Page 76 of Prisoner of Steel and Shadow

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Her temperature.”

“Hmm,” she hummed, appraising him.

“What?”

“Brains and brawn. I’m impressed.” She studied him, and he recognized the determined gleam in her eyes. She was puzzling things out in her mind. “Calix is the one you were coming after. That’s the real reason you don’t suspect him.”

“Let’s just say I have a good idea what he’s up to, and it does not involve Marin.”

“I see. And how did you come about this information?”

“Does it matter?”

“Consider it professional curiosity.”

Ronan weighed his words carefully, settling on a neutral, “Dovina isn’t the only one who knows how to come by sensitive information.”

Thanks to Bast—who’d spent a rigorous afternoon with the cleaning girl responsible for Calix’s lodgings—he’d found out the details of the man’s task before setting foot in the palace. The poisoner needed to find Dmitri’s flask and leave it in the High Lord’s private suite. Ronan’s plan had been to relieve Calix of the item before he could plant it without the man ever being the wiser. Now it seemed Ronan would have to recover it from Erebos’s room and deliver the flask along with the brooch to Dmitri. Not impossible, but significantly more complicated.

Unless Shadow could sneak him up there.

He had a feeling she just might if he played his cards right.

She continued to study him but thankfully didn’t press him further for information they both knew he couldn’t give her. “I see,” she said simply, walking away.

“Are you just going to leave her here?” Ronan asked, tipping his head toward Marin’s body.

“She’s not our problem.”

“Fair enough.”

Ronan was sure there were plenty of people who would be appalled by her cavalier dismissal, but he wasn’t one of them. He’d been touched by death too many times to be precious about it. Unless the corpse belonged to one of the handful of people he cared about, it didn’t much affect him. Shadow, given her profession, must feel the same way. To them, the discovery of the body was just another day at work. It just came with the territory. Truth be told, he was grateful they didn’t have to dispose of it. Now they were free to enjoy the rest of the evening’s festivities.

Just as soon as he completed the second part of his task, that was.

As if she could sense the direction of his thoughts, Shadow smirked and toyed with the ribbons of her mask. “I saw you, you know. For as fancy as your magic is, Butcher, it’s not very subtle.”

Ronan chuckled. “I could have done more to hide what I was up to, but I was in a hurry.”

“You’re lucky I was the one who caught you. According to the rules...”

Warmth bloomed beneath his ribs as she teased him. He was equal parts pleased and embarrassed to learn she’d been keeping such a close eye on him. Pleased because despite all her protests and the walls she tried to erect between them, she couldn’t stay away. Embarrassed because he should have sensed the tail straight away. He couldn’t afford to be so careless.

Hope ignited within him, burning through his veins and filling him with renewed purpose. Bast was wrong. He hadn’t turned her off and ruined his chances; he’dscaredher off. Shadow was afraid of what she felt around him, but not so afraid that it outweighed her curiosity.

She wanted him.

The relief Ronan felt at those words, at the proof of them as she continued to steal quick glances up at him and offer small, flirty smiles.

It was working.

If he just kept chiseling away, eventually he would break through the last of her defenses. It wouldn’t be long now. He could feel the truth of it in his bones.

Hewouldwin.

And she... she would be his.

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