Page 77 of The Barbarian King's Assassin (Magic and Kings 1)

“You’re downplaying what I’ve heard,” Jrijori muttered.

“What did you hear?”

“That the man is besotted. There are wagers that he calls off the wedding to the zariina.”

I shook my head. “He won’t do that.” Not with his focus on revenge.

“Sounds as if you think you know him pretty well.” A sly remark.

“As monarchs go, he’s not a bad sort.”

“You like him?” Jrijori sounded stuck between amused and appalled.

“He’s…” Many words could have described him. Infuriating. Handsome. Arrogant. Chivalrous. I stuck to, “Different.”

“You really do like him.” He sighed. “Which means I can’t kill him. So much for the thirteen different ways I’d devised to torture him. Thanks a lot.” He glared at me.

“Be soothed by the knowledgehe’s worth more to us alive.”

“To you maybe. You’re the one he hired.”

“He’s willing to pay, and I told him you were better.”

“At least you’re not completely stupid.”

Speaking of hiring… “Who placed the contract on his life?”

“It was anonymous.”

I waved a hand. “Please, we both know you’d have found out.” Jrijori didn’t like surprises.

“Not this time. They covered their traces well.” Complaint pulled his lips down.

“Any chance it was the grand vizier? Even though he wasn’t in Feoria to hire us, he could have arranged it. Perhaps someone in the zariina’s party.”

“Why all this interest in who?”

“It might help us to protect him, and aren’t you curious as to their motive?”

“Not really. We are assassins for hire. The only thing that matters is the payment.”

The same thing I’d said and yet now I argued with my teacher. “When we had little to live on, perhaps. But we’re both wealthy now, which means we could be choosy about our clients.”

“Exactly who are you planning to turn down?”

“The emperor for starters. His soldiers killed my mother, perhaps even my father.”

“That was a long time ago.”

Not in my head. Hearing the name conjured a memory of those soldiers. How they’d slit my mother’s throat. Orphaned me. And yet, until now, I’d not thought much of it. I blamed Konstantin and his hatred of the grand vizier for reviving that spark of vengeance. Could it be the emperor wasn’t the true villain in all of this?

“I, for one, don’t see why we can’t mix business with doing good,” I stated.

“Because we’re not heroes.”

“We could be.”

Jrijori stared at me. “You did not just say that. We are shadow killers.”