have lodgings in the palace. Carik wouldn’t be able to get to you.”
It was the deal of a lifetime, an irresistible offer, but he wasn’t about to fall at her feet like a lovestruck cadet. “Fifteen thousand a month? You overpay your guards, Princess.”
“At least no one will be buying their allegiance from me.”
Frowning, Zane paced across the room. Metal panels rattled under his feet as he stepped over a tangle of wires snaking between the walls.
“Why me?”
“Mira trusts you.”
Zane scoffed. “Mira’s an assassin, and you’re going to trust me based on her word?”
Hannover shrugged. “We have the same goal. And if nothing else, you need me alive so I can follow through on our deal.”
“What do you get out of this?”
“Me? Well, I know you aren’t working for Carik.” Biting her lip, Hannover looked away. “It’s not just Carik. I’m worried about my mother. There are so many threats on Dali, many in my court, and she carries enough sway to turn them against me. I need people on my guard who can’t be bought by the others.”
“Why would your mother work against you?”
“My mother loves three things,” Hannover said bitterly, as her shoulders drooped, “wealth, power, and Selene.”
Zane grimaced. “Sorry.”
He was sorry for Dali more than anything. An unloved daughter who didn’t trust her mother, sisters who hated each other—it was the same situation that had triggered the Dalian Civil War twenty cycles ago. And that wasn’t the only potential war Hannover faced.
“How did your conversation with Gar go?”
“As well as could be expected. I appreciate your warning.” Hannover arched an eyebrow. “You know, if I offered anyone else this job, they’d see it as the honor of their lifetime.”
Deflection. Chills trickled down Zane’s spine, but he forced himself to snort. “How long do I have to decide?”
Hannover checked the chrono on her wrist. “My shuttle leaves in twenty minutes.”
Zane brought a hand to his chin, making a show of pondering it, but the benefits were too great. Asylum from Carik’s arrest warrant, fifteen thousand a month to do virtually nothing, free lodgings, and a chance to network with other nobles. And the job. A prestigious job that no one in their right mind would offer him, but she had anyway, because unlike the rest of her greedy family, she wanted to set things right. And at the end of it, his money would be waiting. Avington would be waiting.
“Fine. I’ll join your guard. On one condition.”
Hannover pursed her lips. “What now?”
“Promise me you’ll stop blindly trusting people.” At her baffled look, Zane pulled a face. “Your enemies are going to take advantage of that, and I don’t want to deal with the headache.”
“If that’s your only condition, does that mean you don’t want the lordship or the money?” she asked, as a smile curved at her lips.
He rolled his eyes, but the smirk he shot her almost felt like a smile.
Zane was rummagingthrough one of the repurposed tool chests that stored medical supplies when near-silent footsteps drifted into the room behind him. Mira stood on the other end of the room, with her lips pursed and her arms folded. It wasn’t like she was going to turn him in for theft, though, so he shut one drawer and opened the next.
“I hear you’re hightailing it back to Dali.”
Zane snatched an okul patch. “Yeah, why? You have a problem with that?”
Fiddling with her ring, Mira sucked in a breath. “It’s just… it’s pretty quick for a career change, isn’t it? You’ve known her for what, forty-eight hours?”
“Someone’s jealous.”
As Mira’s nostrils flared, Zane sighed. “I’m still not interested in being a mercenary.”
