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Chapter Twenty Seven

T he bullet to her shoulder had grazed her collarbone and embedded itself in her scapula. Azzouan’s best surgeon dug it out, but Lottie only lasted an hour post-op before she tried to sneak out. Ace caught her halfway down the corridor trailing an IV line and flashing her arse in a paper gown.

“You’re still dozy, you silly bitch,” she said affectionately.

“You lost a lot of blood and you’ve just had a two hour operation.

You’re not going anywhere.” She simply picked Lottie up and carried her back to bed.

“The Qasira is fine,” she added when Lottie protested.

She dragged her chair in front of the door and sat in it with her arms folded.

A rather loud hour followed and Ace gave her a quality ticking off.

She let Bili in after the first round and she let rip too.

Lottie was, apparently, reckless, stupid, bloody lucky and in a shit tonne of trouble.

There were a lot of things Lottie would have liked to say to that, but Ace called a nurse and they dialed up her painkillers.

The next thing Lottie knew it was a brand new day, there was a princess sitting at the end of her bed and she did actually feel better.

Zynara’s smile was like the sunrise.

“I can’t stay,” she said. She brushed Lottie’s hair back from her forehead and pulled a face.

“The summit wraps up today. I have to face the world. But I needed to see you. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you yesterday.

Sami shouted at me and my father for quite a while.

” She dropped a soft, gentle, infinitely loving kiss on Lottie’s forehead and their entire future together was in the brush of her lips.

“No trying to escape,” she whispered. “The surgeon said you were lucky but you’re under observation with antibiotics and pain management for another twenty four hours.

I’m not going to lose you. Try to be good for once.

” Lottie tried to complain and she raised an eyebrow. “Do as you are told.”

She chuckled when Lottie’s face flushed so hard she got dizzy. Lottie didn’t know where to look. Zynara’s eyes were everything but holding them was hard and she didn’t need to be staring at her lover’s tits when she wasn’t sure where she stood or what was going on. She’d fired a rocket at a prince—

“Hey.” Zynara slipped two fingers under her chin and tipped it up. Her fingers were warm. Something fizzed the length of Lottie’s spine at the thought of them. She may have whimpered, but it was a tiny sound that came out more worried than lustful. “What’s going on in there?” Zynara murmured.

“Public place,” Lottie whispered. “Not sure I should say all the things I’m currently thinking out loud.”

Zynara smirked but her eyes were soft. “But what are you worried about? It’s over, zin dyali . We’re safe. We won.”

“It was never a game.” It hadn’t been since she first saw her. She’d been so stupid to think it was. “It’s real. I killed your brother.”

Rich, deep and utterly gorgeous brown eyes watched hers for a long moment, and then Zynara leaned in and put her lips to Lottie’s ear. Her breath hushed down Lottie’s throat and every inch of her skin crinkled. This woman owned her, and always would.

“We’re all guilty,” she whispered. “You, me and my father. It’s another secret, but one that will bind us forever.” She pulled back and fixed Lottie on her gaze again. “Will you be okay with that?”

Lottie nodded, tiny, vigorous, desperate little nods—and she didn’t even care that Zynara was laughing at her again.

“Finally figured out how to shut you up.” Zynara sounded triumphant.

They grinned, stupidly, at each other for a moment.

“I know a better way,” Lottie said. She grabbed the lapel of Zynara’s jacket and pulled her in for a kiss. It was perfect, and in it, every worry and every doubt was soothed away. They were going to be fine.

They were going to be brilliant.

They were going to be so fucking amazing.

Lottie couldn’t wait.

But she did.

Very impatiently.

She watched the summit wrap up while she was still stuck in her hospital bed.

The Q’sar stepped carefully onto the world stage with a new walking stick and no pretense, and nudged his daughter to the fore.

She was extraordinary. It had been the most dramatic eco summit in history, but world-changing deals had been struck, and Ain Zargiers was still leading the world into a bright, safe future.

A few of Malik’s flunkeys tried to make trouble. They screeched about the oil refinery and eco-terrorists but the Q’sar shut that down in a second.

“My son killed himself,” he thundered over the media rabble.

“He rigged the refinery to blow thinking he could blame it on militant environmentalists. He intended for it to be a trap—a trap for renewable energy, for progress, a noose around the neck of your childrens’ futures.

But he was not as clever as he wanted to be.

” The Q’sar was very convincing. His regret was barefaced and stark.

