I came to with a sword’s tip at my throat. It must have just been seconds that passed, because I was still in the Spymaster’s office. The man stood over me with an eyebrow raised, while the two women huddled behind him. Eujia was hunched over, sweating as blood dripped from her wrist, while her twin pressed a hand to her own wound.
“Congratulations, your curse is broken,” the Spymaster said. “Unfortunately for you, your execution is still on the table, if I don’t dispatch you right here and now. However, I have a proposal. I believe it will appeal to you.”
I rested my head back against the soft carpet. “I’m listening.”
“Good. Now that Lady Eujia has kindly broken your curse, you will repay the debt by working for me to investigate those who held your leash. Completely off the books, of course.”
“I’d need to get out of here alive for that.”
“So, you’ll abduct Lady Jesun.”
“What?” Jesun snapped. “How dare you even—”
“Willingly,” the Spymaster added. “The evidence is already there. You only need to guide him out of the city.”
“He murdered Lenan and stabbed me!”
How the hell was the Spymaster going to talk her into this?
“Would you rather the Council believe you allowed him to escape? That you wounded yourself to cover it up?”
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“They’d never believe that!”
“They’ll believe whatever I inform them. Especially if you were so envious of your sister that you were glad the emperor was murdered.”
Both sisters paled. “That’s an outright lie,” Jesun mumbled. “You’d have me executed!”
“I will do what I must. Eujia has witnessed that.”
Eujia rubbed at her bruised wrist. The fucking son of a bitch.
“Jes, please,” she said.
Jesun stammered, then growled. “Fine. But if any of this ever comes to light, you forced me into this.”
The Spymaster smiled down at me. “Are we all in agreement, then?”
I dreaded the idea of trading my leash from one master to another, but he seemed to be something resembling an ally to Eujia, and I owed her my life. If this was the only way I could repay her, then… “Fine. I’ll do it.”
“Excellent.” The blade lifted away from my throat to let me stand, and the Spymaster passed around his desk, digging something out of another drawer. He tossed me my hand. As I tucked it back into its socket with a snap and a painful shock, he opened a cabinet and pulled out my belt, with my sword and knife still sheathed at either side. He tossed that to me as well.
“Do you like hoarding evidence?” I asked.
“Only the potentially useful kind. A couple more things.” He tossed me something else. A hefty coin purse. “You’ll be needing that. There’s a comm device inside. And here.” He came back around the desk and unlatched the prison cuff around my wrist.
I pocketed the little pouch and wrapped the belt around my hips, then turned to Jesun, holding out a hand. I couldn’t help giving a smirk. “Shall we, my lady?”
With a clenched jaw, she grabbed around my wrist, painfully squeezing my bruise. I hid us, then our surroundings flashed again and again, until we were standing to the side of the main road leading into town. Impressive.
We waited until the nearby wagon passed by, then I dropped my power and ripped my arm out of Jesun’s grip.
“You’d better do good work for the Spymaster,” she hissed. “You’d better kill everyone who had anything to do with Lenan’s murder, or I swear I’ll still hunt you down and kill you myself.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me. I’ll hold up my end of the bargain.”
I disappeared from her sight, and she vanished from mine.