Page 86 of With Wing And Claw

Inga barked a mirthless laugh. ‘Your lack of creative thinking is hardly proof of my guilt, is it?’

‘They might not have heard it from any of us?’ Gadyon suggested, his hasty words interrupting Nicanor’s sharp inhale. ‘We did not guard the office door during our meeting, and others were at work in the archives at that moment. Someone might have been listening.’

‘Might have.’ Nicanor rubbed his temple with spidery fingers, visibly bracing himself as he looked up again. ‘The easiest way to remove all doubt would obviously be—’

‘I amnotmaking any bargains,’ Inga spat.

Her voice echoed between the gurgling fountain and the rustling rose trees for a moment, then died away into yet another stretch of silence.

Even without looking at the pink, Naxi-shaped fleck hiding amidst the shrubbery, Thysandra knew exactly what quick, razor-sharp grin would be lying on the demon’s face right now.

‘Well, that’s bloody unfortunate,’ Nicanor was muttering on the bench, ‘because as long as we don’t clear this up …’

‘Don’t pretend you’ll stop suspecting me of foul play even if I bargain for this particular truth,’ Inga bit out, her hands balled into trembling fists. ‘It’s all you fae do, isn’t it? Lies and trickery, and so you assume everyone else must be doing the same. I—’

‘Inga?’ Silas said in his low voice.

She sucked in a shuddering breath. ‘What?’

He considered her for a moment, still unmoving, looking not unlike a male confronted with a feral, hissing cat he wasn’t sure what to do with. And for the first time, the very first time since their meeting on Ilithia, Thysandra heard a fraction of uncertainty in his voice as he slowly said, ‘Would you care to have lunch with me?’

Inga stared at him blankly, shock trumping even her anger for a moment.

‘I’d like to show you some of my research,’ he added, spreading his hands a few inches – almost as if to apologise for the suggestion. ‘You mightfind it … interesting.’

She parted and closed her lips, then let out a high, joyless laugh as she slumped in the grass. Her gaze wandered down to his bargain-covered collarbones, his bargain-covered arms, then back up to his face – all the usual distrust in her eyes, and yet the blunt refusal did not come.

The faintest sound of a giggle emerged from behind the boxwood hedge.

Inga’s breath made an audible escape.

‘Alright.’ She sprung to her feet like a soldier called in for duty, her jaw clenched tight, her pale hair escaping its pins and swaying after her like a hip-length cloak. A last glower at the rest of the group was her only goodbye before she snapped around and marched towards the garden’s exit, not even waiting for Silas to join her. ‘Good fucking luck with your scheming, everyone!’

Silas gave Thysandra half a grimace – a look she interpreted aswe’ll talk later, if I survive for long enough to see you again– and swept out his wings, catching up with his lunch partner halfway to the castle. Neither of them spoke as they walked the rest of the distance side by side; Inga slammed the door behind her as if she wished someone’s neck were caught between it.

Nicanor let out a low, meaningful whistle.

Gadyon looked visibly concerned for the Bargainer’s sanity.

‘I think,’ Thysandra said, in her best, most decisive High Lady’s voice, ‘that that was enough for today’s meeting. I’ll let you know when we’ll next come together.’

Chapter 19

‘Nothing odd about anyone’semotions,’ Naxi merrily reported as they returned to the heart of the castle with a detour through the empty, and therefore safer, academy galleries. Lessons had been paused in the early days of the war, and with more than a few teachers dead and equally as many children left orphaned, they had only been partially resumed. ‘Would have been helpful if one of them had been evilly pleased with themselves! But alas, no such luck.’

Thysandra gave a joyless laugh. ‘So whatdidyou find?’

‘Oh, I’m pretty sure Inga isn’t our leak.’ Naxi gave a wistful sigh. ‘She’s mostly frightened. And—’

‘She might be frightened she’ll be found out,’ Thysandra pointed out.

‘But if it was her, she’d feel guilty, wouldn’t she? She really loves her human friends.’ Naxi rolled her eyes, then shook her curls down her back without slowing down her springy steps. ‘So if she made a mistake and accidentally blathered about the plans to the wrong person, I would expect her to be brimming with self-reproach, which is very much not the case.’

Right.

That was a disconcertingly good point.

‘But the others …’