How had Sebastian grown up with this much hate and cruelty aimed at him? How had he survived Jacob and found the strength to be the kind, protective boy she knew him to be?
It hurt to breathe. Hurt to swallow against the awful pressure of his palm. She did her best to make the pain a distant second to the purpose that burned within her, and met his gaze as he snarled, “I can hurt you. I can make you bleed. I can give you so much pain, you’ll be begging for death instead. Sebastian knows all about that.”
“I know.” She pushed the words past the constriction of her throat.
“I have all the power here, and I’m happy to demonstrate that if you need reminding.” His free hand reached for his whip, and Ari keep her eyes steadily on his. With a quick snap of his wrist, he flicked the whip beside her with a sharp crack that made her flinch. He leaned closer. “Still think you’re too good for me?”
“No, but Teague does,” she whispered.
His grip on her neck tightened, and she choked, but then he released her and stood. Before she could draw a shaky breath of relief, he moved behind her, the whip extended like a snake eager to sink its fangs into her skin.
“If Teague thought you were better than me, he’d have me chained to a wall and not you.” His voice shook with anger. “I’m going to enjoy teaching you to hold your tongue.”
“If Teague values you so much, then why is Sebastian his collector here and not you?” She rushed the words, but, stars help her, he was raising the whip, and she was already braced for the terrible bite of agony it would bring.
There was a pause, and bitterness tinged his voice when he spoke. “Boy made a contract. Can’t do anything about that. He’ll fail at it sooner or later. That boy never did have his head where it should be. Me, though, I follow orders. Every time. Which means I can hurt you, Princess, as long as I don’t kill you.”
“You’ll only prove to Teague that he was right to call you a blunt instrument and that Sebastian is the finely balanced sword. It’s obvious Teague thinks the sword is what he needs. I think you should prove him wrong.” And, stars, please let this work because if it didn’t, Ari had nothing else to try against him.
He grunted, and then he was crouched behind her, his knee digging into her back. In seconds, he had the whip wrapped around her throat. She grabbed for it, pulling against his brute strength. The whip didn’t loosen.
He spoke softly beside her ear. “Of course you want me to prove him wrong. You think I’m stupid? You just don’t want the whipping you deserve for running your mouth.”
Her voice was a harsh rasp as she struggled to speak around the slowly tightening leather cord. “I don’t want Sebastian to be the collector anymore, and I know how to make Teague see that you’re the better choice.”
“Is that so?” He sounded mocking.
“Yes.” Probably. As long as nobody had gone through the parchment on the little desk she used in the study Teague had given her.
“And how would a chained-up princess know a thing about collecting for Teague?” He still sounded mocking, but the whip loosened around her throat.
“Because for the last month, I’ve been managing his accounts in Kosim Thalas, figuring out how to cut down his overhead in Balavata, and organizing connections for him with people in five other kingdoms. He’s expanding his business, and that means he’ll need to travel to those kingdoms to set up networks and put collectors in place.”
“He already knows he can send me to another kingdom.” The whip pulled, burning against her skin.
“But Kosim Thalas is the seat of his growing empire, and somebody has to rule over it in his absence. That someone will be Sebastian—”
Jacob cursed. “Taught that boy everything he knows, and he thinks he can just bypass me?”
“Sebastian doesn’t think that.” Stars, was he really this blind? “Teague thinks that. Change Teague’s mind, and you will be the one to rule Kosim Thalas in his stead. Second in command over Teague’s multikingdom empire.”
“And why would you want to help me take that from Sebastian?”
Because Sebastian didn’t want it in the first place. And because if Jacob thought she was helping him, he might help her. She’d love to be unchained from the wall and allowed to cook a whole raft of bacon, but at this point she’d settle for a privy bucket and a piece of dry toast.
“Sebastian can’t further Teague’s business interests much longer.” He really couldn’t. She’d seen it in his eyes before he’d set out to fulfill Teague’s list that morning. “You can seize the opportunity to be a proactive leader, or you can keep behaving like the blunt instrument who follows orders but doesn’t know how to give them.”
The whip slithered off her throat, and she reached for the raw, tender skin as she said, “Right now, Sebastian is collecting today’s debts, but I know what’s coming due next week. Teague would be happy to have those collected early. And you know Teague’s network of employees. You could handpick a team for him to take into each additional kingdom. Someone to handle theft—”
“Procurement.”
“Whatever. Someone to handle enforcing—”
“I know what roles need to be filled.” He stood and began pacing the floor beside her. “I just don’t know if you should be trusted.”
If Ari should be trusted? That was pretty hard to stomach coming from the man who’d abused his son and helped kill Cleo.
The anger within her flared, a hard, brilliant heat that filled her with visions of grabbing the whip from his hand and using it on him instead. When he turned to face her, she smoothed out her expression and tried to keep her fury out of her eyes.
“If the information I give you proves false, you’ll know within the hour,” she said, and hoped desperately that old, ailing Maarit hadn’t taken it upon herself to do something totally out of character and clean Ari’s study. “You’ll need to avoid the housekeeper, though.”
“That old woman?” He laughed unpleasantly. “Teague sent his carriage back to take her to the palace for the trade summit.”
“More likely so the palace physician could try to coax a few more years out of her. Still, be careful. She’s sneaky, and she has a way of showing up when you least expect her. Strange that a man like Teague is so devoted to a human, isn’t it?” she asked because maybe Jacob knew something that could help her. She remembered the way Maarit sometimes smelled like the fae magic in the tea she’d given Ari. The way she sometimes seemed to move faster than she should be able to move. Maybe Maarit was fae. Maybe she was Teague’s mother. Ari shuddered at the thought. Or if Maarit was human, she’d been the only one in Súndraille to gain his complete trust. Either way, she was adding “get Teague’s secrets from Maarit” to her short list of ideas for how to take down Teague.