Page 22 of The Curse of Gods (The Curse of Saints #3)

“She’s late,” Liam drawled from his place by the door. Will could hear the impatience thick in the Persi’s voice, could see it reflected in the pointed look he gave to the clock on the mantle of the faux fireplace.

As if Will needed the reminder. As if he hadn’t counted every damn second they sat in this godsforsaken place, waiting .

It stretched his skin tight, anxiety choking his breath as if he’d been subjected to his own favored form of sensation mimicking.

Waiting gave his mind too much time to conjure every horrible thing that could be happening to Aya as he stood still, every wretched suffering he could not prevent from happening to her because he was stuck waiting .

He loathed it.

Even still, he forced his body to remain relaxed against the chaise as he followed Liam’s gaze to the clock.

“Charles said she liked to make him wait,” he remarked, his voice betraying none of the razor-sharp impatience unfurling in his gut.

“How long until we assume he went to the guards?” Aidon asked. He’d finally caved and positioned himself on the end of the bed, ignoring Liam’s pointed smirk when he did so.

Better for them if Dauphine did mistake him for a courtesan, truly.

Will opened his mouth to respond, but Liam held up a hand, his eyes narrowing as he pressed an ear against the wall.

Someone was coming.

Will shifted, planting his feet firmly on the floor. There was a long moment of silence before the handle jiggled and the door flew open with such gusto, it nearly collided against Liam.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” a sultry voice crooned.

Dauphine Adair sauntered into the room, green eyes bright and eager, red hair wild with curls, every bit the hurricane Will remembered.

She’d chosen an understated look today—brown leather britches paired with a tan vest that fastened at her sternum, showing off the swell of her breasts and the taut, tanned skin of her stomach—but the hoops of gold in her ears spoke to her wealth.

Her eyes fell to Aidon first, flaring with surprise. It was enough of a distraction that she didn’t register the way the door clicked shut behind her. Instead, her lips twitched into an interested smirk before her gaze swept the room and landed on Will.

Dauphine froze.

She whirled back to the door, but Will was on his feet in the next instant, his knife flinging across the room and slamming into the crack between the door and its frame with unerring precision.

“Stay awhile, Dauphine,” he requested.

She stilled, one hand still outstretched toward the handle. Slowly, she lowered her arm, her shoulders shaking as she began to laugh.

“Gods above,” the mercenary chuckled as she turned back to him. “I always did like you, Enforcer.” She cut a glance to Liam, who stood with his feet braced, one hand on the pommel of his sword, as if just waiting to drive it into her heart.

“Liam,” she greeted with a saccharine smile.

“Dauphine.” Her name sounded like a curse falling from his lips.

“Still bitter about the Squal, I see.”

She stepped away from the door, her steps measured and sure as she sauntered into the center of the room. “Well this is certainly a surprise.” Her gaze dragged down Will pointedly. “Tell me, do I finally get the pleasure of the Dark Prince of Dunmeaden in my bed?”

Will didn’t deign to encourage her. Not that it mattered. Because in the next breath, Dauphine was pivoting to where Aidon still sat, his brow furrowed as he assessed her.

“I can’t say the Enforcer holds my interest, but you …” she took a pointed step toward Aidon. “You could convince me.” The king remained unmoved, even as Dauphine cocked her head and said, “Care to introduce yourself, handsome?”

“I prefer a bit of mystery,” Aidon answered lightly, his arms bracing across his chest as he met the mercenary’s stare.

The corner of her lips quirked—an acceptance of a challenge.

“I don’t imagine you’re afforded much of that are you, Your Majesty?”

Aidon’s face didn’t show a single sign of surprise. They’d prepared for this—that Dauphine, with her connections across kingdoms, might recognize him, and that she would use such information to unsettle them.

So they lured her in instead.

“Unfortunately,” Will interjected, pulling the mercenary’s attention back to him, “we’re not here for such pleasantries.” His gaze flicked to Aidon, who was still sizing the woman up. “Though if he wants to repay you in such a way, I certainly won’t stand in his way.”

Aidon looked at him with disdain while Liam snorted a laugh. Dauphine grinned, but it was sharp, a threatening slash of white that was more predatory than kind.

“And what would one be repaying me for , exactly?” she asked before holding up a hand.

