“A tailor I know. You have to dress the part if you want to play the part,” I advise.
“I don’t have the?—”
“Don’t worry. The tailor owes my uncle a favor. He’ll do it for free.”
“What? Why would you… I don’t understand. Why would you do that for me?”
“So you owe me, of course. But also because I’d prefer you to be a Veronian than those ham-handed numbnuts.”
He glances at Wynter, who’s still patting her nose. “Is she…?”
“She’s being nice.”
I settle my elbow on the table then prop my head on my chin. “I am capable of it sometimes.”
He tosses his napkin on the table too. “What kind of favor would I owe you?”
“I don’t know. Yet. Nothing criminal or illegal. I’m not a monster.”
Wynter coughs, but I know it’s to hide a laugh.
Jerry, clever boy, reads between the lines. “Okay.”
“Perfect,” I chirp, holding out my hand for him. “Pleasure striking a deal with you, Jerry.”
He just shakes his head. “Why do I think the Veronians have no idea what they’re inviting to the table?”
“Let’s keep it a surprise between us…”
FORTY-TWO
LEMME JUST SIGN HIS DEATH WARRANT, I’LL BRB
One stepinto the windy street, and that’s when I notice the man in the expensive suit is sitting on a park bench opposite the restaurant.
What does that make him? Our minder?
“Just wait here for me,” I inform Wynter and Jerry before crossing the street.
The stranger flicks a disinterested look at me then returns to the paper. “If you were supposed to approach me, I’d have approached you first.”
I perch on the bench and primly tuck my hands into my gloves. “Are Veronians branded?”
He stiffens. “Excuse me?”
I tut. “You heard me perfectly well.”
When he turns to me, it registers that I’m looking at the living embodiment of what authors call a stony expression. His eyes gleam with a wild light that would be disconcerting if I hadn’t been receiving body parts from my beau since I was a teenager.
“A crown?” I tap my forearm where I spotted Dyers's. “Just here?”
“How?” he barks.
And at the back of my mind, that persistent itch finally gets scratched.
Seeing Dyers's branding mattered.
And Alec never mentioned it to the society.
