Page 10 of Hunted
She sat up taller and I shifted around, preparing to get off her lap, but she held me there with one arm around my waist as she reached past me with the other arm.“Give it here,” she said impatiently.“And it better be important, or I’m going to barbecue you for ruining my rare moment of peace.”
Sanka grunted, and paper rustled as he handed something over to Robin.“From Acacia.She had Josh give me a message while I was checking the wards on his room.I wrote it down so I didn’t mess up the name.”
Robin read whatever he had written down, her posture going rigid and her grip around my middle tightening with every passing second.
“What is it?”I asked, gently prying at her arm until she let up enough to allow me to draw a full breath.“Did she say where the emperor is hiding?”
Robin snorted.Her voice was laced with irritation.“No.The little fool has thegallto make more demands.”A low rumble rolled through her chest.“Oh, how I’ll enjoy the feeling of her bones crunching between my teeth one day.”
Sanka sighed.“She’s demanding we carry out some ‘errands’ for her before she gives us any information about the emperor and his movements,” he explained.
Robin let out another short, low rumble of a growl before she caught herself and cleared her throat.“She thinks she can order me around like one of her puppets.The nerve.”
“Can’t she?”I asked, turning to face Robin.“If you don’t do whatever it is she wants, she’ll withhold information.She could tell the emperor we were the ones who attacked him in the pocket world.Or she’ll take her anger out on Josh.”
Robin gave a disdainful sniff.“And?I’ve got resources working on the emperor’s whereabouts as we speak.Acacia could potentially speed up the search, if she has any real information.But I don’t strictlyneedher.Cooperating with her thus far was simply a means of getting her out of my hair so I didn’t have to worry about her tattling on me before we’re ready to face the emperor.But honestly, if she rats us out, we could easily implicate her in the attack.Wediduse her to get into the pocket world, after all.I doubt the emperor will care that it was against her will.She knows exposing us would be a risk to her own precious hide.”She shrugged, as if that was all there was to it.
She was toying with me.I smacked her arm.“And Josh?”I reminded her sternly.
“Oh, yes.Him,” she drawled, as if she had forgotten all about the real reason she had agreed to Acacia’salliance.“Don’t worry, love.I’m sure Acacia won’t do anythingtooawful to her new slave—she needs him to convey messages and exert her supposed leverage over us after all.”
That was not comforting.
“What are these ‘errands,’ exactly?”I asked, dreading the answer.
“Assassinations,” Sanka said calmly.As if this was just run-of-the-mill, every day information around here.“She wants us to get rid of a bunch of people.Reading between the lines, she sees them as competition for the position of empress, or barriers to her full takeover.”He snorted.“She wants them out of the way before the emperor is gone, so she can step in and take his place without challenge.”
“Assassinations,” I repeated, my voice flat.
Chapter 4
Sadavir
Josh didn’t answerwhen I knocked.He had been even more withdrawn than usual since giving Acacia’s message to Sadavir yesterday.
The hallway was quiet.It felt...guarded, but not exactlysafe.The wards Sanka had etched into the archways flickered faintly in the periphery of my magical senses—not announcing danger yet, but...humming.Like they didn’t know what to do with him anymore either.