“Wait. Let me guess. A missing king. A treasonous Enforcer.” She flicked an unimpressed look to Liam.

“ You. ” She made a show of pretending to think, a finger tapping at her chin.

“You’re seeking refuge in the Midlands. You want me to make sure your new queen doesn’t get her hands on you. ”

Will had forgotten how irksome she could be. Never one to just come out with it—no, it was always some elaborate cat-and-mouse game.

He did not have time for it.

Yet it didn’t surprise him that she knew of the price on his head. She was too tied to Mathias to not be apprised of what was happening in Tala.

“Oh, Dauphine,” Will sighed as he settled back on the chaise. “You’re not usually so far off base.” Dauphine’s blink was her only sign of surprise, but Will didn’t give her a moment longer to process it. “We need a team for an assignment.”

“You can’t afford me,” she remarked.

Will bit back a scoff. “Nor do I want you,” he admitted. “We’ll take Zeluus, though. And Anima who prefer the death-bringer side of their affinity.”

“Have something against Caeli, do you?” Dauphine asked. A flutter of air blew across the room with the flick of her wrist.

“On the contrary. My trust in you simply doesn’t extend further than assembling a team for me.”

“I’m a mercenary, William,” Dauphine drawled, “not a weapons dealer.”

At least she had the decency to admit Visya were weapons.

“Don’t pretend you aren’t involved in the fighting rings, Dauphine,” Will insisted. “I know for a fact the Anima who won in Dunmeaden last year was indebted to you.”

He’d cheated, too. Will could have reported it, but he’d had no reason to. He’d betted on him as soon as he caught wind Dauphine was his sponsor.

“Anima are banned from the fighting rings,” Liam muttered from the door.

“A technicality,” Dauphine dismissed with a wave of her hand.

“We’ll pay you handsomely,” Will assured her, shooting Liam a pointed look as he went to argue with her. They did not have time for this.

Dauphine grinned. “As handsomely as Queen Nyra would pay if I were to deliver you to her door?”

This time, Will could not mask his reaction. His eyes narrowed, and Dauphine latched onto his surprise like a snake zeroing in on its kill. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know, Enforcer. You’re a wanted man in the Midlands, too.”

Will swallowed. So Hyacinth’s orders had reached the Midlands queen. He had hoped Nyra would be too focused on her own affairs to lend aid to Hyacinth’s hunt.

“Hyacinth’s claims are grossly—”

“Nyra doesn’t care about the accusations of your new pious queen,” Dauphine interrupted with a scoff. “In fact, capturing you would thwart the very people she’s sworn to let suffer.”

There was a sharpness to her words that Will hadn’t expected, and from the way Aidon leaned forward, his arms bracing on his knees, Will knew he’d heard it, too.

“The Midlands and Tala have long been allies,” Aidon remarked quietly.

“Well met, Your Majesty,” Dauphine retorted. “And yet Tala stood by when Kakos rained the hells down on Sitya. You were a general once, yes? Tell me, is that typical protocol when assisting an ally?”

“The Midlands closed their borders,” Liam noted. He stayed guarding the door, but Will could see the way his body leaned in ever so slightly, as if he, too, wanted to force Dauphine to make her point.

“The Midlands,” Dauphine bit out, “called for aid, and that call went ignored .”

Will frowned at the mercenary. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes still bright, but now with anger. He hadn’t known Gianna had ignored their calls for aid. It shouldn’t surprise him.

“Gianna let Kakos march on her own people,” Will argued. “She alone is to blame.”

“Tell that to the families of the thousands who died in Sitya,” Dauphine hissed.

She had a point. The damage was already done. Tala had abandoned the Midlands, and it did not matter who had ordered it. And yet…

“Gianna let chaos unfold in the hopes that the Second Saint would open the veil and call down the gods to enact vengeance for her. She was pious to a fault. She turned her back on her own people, Dauphine,” Will pressed. “Innocent Talans should not be punished for it.”

“Innocent Midlandians shouldn’t have been either,” Dauphine retorted

“What do you care?” he asked, his frown deepening. “The only person you’re loyal to is the highest bidder.”

It was why he’d sought her out, after all. There was value in her lack of allegiance. She had the broadest pick of criminals and thieves and warriors, and no that dictated where where she sent them.