The cameras caught the vision, not of a politician angling for points, but of a sad, old man.

Hearts broke for him all around the world.

“My son was misguided. Caught in his own foolish game. He died in the explosion.”

Lottie saw the camera angles shift as the media people behind them joined the dots. Every eye was on Zynara.

“It will be my honour to serve the people of Ain Zargiers as your Q’sar when my father decrees it is time.” She bowed her head, humbly, but her own father bumped their shoulders together.

“It is time,” he said with a loving smile.

Things got crazy after that.

Lottie nearly howled the hospital down with her demands to be released, but Zynara had given her orders. She was Q’sar now too. There wasn’t a soul who was going to disobey her. Nurses gave Lottie particularly smug smiles and tucked her in securely.

Bili and Ace arrived with popcorn and beer and they spent the day watching Zynara dismantle the deals her brother had struck during the summit.

They watched her direct every effort to extinguishing the refinery fire and permanently capping her brother’s oil wells.

She poured an astonishing amount of her personal wealth into infrastructure to repair the interconnectors to Spain and France.

She raced backup battery systems around the continent.

She saved the whole fucking world.

“Job well done, Finch,” Ace said, swigging beer and tilting her chair on its back legs. “Wasn’t sure you had it in you. The Nightingale will be proud.”

“The Nightingale can go to hell,” Lottie muttered.

“Bold call.”

“I mean it. I’m totally done with the Circle after this. I’m out.”

Ace snorted beer. She rocked forward and appeared struck between laughing with derision and glowering dangerously.

She settled for pointing her bottle at Lottie and wiping beer from her mouth with the back of her hand.

“You don’t leave the Circle,” she said. “No one leaves the Circle. What gave you that crazy idea? You serve the Nightingale for life. She’s not going to let you just walk away. ”

Lottie gaped at her. “But—”

“You must have known that, babes,” Bili said. “We signed a contract. Remember?”

“But—”

“Oh, god. She didn’t even read it.” Ace sounded profoundly resigned. “Of course she didn’t. It’s not like Lottie Finch would ever properly prepare for a job.”

“But— but—” Lottie stopped gibbering and pulled herself together.

She was leaving the Circle. That’s all there was to it.

She was in love with the woman who ruled Ain Zargiers, and the Nightingale could take a long walk off a short pier.

“I’m staying in Azzouan,” she declared. “I’m in love with Zynara and Zynara is in love with me.

I’ll fucking tell the Nightingale myself! ”

Ace and Bili stared at her.

“Love!” she insisted. “Yes. Me! And no, it wasn’t just a mission!

It wasn’t just a honey pot. It definitely wasn’t a game.

I love her. Really, really love her. Plus” —she wrinkled her nose— “I might have told her all about the Circle and— I may have revealed the identity of the Nightingale. I mean, she was already friends with Evelyn Knight— I just kind of assumed—”

“For fuck’s sake, Finch.” Ace was already on her feet. She was shaking her head but there was also a smile playing around the corner of her lips. “Your talent for ballsing things up remains unparalleled. Evelyn is arriving to speak with the new Q’sar tonight. Her plane touches down in an hour.”

They all looked at each other.

“Help me get out of here?” Lottie begged. “Please? I need to be there.”

Bili giggled. “The Nightingale is going to kill you. It’s going to be so dull without you, Finch.”

“Pfft. It’s going to be quiet. Peaceful, even.” Ace grinned.

“ Please?!”

Ace went to steal clothes for her and they went tripping and giggling over the rooftops of Azzouan.

They needed Sami’s help to get into the palace.

“I think I’m in as much trouble with Niz as you are with the Nightingale,” he said.

He didn’t appear concerned. He looked as casual as ever.

“She’s furious I didn’t tell her about the Circle, but my office and the Circle, Britain and Ain Zargiers, have always worked together.

If she’d been heir to the throne all this time like she should have been… ” He trailed off and shrugged.

“Probably not an argument that’s going to help you,” Lottie told him.

They barrelled into Zynara’s office.

Evelyn Knight was already there. She stood at the window, frost in a suit by Louis Vuitton. She wore a platinum blonde wig and an expression like judgement day. Her eyes landed on Lottie and took in her stolen scrubs. One eyebrow arched.

“I have to admit you’ve done well, Lottie Finch,” she drawled. “The future Q’sar of Ain Zargiers is quite taken with you. She has pleaded your case quite passionately.”

“I didn’t plead anything, thank you, Evelyn.”