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“I’ll pay you five times as much. Ten. I don’t care.”
“I don’t want your money.”
There was a long moment in which Elma considered killing him after all. There were plenty of weapons available in the bowels of the arena. No one would blame her. And perhaps Luca would relax a bit if the assassin was finally dead.
But she knew in her gut that this wouldn’t end with Rune. If her advisors were determined to remove her, theywould keep trying until they succeeded. Until they were free to declare war on…
“Slödava,” Elma said aloud.
“So, youaremad,” said Rune, sighing.
“This is what I propose,” said Elma, impatient. “You keep me alive until my coronation, a month from now. And when I’m crowned queen, not only will you be set free and pardoned, but I will broker a peace treaty with Slödava. Rothen will never come for you or your Rime Ice again, at least not while I live. You have my word.”
“The word of a Volta… how enticing.”
Elma lifted her chin. “It’s all I have.”
“Peace with Rothen.” The assassin tilted his head. “What makes you think I care about that?”
“Because when you spoke of your crown prince…” Elma hesitated, knowing this was a gamble. “There was honesty in your voice. Youdidwant to present my heart to him on a platter. You love your home and don’t want to see it fall to Rothen. You’re not just killing for money. You’re a man of honor and principle. If my advisors hired you, and I believe that they did, you should know it’s because they want a war with Slödava.”
“And you don’t?”
“I don’t.” Elma knelt then, her knees on the bloodstained stone so she could look him in the eye. “I am the only one in the court of Frost who doesn’t thirst for war. I want the people of Rothen to be well-fed and to live their lives as they see fit. That’s all.”
“Interesting.” Rune narrowed his eyes. “And what happens after the coronation? You take me into some back alley and finish the job that filthy wolf-man started? There’s nothing to stop you from betraying me.”
Filthy wolf-man. Elma bit back the mad impulse to laugh. “All I have is my word. If I was to kill you, what would I gain?”
He huffed. “A sadistic sense of satisfaction?”
Elma scrambled to her feet again and brushed sawdust from her furs. “I’m the one thing standing between Slödava and a long, drawn-out war with Rothen. If at any moment you doubt me on this, between now and my coronation, cut my throat. Otherwise, accept the deal.”
Rune let out a long and dramatic sigh. He rubbed his chin with blood-stained fingers. At last, he met her stony gaze with icy blue. “After much thought and deliberation, I’ve decided I’ll do it,” he said. “And if for one second I believe you’ve broken your word, or that you’re about to break it, or are in the act of breaking it, I will, as you’ve suggested, kill you.” He smiled.
Relief and something like excited, fizzing fear raced through Elma’s veins. “Deal,” she said and summoned the guards to release her assassin.
Eleven
“You cannot be serious,” Godwin said for what seemed like the hundredth time that evening, each with increasing desperation. After Elma announced her decision to take the assassin on as her personal bodyguard, she’d been met with outrage and protests from the advisors and icy disapproval from Luca. Through it all she held her head high, never bending. She would have her bodyguard, and no one had the power to stop her.
She had gone straight to the citadel from the arena, her uncle and advisors in tow, to draw up the necessary paperwork. A Slödavan assassin could not simply be allowed to wander the citadel as he pleased; a contract must be written. Elma dictated, and one of her father’s scribes — her scribe now, she must remember — had drawn it up.
Only a few hours had passed since her meeting with Rune in the arena, but it felt as if days had gone by. Weeks. Everything seemed different now. Her advisors no longer gave her comfort but hovered at her back like shadows. And Rune… he was something else altogether.
Sighing, Elma looked up from the pile of parchments spread out before her on the desk. Her father’s old study had been the perfect place for her to finalize the paperwork. As long as everything was legal and above board, no one could fault her.
“You can see very well that Iamserious,” she said. “You read the document yourself. Signed and stamped it. What more do you need?”
“I need you to remember who you are,” Godwin said, bracing his hands on the desk until his eyes were level with Elma’s. “Whatever madness has overtaken you, whatever infatuation…”
Elma raised her brows. “I’m choosing to ignore that insult. This is about my safety. The assassin has agreed to protect me until I’m officially crowned, and then you can do whatever you like to him. I saw him in the arena. He’s too talented a fighter to throw away like that. And better he be on my side than not.”
“He’ll kill you in your sleep.” Godwin’s brows were deeply furrowed, the lines of his face tight. He couldn’t understand, Elma knew. She imagined what she must look like to him, a young woman on the cusp of power, throwing her lot in with the very man who had tried to kill her. Twice.
“I made a personal pact with him,” she replied coolly. “You needn’t know the details, but I trust he won’t betray me. Not unless I betray him first.” She set down her quill and slid the parchment across the desk. “Read the official terms again, if you must. The Slödavan assassin has sworn an oath to protect the Queen of Rothen, and so on, to be her official bodyguard, given leave to make such decisions as would affect the queen’s safety, and so on, and so forth. Yousignedit.”
“I know I did,” said Godwin, shaking his head. “I seem to remember you ordering me to.”
