Page 6 of Claiming Sarah

When we reached his office, he allowed me to enter first. The room was decorated much like the rest of his home. Sparse and tidy. There were books on the shelved walls and plenty of light to read by. Two padded benches, both overstuffed and black. A low dark wooden table sat between them.

As I glanced around, I heard the threatening whir of a Doxunon hand cannon buzz behind me, setting me on edge. “Volatile—”

“Why are you here, Cozz?” he demanded, stopping me before I could turn around and face him.

I exhaled a breath and kept my tone even. “To visit an old friend of the Ladrangs.”

He scoffed. “You mean to murder me?” he asked.

An involuntary laugh escaped me. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I know Deacon Ladrang is looking for payback over his father’s execution—”

“I’m going to turn around now, if you don’t mind.”

“Know that I have a Doxunon aimed right at your heart when you do. Do not move too fast. These things have a hair trigger.”

Slowly, I turned around. His hand cannon was a model I had never seen, but that didn’t surprise me. Volatile had a known taste for the finer things.

I kept a smile plastered on my face to look less threatening. “Do you think I’m here to attack you or something?”

“You’re Deacon’s pet, his second-in-command. You murdered my niece, Silence Bateen. I assume I am next on Deacon’s Bateen hit list, only I won’t go so easily as a pregnant woman in a prison cell." He cocked his hand cannon. "You mangy bastard. Did you get off on it? Was it fun for—”

“Okay, I’m gonna need you to stop right there, Volatile,” I said, cutting him off. “You are misinformed about a lot of things, and what you’re saying about Silence is just the start of it.”

He growled, “I’m not misinformed about anything. I am Volatile Bateen. I may not live in the palace anymore with my brother, but I know about everything important to my family, and my niece’s murder.”

I braced my hands on my hips and arched a brow. “If Silence was so important to your family, then why wasIthe one who rescued her?”

He smacked me across the face with the cannon, making me see spots. But I had seen it coming, flinched right so it didn’t hit as hard, and stayed on my feet. But fuck, it hurt.

He snarled, “Is that what you call slitting her throat? Arescue?”

I let out an exasperated sigh. “They clearly don’t keep you that informed, Volatile. The body they found wasn’t Silence’s. It was a fake we left behind when we rescued her from the prison her own father locked her up in—”

“You lie!”

“I’m not lying,” I insisted. “And if you didn’t trust me before I got here, then why didn’t you feed me a grape when I arrived? I would have expected a royal like you to follow the custom.”

He rolled his eyes. “Anyone worth their stones knows you can imitate the grape greeting with the right elixirs. Now, what fake body?”

“You know I’m a smuggler, right? That I used to help people escape from the royal prisons?”

“I have heard as much.”

“How do you think I do it?”

He frowned. “I have never thought about such things. I am not a criminal.”

“I have a friend who makes high-quality fake bodies,” I told him. “Thatwas what was left behind at the prison after I helped Silence escape.”

He didn’t lower the cannon, but his mind was elsewhere for a moment. “You just admitted to treason,” he said, though his voice had lost most of its ire.

“I just admitted to helping your niece escape from the royal prison,” I countered. “Whether or not that is treason depends on where your allegiance lies, Volatile, and I am bettingyoudon’t think she should have been locked up, either, by her own father, andyourbrother.”

Something in his eyes softened. “If she is alive, where is she hiding?”

I shook my head. “I’ll take that to my grave, so if you’re going to shoot me for that information, don’t waste our time and do it now.”

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