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“I was doing a nice thing,” the Viper Queen echoed mildly. “There wasn’t much more to it than that.”
“Maybe you’ll feel inclined to do the nice thing today, too.”
“Buying or selling, Holstrom?”
Ithan leashed the wolf inside howling at him to start shredding things. “Look, I don’t play games.”
“Pity.” She examined her manicured nails. “Sabine doesn’t, either. All you wolves are so boring.”
Ithan opened his mouth, then shut it. Considered what she’d said, what she’d done. “You don’t like Sabine.”
Her lips curved slowly. “Does anyone?”
He clenched his hands into fists. “If you don’t like her, why let her go?”
“I’d ask the same of you, pup. You had her down—why not finish the kill?” Ithan couldn’t help the way his body tensed. “Of course,” the Viper Queen went on, “the Fendyr heir—Sigrid, is it?—should be the one to do it. Don’t you wolves call it … challenging?”
“Only in open combat, when witnessed by pack-members of the Den. If Sigrid had killed Sabine last night, it would have been an assassination.”
“Semantics.”
A chill skittered down his spine. “You want Sabine truly dead.” She said nothing. “Is this your cost, then? You want me to kill—”
“Oh, no. I wouldn’t dare tangle in politics like that.”
“Just drugs and misery, right?”
Again, that slow smile. “What would your dear brother say if he knew you were here with the likes of me?”
Ithan wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of a reaction. “Tell me what it’ll take to get all of us out of here.”
“A fight.” She extinguished her cigarette. “Just one fight. From you. A private event,” the Viper Queen purred. “Only for me.”
“Why?” Ithan demanded.
“I place a high value on amusement. Especially my own.” She smiled again. “One fight for safe passage—and Ketos’s freedom. You win, and it’s all yours. Nothing more required beyond that.”
Fuck, he should have brought Marc with him—he’d have thought this through, would have spotted any pitfalls a mile off.
But Ithan knew if he walked out, if he went to get someone else, the option would be off the table. It came down to him, and him alone.
“I fight, and you’ll let us all go. Immediately.”
Her chin dipped. “I’ll even provide a car to take you wherever you want to go.”
One fight. He’d fought plenty in his life. “I’m not taking your venom,” Ithan said.
“Who said I was offering?” Her lips curled.
“You’ll let Tharion free of that, too,” Ithan added. “No more enthralling bullshit.”
“I’m offended, Holstrom. It’s a sacred bond amongst my kind.”
“Nothing is sacred to you.”
The Viper Queen lifted a finger and turned the statuette of Luna toward him, the arrow now pointing his way. “Oh?”
“The trappings mean nothing if you don’t follow it up with actions.”
