Page 84 of Wicked Enemy

At last, three straight-backed figures strode out from the mass of attacking mages.

The strangest sense of relief washed over me as Aaron Reyes, Connor Bale, and Wilhelm Stenborg took up position at the front of their armies and touched their palms together.

Before they could hurl their magic at us, I raised my voice and called, “I want to make a deal.”

Everyone, both from my side and theirs, whipped their heads around to stare at me. They all knew that I never made deals in situations like these. I was too proud, too arrogant, for that. But right now, I was out of options.

The noise of battle died down as the opposing armies stopped attacking and instead glanced towards their leaders. From across the wet stone street, the three of them watched me. The silence around us suddenly felt deafening.

“What was that?” Aaron called at last.

“I want to make a deal,” I repeated.

“A deal, huh?” Connor said with a fucking smirk on his face.

I bit down the flash of anger. “Yes. We end this battle right now, and—”

They laughed. And their entire army laughed with them. Beside me, I could feel my people casting confused glances at me, but none of them said anything.

“End this battle, huh?” Connor scoffed. “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

I squeezed my hand into a fist and tried to locate the nonexistent stores of patience that I reserved for snickering fools. Since I was fresh out of that, I flexed my fingers and forced out a long breath through my nose instead.

“So would you,” I retorted, and flicked a hand towards the dead mages who littered the ground around them. “Unless you want to lose even more of your skilled battle mages. When your little alliance ends, you’ll need them in order to fight each other, after all.”

Sharp glints appeared in their eyes as they all flicked a quick glance at each other. Dark mage alliances never lasted long, so they knew that I was right. I pressed on while I still had the advantage.

“Here’s the deal I’m proposing,” I began. “We end this battle right now, and tomorrow, I will meet you alone.”

Several of my people sucked in sharp breaths. Tyler whipped around to stare at me in shock, but I ignored him.

“Where?” Wilhelm said in his grating voice.

“That old building on Fire Street. It’s not on my territory, and it’s not on any of your territories either, so none of you can screw each other over.”

“What does this deal entail, exactly?” Aaron said, and narrowed his eyes at me in suspicion.

“You back off and stop killing my people.” I raised my chin. “And in exchange, I will come alone to meet you in that building tomorrow. And then you can do whatever you want.”

“No!” Chris blurted out from my right. Horror filled his blue eyes as he stared at me. “Sir, you can’t—”

I held up a hand to silence him and called, “So, do we have a deal?”

The expressions on their faces made it clear that they would thoroughly enjoy having me alone and outnumbered inside a building made of wood where they could take their time tormenting me before killing me.

“Why tomorrow?” Aaron asked. Spreading his arms, he indicated the army around him. “Why not right now?”

“Because I need to make one more deal first.”

A beat of silence. Then realization blew across their faces.

“The worldwalker,” Wilhelm said.

“Yes. As you know, he is slaughtering my people in order to get what he wants, and I need to get him to stop. He has set up a meeting tomorrow. I need to meet him and make that deal with him before I meet you, since… well…” I shrugged.

Sharp grins spread across their faces as they no doubt filled in that sentence on their own with whatever fate they had planned for me inside that house.

“How do we know that this isn’t some kind of trap?” Aaron asked, that shrewd glint still in his dark eyes. “I know that you’re famous for always keeping your word, but there’s nothing stopping you from lying right now.”

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