“Wormwood will be suspicious that I suddenly changed my mind. He’ll know something’s up,” Ronin said with a victorious little grin.
Mireille grinned right back. “We’ll plant some rumors around the city that Cassandra’s training is going poorly. That we think she’s going to lose and are looking to switch sides.”
Ronin shook his head, stepping into her. “I’m not asking you to do this for me.”
Mireille stepped closer as well. “And I’m not asking for your permission.”
“You two wanna take your tiff to another room?” Silas cut in. “Cass and I have work to do.”
And Cassandra nearly huffed in annoyance as Ronin and Mireille left the room together. She wanted to see how this played out.
But she turned to Silas and said, “Now what?”
“Now,” he answered, “wedance.”
“When didyou and your crazy winged co-conspirator come up with this plan?” Ronin asked, tossing his shirt next to the weapons rack in the room down the hall.
No matter how many times he’d shucked it off these past few weeks, the pulse-quickening sight never got old. It was one of Mireille’s few moments of unadulterated joy, a distraction from her anxiety over Cassandra’s abysmal progress.
Mireille twisted out of her own shirt, ignoring the little thrill that shot through her when Ronin’s eye darkened. She plucked two practice daggers from the rack and handed one to him. “I’ll tell you after I kick your ass.”
Ronin sighed, pulling long fingers through his white strands. The tousled result combined with his roguish eye patch made her want to throw herself against his deliciously bare torso and not come up for air for hours.
What’s stopping you?her wolf purred.
Sanity, Mireille scoffed.
Nonsense. We used to be his preferred brand of crazy. Let’s remind him.
Ronin’s jaw tightened. “No fucking way am I letting you dance for those assholes, Mireille. They don’t deserve you.” Her chest clenched. “We’ll find another way.”
“You don’t even?—”
“I don’t want you putting yourself in any more danger for me.”
Mireille crossed her arms, her dagger dangling from her fingertips. “If Cassandra loses, we willallbe in even more danger than we are now. Did you forget about that?”
Ronin stepped forward, towering over her, anger pulsing. “That has nothing to do with looking through those ledgers. We focus on the training, and when we get out of here, I’ll have all the time in the world to figure out what happened to Selene.”
His voice broke on his sister’s name, and Mireille couldn’t stand it.
“Those ledgers could be your only chance to learn the truth, Ronin.”
“Wanna bet?” he snarled, pressing in closer.
“Actually, that’s anexcellentidea. Care to make a little wager on our sparring session? If you win, I’ll drop this idea. But ifIwin, I dance. And you seduce Wormwood. And Cass and Silas sneak into his office to peek at those ledgers.”
“I’m not fucking betting on your safety.”
Mireille grazed the tip of her dagger along the muscled grooves of his stomach, and he hissed in a sharp breath. “Sounds like someone’s afraid to lose.”
He snatched the dagger from her grip. “If we do this, we’re fighting with real weapons.” He replaced the false daggers with real ones, testing the blade’s sharpness with his thumb. “First to draw blood wins.”
Mireille cocked an eyebrow, desire a ferocious throb in her veins.
Damn, her wolf cut in.I’d nearly forgotten how good savagery looks on him. But I’m still rooting for you.
Gee, thanks.
