Page 33 of The Omega Thief

“Would you want to talk to her about your sex life?” Attiker pointed out.

Raz groaned. “No, not anymore.”

Attiker chuckled. “Anymore?”

“I used to spend the summers at our house in Crossgates. Both Grandmother and Shemar used to accompany me, and…let’s just say they weren’t shy.”

Attiker fell silent. He wanted to ask what they were supposed to be doing? How long was Raz going to let this go on for, and when it did end, how would he survive?

Attiker shocked himself at that thought. Survive? Even if he was better suited to surviving in any environment other than the one he was currently in, that was exactly what Attiker had been doing all his life.Surviving. He glanced back at the prince. Maybe it wasn’t going to be about surviving his living conditions. Maybe it was about surviving a person?

Why was he even still here?

“I wondered if you were hungry? I thought we could eat, and I could tell you a little of palace life and maybe discuss your role?”

“You’re giving me a job?” Attiker didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He couldn’t imagine anything he could do around here.

Raz took his hand, but before they got a chance to move, the end door opened, and Thakeray hurried in. He waited until the guard had closed the door behind him before striding forward and bowing his head to them both. “Sire, I have urgent news.” He glanced awkwardly at Attiker, and Attiker pulled his hand away, meaning to leave them to it, but Raz caught it again.

“Speak freely.”

Thakeray nodded. “The housekeeper was cleaning the guest quarters in the west wing ready for the ball, sire, and they found the tailor’s apprentice, Azrael.”

“Hiding?” Raz exclaimed.

“No, sire, dead. He’d been badly beaten, and then his throat had been slit.”

Chapter fifteen

ItwasRaz’sturnthis time to pull his hand away, and Attiker’s turn to stop him. “I’m coming with you,” Attiker said implacably, and Raz nodded. They both walked to the door, and then Attiker reluctantly let go. He was pretty sure walking hand in hand with the prince in public wasn’t regular palace etiquette.

It was at least enough to stop him from questioning his sanity for the moment.

Attiker recognized the way they were heading this time, and he didn’t comment as four guards fell into step at either side of them. They walked through some double doors and into what was clearly a currently empty guest area. The pictures were all landscapes, and there were no guards on any of the suite doors. They continued to the end, where a couple of soldiers and a maid stood. The maid had obviously been crying, and there was an older woman standing next to her. If the number of keys fastened to a chain on her belt was anything to go by, he would say she was a palace housekeeper. They both bowed as Raz drew near. Raz asked a couple of questions, and Attiker was pleased to see he was gentle. He let them both go. It was very possible that Azrael could have been hidden in here for days, as they said the last time this room was cleaned was just after the honor weekend.

Raz dismissed the guards to wait outside and walked in with Thakeray. Attiker followed them.

Attiker watched as Laronne stood up from where he’d been peering at the body. He inclined his head, and Attiker was surprised to see he obviously included Attiker in that show of deference. “It doesn’t take my skill, Highness, to know he was killed elsewhere and left here.”

Thakeray grunted his agreement, but Attiker could have told them that from the amount of blood under the body, or the lack of it. Attiker couldn’t help curling his nose in disgust at the smell. Even though he normally had a very strong stomach, it was particularly foul. He admired Thakeray and Laronne for not seeming to be affected. He couldn’t tell with Raz, as his face was fixed in a blank mask.

Attiker thought hard as he listened to the other three discuss who he could’ve been involved with that might have caused his death. Thakeray obviously knew about the note.

“It didn’t work, though,” Attiker said, and they all three turned to him. “I’m still here. We know he arranged to get me to meet Eryken, but we still don’t know if he was innocent of what happened to me.” Attiker chewed his lip. “If he was killed just after I was taken, then this was done to silence him, not to punish him for somehow failing to ensure I was a way to control Raz.” He flushed a little. “Sorry, Your Highness.”

But Raz didn’t seem upset that he’d called him by not only his given name, but a shortened version of it.

“Agreed,” Thakeray said. “This was definitely to silence him.” Attiker looked at Raz, knowing he wasn’t going to like what he was about to suggest.

“You need to let me go into the city.” He sighed as Raz swore. “It’s the only way I’m going to find anything out. We need Eryken to approach me again.”

“I can follow in disguise,” Thakeray said, clearly agreeing with him.

“Absolutely not. I forbid it,” Raz bit out.

Attiker didn’t react to that, even though it might have been deserved, because a small part of him was thrilled that someone cared. It had been a long time. Attiker stepped up to his prince. “It’s the only way,” he reasoned. “If they got into the palace, who’s to say they don’t have someone else here already? I could be in just as much danger here.” He didn’t want to saymore. After the debacle with Grape, he hardly had a good track record, but he knew the city and all its hiding places. He didn’t know the palace.

“There isn’t anything else I can tell you, Your Highness,” Laronne said. “There are some tests I can run to check the trace of poisons, but it’s fairly obvious how he met his death.”

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