Page 12 of The Thief and the Traitor Bride

Caspian sat back on his stone bed, leaning his head back against the damp wall. She felt filthy from being here for even a few minutes, so she couldn’t imagine how Caspian bore it—it was a miracle he hadn’t yet used his quick-fire charm to con someone into bringing him a bath or finding him a way out. With his hands palm up on his lap, she could make out the missing finger on his left, a reminder of how things had ended last time. His gauze-bound right hand made her nauseous.

“You may find yourself disappointed, I’m afraid,” Caspian said. He did some trick with his unwrapped left hand and a coin flipped between his fingers.

Instantly, her hand went to her pocket, but her own coin was still there. Nore felt her stomach fill with acid as she took in the sight of that familiar silver.

A queen’s coin.

“Where did you get that?” Nore asked.

“Your Aunt Celestine came to visit,” Caspian said, a smirk tilting up the corner of his mouth. And Nore—damn her—knew he was many things, but he did not lie when the truth was more painful. They hadn’t fought often, but when they had, she remembered him throwing all her darkest honesties back at her across their tiny apartment. Caspian always chose the truth when it hurt.

Nore took a step back. “No. You—you would never agree to that. To working for her. I can’t believe you came back…”

Her mind went racing, searching for an explanation for this, but none came. She could think of no conceivable reason why Celestine would decide she needed him—it had to be a trick. It had to be.

And yet, somehow, she knew deep down inside that it wasn’t. In her bones, she also knew Celestine: if she thought Caspian was useful, she would certainly make use of him, no matter Nore’s thoughts on the matter.

“What?” he said. “Were you hoping to do the honors yourself? I doubt your terms would’ve been as nice as hers. Although…” His gaze skated over her, and she felt the flush crawling up her chest. “I might’ve been more easily persuaded, had the terms come from you.”

“Why do you think I would bestow an honor upon you?” Nore spat out.

“It wouldn’t be the first thing you bestowed upon me,” he said, his voice turning to velvet.

She moved before she could think, striking Caspian just under the jaw with the hilt of her knife, knocking him to the floor and pinning him down. There, she poised her blade over his heart.

He did not fight back. She’d split his lip in the process; his tongue flicked out to taste the blood. She felt the (frankly, demented) impulse to lean down and taste it herself.

“You’d really kill me,” he said, so quietly, “and lose her favor?”

Nore stopped. She couldn’t breathe. Her chest was too tight.

Under her, Caspian held her gaze—and she hated him. She hated him with a vitriol released after so long spent wishing him dead, made all the worse by the years of loving him before.

“Why are you even here?” Nore seethed.

His gaze flickered. “Is it so hard to believe I just wanted to see my wife again?”

She narrowed her eyes on him, tightening her grip on her knife.

Slowly, slowly, he moved his hands, fluid enough that she had time to spin out of his grasp. She didn’t move, not even when his grip settled over her hips. “You’ve not spoken to the duchess, then.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

His laugh was low, sensual, agonizing. “I doubt that.”

They were getting off track—and she would not allow herself to be pulled into this. “It doesn’t matter what I think,” Nore said. “This will not simply cover your previous crimes. After Celestine has what she wants from you, you will hang.” And, Nore did not say, I will take it as payment for what you did to me. “Besides, you would never just agree to work for her.”

Caspian shook his head. “That’s where you’re wrong, Finch. She’s offered to pay me very well for this one little task. Keeping my life may not be the whole payment, but it is a tempting part of it,” he said, reasoning through it out loud, as if they still did such things; or, as if he was waiting for her to confirm or deny. “I suppose she didn’t tell you about it, but I’d be happy to enlighten you—”

“Absolutely not,” Nore said, seething.

“You suspected the traps you were setting were for me, didn’t you?” Caspian said, his gaze on her softening. “Even if you didn’t want to believe it. And even after that… you came here first, before you went to clarify the situation with her.”

Nore drew a breath, unable to find words to disarm him. He was the only person in the world who rendered her useless like this.

But he was right, wasn’t he? She was here, threatening him, instead of asking questions of the one person who could answer them.

“Finch—” he started, reaching for her as she levered herself up and away.