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Lily pressed her back to the wall across from him, reminding herself to give him some credit. He didn’t oust her right away, and he did have incentive to help.
“Why are you nervous?” Aarin asked. “I thought you were used to this sort of thing?”
“This isn’t the same as stealing scrap or chasing down stolen merchandise. And I normally trust the people I work with.”
“Just stick to what we planned. So long as Draven keeps an eye on Caiven at the party, we’ll have access to the upper levels of the manor. Best case, Caiven keeps vanishing grafts, and we’re set. Worst case, we get out through the kitchen, and you kill a couple guards. Either way, I’m not going to screw you over like you did us.”
Lily sucked in the impulse to stand up for herself. Aarin was under the impression she’d been working for Amalia the whole time—that her whole life in Reave was nothing more than a complex infiltration searching for a way to damage the empire from the inside.
“Your intuition,” she started, urging the conversation elsewhere. “It told you who I was?”
He looked up from wiping the visor of his helmet with a cloth. “It told me to stay away from you.”
“And did it tell you to come here?”
“I came here because it was the safest place for me. I stayed because of my intuition.”
“Do you think it led you to this moment?”
He cocked his head. “If you’re being very literal, yes. All of my readings culminated to land me in this shithole of a situation. But I don’t use them to guide my every move. Even if I use it inwardly, that doesn’t mean the right choice is necessarily in my favor. One right choice may lead to a bad one.”
Lily crossed her arms. “That night in the club, you were focused on how you and Reina fared in that situation?”
“I was only worried about Reina that night.” Aarin sharpened his tone. “Let’s get one thing straight. I did not end up here for you, Lily. I am here because of you. I wasn’t trying to help you. I never wanted to help you.”
“You didn’t.”
“You seem like you got everything you wanted. Successfully got ahold of that kid and plunged Reave into war. I’m sure the Argents are just soaking up all that pain.”
Lily ignored him. All these unseen forces pulling her around bothered her. Between Aarin’s intuition, or even further back, Zander and Kyer’s implications that the Wraith had all this planned from the start, it was shocking she couldn’t feel the marionette strings yanking her around. What good came from trying to fight for her own choices when it seemed pointless?
“Draven was quick to make promises, but I haven’t heard any from you yet.” Aarin reached for her helmet sitting beside him on the crate and offered it to her. “Are you going to follow through on your word and get me into Zaitrerin?”
Lily’s gaze fell. The one life she vouched for was already expensive enough. She couldn’t guarantee it. “I will do what I can.”
“Which is what?”
“I will convince the Terin soldiers escorting the slaves back to Zaitrerin to take you with them.”
“Convince?” Aarin retorted. “Can’t you—I don’t know, order it?”
She laughed. “If I could do that, I wouldn’t be here.”
“I thought you were an Imordial?”
“I’m more of an asset. A valuable one, so you have that going in your favor. I’ll do what I can, you have my word.”
Aarin was on his feet, taking Lily’s place pacing. “I’m remembering how little your word means, Lily.”
“Then why ask for it?”
Aarin flinched, and his frown shifted behind her. Jarek was sitting on a cobblestone stoop that was empty a moment ago. His hair glossy and combed back, he wore a perfectly fitted jacket for his slender yet muscular frame, his tight trousers tucked into a new pair of polished leather boots. All onyx black—the embodiment of the Serpent from head to toe.
Jarek grinned, still speaking to Aarin. “You don’t need it anyway. It’s all about connections.”
The early morning sun clearly pronounced his features. Had his jaw always been so sharp? And she’d seen him smile a handful of times in the past, so why was she only now seeing his dimples? Or how soft his hair looked and how she’d like to brush the stray strands out of his face.
Lily turned to Aarin to kill the unwelcome flutters in her chest.
