“And you think this is going to buy the girl’s freedom?”
Sebastian shook his head. “I think this is going to get me a job. I no longer work at the palace. I’m not interested in being a runner or in guarding a street boss. I want to be your new Kosim Thalas collector.”
Ari pressed her hands together to keep them from shaking as she stared at Sebastian. He’d stepped back into the world he hated. The world he’d escaped from.
For her.
The panic around her throat eased, though the expression on Teague’s face kept her heart racing in fear.
Teague leaned back on his heels, his thumb feverishly rubbing the pipe as he contemplated Sebastian. “You did all this to apply for a job?”
“Not just any job. The top job. You don’t get a position like that without proving that you’re capable.” Sebastian threw the list onto the table and gestured toward the sack of coins. “I’m capable.”
Teague took a long moment to count the coins and study the list. “It’s all here.” He sounded surprised.
“I’m not interested in double-crossing you.”
“Then you’re a different breed from your brother.” Teague flicked a glance at Sebastian’s face. Sebastian’s expression remained unreadable, though his body took on the wary stillness that said Teague had probed too close to something that mattered deeply.
Ari frowned. What did Sebastian’s brother have to do with Teague?
“I need a job that matches my skill set. Who else is going to hire a boy from east Kosim Thalas who managed to lose his job at the palace?”
“And the fact that this job would put you in close contact with the princess is simply a nice bonus?” Teague asked.
A muscle along Sebastian’s jaw tightened, and Ari heaved a dramatic sigh, grateful and terrified when Teague’s attention immediately swung to her.
“You and Maarit, I swear. Always so suspicious. Why shouldn’t we have the bonus of being with each other? You hold all the power. One word and you end me. What are you afraid we’ll do to you when we know you have that sword hanging over my head?”
Teague smiled slowly. “You really are quite the negotiator.”
“I’m just using logic. It doesn’t hurt you to give Sebastian the job. He’s already done most of it for you, by the looks of it. It strengthens your business.”
“Especially when I now know that if he does something that displeases me, I can punish you, and that will be sufficient punishment for him as well.” Teague’s voice was chilling. “Very well, Sebastian, you are my new Kosim Thalas collector. We will sign an employment contract. You collect every debt that comes due and give me the full amount. If you fail even once, the fast-talking princess will pay the price.”
Sebastian glanced at her, his eyes haunted, and she knew he was feeling the terrible weight of being responsible for her fate. Ari understood all too well how it felt to have the fate of others rest on your decisions, but there was no backing down now. For either of them.
“Agreed,” Sebastian said.
“Excellent.” Teague sat at the table and began packing tobacco into his pipe, his pale fingers working quickly while he stared at Ari. “Now, you and I have some matters to discuss.”
“Do we?” She blinked at him, pressing her trembling hands together beneath the table.
He raised a brow at her, and Ari’s heart thudded heavily against her chest.
Oh, stars, did he already know about Maarit catching her in his study? The creepy monster statue must have told him somehow. She’d have to warn Sebastian about the house the first chance she got. If she survived the conversation with Teague long enough to do so.
Whatever she did, she had to convince him that she wasn’t standing in his way. That she wasn’t trying to keep him from what he wanted. She desperately didn’t want to end up like poor Peder with her throat slit by golden thread magically made from straw.
When she didn’t say anything, Teague snapped his fingers and a thin wisp of flame leaped to life in midair. He leaned forward, put the bowl of his pipe beneath the flame, and puffed a few times until the tobacco caught.
She’d seen him do the same thing a dozen times, and it never got any less creepy.
He took a deep drag and blew a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling. She felt like she had when she’d been the one to accidentally set the gardener’s shed on fire as a girl, and her mother had simply waited her out until the silence became too much for Ari, and she confessed. Her leg bounced up and down, her fingers twisted together and then came apart, and her mouth went dry. She could feel the words swelling in her chest, ready to spill out in a torrent of hasty excuses and desperate explanations.
Sebastian pressed his thigh against hers until her leg stopped moving.
“What have you been doing with yourself while you’ve been here?” Teague asked with implacable expectation in his voice.
Somehow he knew about the study. Maybe Maarit really was fae, and they had some sort of magical mind connection.
Ari needed to spin the situation back to her favor as fast as possible. Keeping her leg pressed against Sebastian’s, she met Teague’s eyes and said, “Most days I’ve been going over your accounts, finding places you can cut out the middlemen and streamline things, or I’ve been borrowing books from your library.” Though all she’d read was the nursery primer, still hoping that somehow Gretel’s hint would pay off with information Ari could actually use against Teague.
“And today?” Teague’s eyes glowed with fury, and Ari’s stomach dropped.
“But today I got sick of Maarit’s awful excuse for cooking. She was kind enough to go to the market to get some things I requested, so I decided I would help her with the housekeeping.”
Warming to the story she was selling, Ari leaned forward and lowered her voice as if worried Maarit, who slept like the dead, would overhear. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that she’s not very capable of keeping up with the housework anymore. The amount of dust on the main level is absurd. It’s like she hasn’t cleaned in a year. It’s nice that you feel a sense of loyalty toward her and want to keep her on staff, but maybe you could put her in charge of a few maids? And also a cook, because, stars know, the stuff she serves is barely edible.”
“So you helped with the housework today?” Teague puffed on his pipe, his gaze unwavering.
Ari met his eyes, her heart pounding, and tried to work a note of contrition into her voice. “I thought I’d at least take care of the dust. I started in the back parlor, and then moved to your study, and then—”
“My study is off-limits.”