A muscle feathered in her narrow jaw, as if she were swallowing her ire. “True,” she admitted. “And it just so happens Nyra will pay more than you could afford.”

“How much is Nyra’s bounty?” Will asked.

Dauphine clucked her tongue. “A lady never kisses and tells.”

“I’ll double it.”

“You don’t even know the price.”

“I don’t care,” Will insisted. “My father has a fortune.” And he would steal every last copper of it if it meant getting the resources he needed to get to Aya. “Besides,” he added, nodding toward Aidon, “he’s a king.”

“She’s not getting a dime of Trahir’s money,” Aidon warned.

“A shame,” Dauphine sighed. “Your uncle never hesitated to offer his gold.”

Aidon’s hand curled into a fist on his thigh, but it was not enough to stop the fire that wreathed itself around his hand.

“Aidon,” Will warned.

Dauphine’s face lit with glee. “So the rumors are true,” she whistled. “Impressive, Incend King.”

“Enough,” Will cut in. “We don’t have time for this.”

“It’s rude to rush someone when you’re asking them for a favor, Enforcer,” she chided. “All that time under your queen’s skirts and you didn’t learn any manners?”

Aidon’s fire vanished as he stood and reached for his sword. “Careful, merc.” He kept his voice light, friendly even, as he delivered the threat.

“Did I offend your delicate sensibilities, Your Majesty? Does talk of pleasuring a woman bother you?”

“You demeaning my friend bothers me. Especially when it’s in regards to that treasonous bitch.”

There was something moving about Aidon’s fierce defense, but Will couldn’t examine it, not now. Besides, Aidon followed it with an arched brow as he added, “I prefer action over talk, anyway. Far less dull.”

Dauphine tossed a grin over her shoulder at Will. “I like him.”

“Lovely,” Will growled. “Then perhaps you’ll be inclined to save his life.”

The mercenary pursed her lips in consideration. “What is this crew for, exactly? You don’t need them to hide you. I could do that easily enough.”

Will wet his lips before delivering his ask. “We need passage into Kakos.”

His words settled into the silence that followed. It was pointed, and heavy, but Will let it stretch on until Dauphine finally said, “Don’t tell me you’re going to try to kill the Dark Saint. Are you truly that desperate to clear your name?”

“Surely you don’t believe idle gossip, Dauphine,” Will remarked.

“Gossip, no. But I do believe the accounts coming from Sitya. An entire group of prisoners annihilated, not even the children spared.”

Will bit back his defense of Aya. It did not matter what Dauphine thought his motives were. If her crew could get him into Kakos, he didn’t care if she thought him motivated by selfish gain.

Perhaps, in some ways, he was.

Dauphine took a step closer to him, her gaze calculating as it roved across his face.

“Oh, this is rich,” she said softly, her eyes widening in recognition. “You’re not out to kill her. You’re trying to save her.”

Seven hells, desperation had rendered him far too easy to read. He’d had a lifetime of hiding his love for Aya, but now…

Now it was written in every hopeless bargain he struck.

“What makes her so special, Enforcer?”

“What do you care about our motivations?” Will asked instead. “It’s never been a prerequisite.” His patience, already worn thin, had vanished. They needed her commitment, or they needed to leave before she became a further liability.

There was, however, one final card to play.

Will knew Dauphine to be many things: greedy, headstrong, slippery. She changed allegiances with the tide, placed her faith not in a country or god, but in herself. She was loyal to no cause, no country, no one .

Except…

“You owe me, Dauphine,” Will reminded her quietly.

Pointedly.

Dauphine went utterly still. He wondered if she was recalling the way the blood had poured from the gash in his cheek; the way Suja had tried to heal him on the floor of that fighting ring, too afraid to move him, lest he die when she tried.

The mercenary cleared her throat.

“Coin is the greatest motivator of them all,” she finally remarked, her bravado forced in a way it hadn’t been before. “Fine. I will arrange a team. But it will take some time.”

They didn’t have time. But Will forced himself to breathe—to wait.

“There’s a safe house on the outskirts of the city. If you can get yourselves there without attracting the attention of the Midland guards who are more than eager to enact their vengeance on the kingdom that betrayed them…well, then you can leave the rest to me.”

Aidon shook his head. “How can we trust you won’t tip off the guards yourself?”

Dauphine shrugged. “You can’t.”