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‘And if she kills me?’
‘We’ll rip her.’ There’s not a hint of sadness in his voice.
‘Does she know that?’
‘I’ve spoken with her,’ he assures me. ‘Of course, it makes her hate you more.’
‘Fabulous.’
‘You’d be wise to stop trying to piss everyone off and start worrying about yourself.’ The amusement is gone from his voice. ‘I can keep her from killing you, but until you move out of her control, you’re still at her mercy.’
‘And how do I do that?’
‘First, you start doing your job. Then you start making allies.’
‘Enora already told me to make friends.’
‘You’re going to need more than friends,’ he says. ‘Your only chance is to move past Maela’s grasp, and to do that you’ll need someone with real power here.’
‘Any suggestions?’
‘I have someone in mind.’
I feel his eyes travel back to my legs, and I straighten in my chair. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jost stiffen in the shadows.
‘Adelice, you’ll be accompanying me on a public-relations tour of Arras this weekend. Your aesthetician and stylist are fully prepped on expectations, and I assume your mentor—’
‘Enora,’ I remind him.
‘Yes, her,’ he says. ‘She’ll inform you of protocol measures.’
I swallow hard and nod.
‘See? It’s easy.’
‘May I ask you something?’
‘More polite every day.’ He raises one eyebrow, which I assume is a yes.
‘Did you find my mother?’ With the death threat hanging fresh in the air, now seems like a good time to ask.
‘Hold on.’ Cocking his head to the side to use his complant, he voice-dials a woman named Penny.
‘Can you pull the binaries on Lewys Subject Two?’
My eyes drift to Jost again, who’s stepped forward into a slant of light. He gives me a tight-lipped smile. I think he’s trying to be supportive.
‘No, I don’t have the personal identifying sequence. It was the mother.’
Subject. It. It pains m
e to hear my mother described this way.
‘Thanks, doll.’ Cormac turns his gaze back to me. ‘She was found during the cleaning of Romen and removed.’
‘You ripped her?’ The words are thick on my tongue, and I barely push them out.
‘Standard procedure and much more humane than how I usually deal with traitors.’
