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“That Louis-Cesare married one woman, but he wants another.”
I felt my hand move instinctively to the stake I’d shoved into the top of my thigh high. “Oh,” I said nonchalantly. “Which one?”
Ray rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I meant. If there was a rival here, do you think I’d tell you? What, am I crazy?”
“Then what did you mean?”
“Look,” Ray said, and his face in the odd, pinkish light was earnest. Which meant that either I was about to get played, or he was actually serious. “I don’t want to tell you your business—”
“Since when?”
“—but you’re a killer, and we’re at war. What the hell are you doing here?”
“Getting more well-rounded?”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I. At least, that’s what I was told.” I drank champagne.
“And you believed it?”
“I believed I was going to get divorced if I ran off on another errand for the senate. Remember what happened last time?”
“That was not our fault.” Ray looked indignant. “And we saved a city!”
“It’s never our fault, and we almost got killed. Louis-Cesare thought I was safe at home, only to discover on waking that I was halfway around the world battling an ancient demon. He . . . didn’t take it well.”
Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that we had just, and I mean just, finished fighting a queen of the light fey, during which time his body had been taken over by an outside force and used as a weapon to try to kill me.
He had very nearly succeeded.
He had also been seriously traumatized by the whole affair, more than I’d realized, frankly. And then my unexpected side trip took place and . . . well. After I recovered, I’d been forcefully reminded of the fact that my husband had red in his hair. He’d presented me with an ultimatum and I chose him.
Ray was eyeing me. “If this is some kind of extended honeymoon, then why did you call me?”
“Call it an itch.”
I got up and walked to the railing. Damn, it was beautiful here, and romantic—or it would have been, had Louis-Cesare and I gotten half a second alone. Instead, we’d been wined and dined and escorted to that famous site and this ancient statue, as the local senate pulled out all the stops for their illustrious guests.
Well, guest, anyway.
“What kind of itch?” Ray asked, joining me, although his eyes were darting worriedly around the terrace. There was nobody else out here, with the main event about to start inside, but I didn’t blame him. We’d been through a lot lately. “You mean, like intuition?”
“No, I mean like being on unfamiliar ground with a famous senator during a war. The consul’s control over the alliance is tenuous and everybody knows it. If Louis-Cesare was to get assassinated, it might tip the political balance. He wants me on this damned tour because he thinks it’s safer. I think—”
“That he’s a target.”
I nodded.
“You’re a senator now, too," Ray pointed out. "Why aren’t you a target?”
“I’m not a dueling champion. If anyone wants to be considered a legit successor to the consul, they have to duel her, and she’s named Louis-Cesare as her champion before—”
“Dory—”
“—so why not again? Nobody wants to fight him, and a war is the perfect time to take him out before a challenge is even issued and blame it on somebody else—”
“You've thought about this.”
