“They were only paid hires. Their deaths mean nothing. And with your mother behind it, she can hire –”
“Petre isn’t behind it.” She snorts. “How dumb are you?”
“She saved Arienna.”
“It’s not her style.”
“Her style is winning. Like mother, like daughter.”
“Hey!” She jumps to her foot. “You take that back. I’m nothing like Petre.”
“You’re everything like her.” It’s a low blow and a lie, but I don’t care. I know it’ll piss her off and irritate her sleep, gnawingaway at her thoughts. It’s the least she fucking deserves for spilling our location to thirty-odd assassins.
She scoffs. “Well, I guess sheiswinning the debates.”
The hel she is.
My eyes narrow, and we glare at each other. Neither one backing down.
But one of us has to, and I damn well know it’s not going to be Evangeline.
“Then why did you push Arienna out of the tree if not to test your mother’s loyalty?” I bite out, trying to carry the entire civility of this meeting on my shoulders.
“For fu–” She cuts herself off as she sits back down, and I relax a bit, knowing that she’s actually taking my warning seriously. “Because I wanted to see Tanya’s reaction.”
“She wasn’t anywhere near us.”
“But she was trying to be.”
My eyes narrow. Tanya is the biggest bitch in the Court. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was behind this, but there’s no way she’s acting alone. She knows how to play the game way too well.
“What other Dragons do you suspect?” I demand.
“Come on? You really have to ask? Obviously, it’s Coo and Chi.”
My jaw tics, but my warning glare doesn’t stop her from adding, “Something about those two just smells fishy, don’t you think?”
“Evangeline.”
She grins. “For real though. One of the sisters is in on it. I managed to trace the hit back to their family accounts.”
I shake my head. “That’s too sloppy. It’s a red herring.”
“No. It’s adoublered herring. They want us to think they are being set up so we don’t think it’s them.”
“How do you know?”
“Like I said, something just smells –”
“I can’t charge them without evidence.”
“I can,” she says cheerfully as she brings her leg up on the sofa, knee bent.
“Then charge everyone in the Court, and let’s be done with this.”
“That’ll jumpstart the coup.”
Frustration hits me hard in the chest. “I thought the coup was being pushed by the Court?”
