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Magnus considered that with a nod, then eyed me with an even sharper expression. “And would you allow me to have him killed the moment we discover all we need to know from him?”
I wanted to answer with an immediate and unequivocal yes. Instead, I said, “He will be expecting that, you know. He is probably already looking for ways around it.”
“Dmitri might fancy himself to be intelligent,” Magnus said, “but he is not as clever as I am.”
I let out a breath of paradoxical relief. “I know,” I said, feeling so much better, now that I was near Magnus again.
A beat or two passed before Magnus said, “You know I will not be able to spare you from Dmitri’s lusts during the length of time it takes to glean everything I need to know from him.”
I drew in a bracing breath and nodded. “I know. As I said, I am willing to sacrifice for my kingdom and my king.”
“Anton, no,” Lefric tried to argue again, his face creased with worry for me.
Olympus rested a hand on Lefric’s thigh to stop him.
I took a deep breath and looked at him. “I know what doing this means for me,” I said. “And I am moved by your concern for me, your friendship.” My voice cracked with emotion. It had to be the exhaustion and the trauma of everything I’d been through. “Just knowing you are nearby and that you care for me as I do this will make it easy.”
That was a lie, but taking comfort in my friends being close as I did what needed to be done wasn’t.
Magnus seemed to find some sort of inspiration in my words. “It is very possible that we will need to spend a bit of time in Good Port before traveling home to Gravlock,” he said. “We must wait for Jorgen and Hati and their contingent to reach the city in any case.” He glanced to Olympus. “Your father will want a thorough debriefing on everything that has been discussed during the futile meetings. And there is the matter of his steward being one of my brother’s spies.”
“You are welcome to stay in the Hakobyan compound as my guest for as long as you need to,” Olympus said, sitting straighter. “I am certain my father will wish to give you rooms in his house within the compound, since you are a king, but there is more than enough room in all of our houses for everyone to be safe and comfortable.” He glanced to me. “And watched.”
Magnus’s smile grew. Whatever he was hatching, Olympus had caught on quickly.
I thought I had an idea of what it was a moment later, but I was grateful when Magnus explained, “We’ll let Dmitri believe we’ve discussed the matter and are allowing him to live and take Anton as his pup because we value the information he has. You will give him rooms in your house,” he said to Olympus specifically. “Anton will be able to carry out his portion of this endeavor while enjoying a degree of protection.”
Magnus glanced to me and asked, “I trust you are willing to pry as much vital information out of Dmitri as possible while pretending to submit to his rule?”
“Yes,” I answered quickly. “Absolutely.”
Magnus glanced to the others. “We will pretend that you have all changed my mind and persuaded me to believe, somewhat grudgingly, that Dmitri is a valuable representative of the eastern forest. When Jorgen and Hati arrive in Good Port, we will reconvene the meeting we have just abandoned, welcoming Dmitri into our inner sanctum.”
“Magnus, no!” Lefric protested. “Dmitri is an animal. You know Peter won’t approve of this.”
I had the feeling Magnus would have tolerated Lefric, if he hadn’t brought Peter into the mix.
“I would thank you to remember that I know my husband’s mind a good deal better than you do, young man,” he snapped. Lefric sank in on himself as Magnus continued with, “It is not up to you to decide on the strategy of kings, just as you are not the one who is offering his body up as bait to fish for the information we need.”
“I know,” Lefric murmured, sinking in on himself even more. “I just care about Anton, is all. I don’t want him to get hurt.”
“I won’t,” I told Lefric.
Of course, I would. That was part of the point of the whole thing. But being prepared to be hurt in the way I knew Dmitri would hurt me would make it a thousand times more bearable than being hurt by surprise.
I hoped.
“We will draw Dmitri into our inner circle,” Magnus went on. His eyes lit with the fire of determination and confidence in the plan he was hatching. “I believe that if Olympus, and later, Jorgen and Hati, pretend as though they accept and value Dmitri’s opinions, the man will eventually give us all the information we need. And once we’ve bled the bastard dry….”
He let the rest of his sentence go, leaving the rest of it up to our imaginations.
Magnus glanced to me, and I nodded. “I’m satisfied with that plan,” I said.
Lefric pressed his lips together and growled, but he didn’t try to contradict Magnus or me again. Sebald looked resigned. Jace actually looked proud of me.
I almost wanted to laugh. Jace Rozynov was proud of me. For all the ways I was going to let an unscrupulous man with wicked tastes fuck me.
Who was the whore now?
