Maybe I would.
Darrien eyed the empty chair where Gaige had been working. “We should talk first.”
My lips curled. “I’m not interested in talking.”
“I’m not looking to fight anymore.” Darrien worked his throat in a hard swallow. “May I sit?”
“You have two minutes.”
Darrien stepped out of reach of Iov and Emelia and sank onto the chair. “You can dismiss them. We both know that you could kill me faster than they could.”
As irritating as it was, he was right. “Then your new lackey leaves too.”
He barely deigned to shoot Quintus a glance, but gestured over his shoulder with lazy fingers. The newly raised assassin looked all too pleased to disappear. He rushed from the library and headed for the main doors.
“You three, keep him outside at the gate,” I said to Emelia, Iov, and Astrid, and they sank into the world of shadows, leaving Darrien alone with me, Kost, and Ozias. None of us moved. Shadows trailed from our frames and crept along the floors toward Darrien. He’d never escape all of us.
Propping his arm on the table, he scattered a few papers and nudged a book. His gaze shifted to the tomes and inkwells. “Doing a bit of light reading?”
“What do you want?” I slipped my hands into my pockets. They itched to wrap around his neck, and I couldn’t trust them not to act of their own accord.
His fingers dawdled across the open pages. “To make a deal.”
My eyes narrowed. Darrien had always been calm. Self-assured. When he wanted something, he demanded it. But the way he was fidgeting now… It didn’t fit. What was he really after?
“Get the hell out,” Ozias snapped.
“You can’t undo what you’ve done.” Kost’s nostrils flared. “Leave before it’s too late.”
Heat simmered beneath Darrien’s words. “I was here before any of you even took your first breath.” Tempering his rage, he inhaled sharply. “Talmage was a close friend. Why he named you leader…I will never know. But it’s out of respect for him that I’m here now. And I’m imploring you to consider my request for our people. His people.”
“What are you getting at?” My nails elongated, forming tight points and scraping against my pockets. One slit and the blood would flow. A single blade could notch his skin, and he’d be mine to command.
No.Gods. It was getting easy, too easy, to fall back on the possibility of exerting my control over someone else. When I’d done it with Brody, it’d feltgood. Wrong, but somehow right. The contradiction ate away at my insides, and I ground my teeth together.
Darrien dropped his gaze, returning instead to the books strewn across the table. “You’re the only one with the power to raise the dead. Zane’s blood lives in your veins.” His fingers traced what looked like a network of bloodlines and family trees across two pages. “I can’t replenish my numbers when a job goes south. I’m asking for your help, and in exchange, I won’t orchestrate any more ambushes.”
I let out a cold, brittle laugh. “Orchestrate all you want. You won’t succeed in capturing me or forcing me to relinquish my power early. And if that fails and you kill me instead, the power passes to the assassin ofmychoosing. We all know that isn’t you.”
My gaze slanted to Kost. My second. The man who would live or die by Cruor’s code. He angled his chin high and glared at the traitor.
Darrien growled. His restless hand had moved to a new book laid open beneath the first. Yet another family tree with swirling black ink played across the pages. His nails dug against the names and crinkled the paper.
“I will keep trying if I have to.”
“You came after my pair bond. I should kill you for that alone.” The memory of Leena’s wound burned in my mind, feeding the frenzied red haze claiming my senses. Control. I needed to stay in control.
Fingers dawdling, he picked up the scrap of parchment that Gaige had dropped. “And I’m sorry for that.” He let the paper fall to the table, gaze roaming back my direction. “Talmage wouldn’t want this. He’d want us to continue on. All I’m asking is that you raise an assassin for my guild every now and then. I’m not looking to amass an army. Just keep those who followed me safe.”
Kost broke. “How dare you mention his name after what you did.” He clenched and unclenched his trembling fists. “Talmage was my friend too. Kill him, Noc. Get this sorry excuse for a man out of our home.”
I bit back the rage and settled on an icy response. “I won’t raise the dead for you. You made your choice when you left Cruor. Recruit normal, human assassins and leave the shadows to us. That’s my final verdict.”
Voice surprisingly soft, Darrien’s response was barely audible. “Are you sure?”
“You’re not offering me anything in return. You’re simply asking for a favor. And after all that you’ve done, it’s hardly warranted.” Slowly, I extracted my hands and flexed them, ignoring the bloody welts marring the skin of my palms. “Get out.”
Something foreign raced through Darrien’s expression. “If that’s your final decision…”
