Goddess Of Ashes and Sun

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (Shea)

Dinner was insufferable. Those Grace gods were conceded pricks. Thankfully I was sitting next to Kaleb and Njord, and I had the pretty man and his servant girl across from me. Kaleb had told me, begrudgingly, that Pharaoh Augustine had been doing business with Baran since he was barely eighteen years old, and he was an honorary member of Baran's court. So the guy was trusted by everyone here.

Almost everyone. There was something off about him. Baran's court was entirely made up of either gods or mortals, but something about Pharaoh Augustine didn't seem entirely mortal but he didn't have the marks of a god's child. His manservant with the golden eyes might've been a hálf-kyn or those eyes could be fake or a disease, but the blond servant, she wasn't mortal. I could feel it. And she wasn't a servant. She was too calm and collected, too observant, too... Deadly.

I needed to get to the bottom of it. So when Pharaoh left dinner early, I quickly followed. They'd disappeared into Pharaoh's rooms, so I stopped outside and waited. And waited. For about twenty minutes.

When door finally opened the servants and Pharaoh slipped out but they froze when they saw me waiting.

"It's a little late for a walk don't you think?" I said.

The thin miserable golden-eyed man shifted his feet slightly and frowned at me.

"Isn't it a little late to be stalking?" he asked, his voice painfully hoarse.

"Gods man, have you been screaming all day?" I said chuckling humorlessly.

He didn't respond.

"Is there something you needed, Ma'am?" Pharaoh asked, stepping forward.

I decided to take the shot in the dark. "Actually yes, I want to know why you're harbouring a well-known hálf-kyn assassin and calling her your servant? Is there something you're not telling us, Pharaoh?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

His face went blank. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said slowly.

"Don't try that shit with me, Pharaoh, I am not as foolish as some of the other gods in this castle. I prefer her with her natural blue hair. Blonde isn't your colour." I said turning to the girl.

"If you found us out, why haven't you turned us in?" she asked.

I examined my nails.

"Because I want to use you, stupid. What are you about to do?"

"We were going to the dungeon to break out the prisoners," the golden-eyed man said quietly.

Titus turned to glare at him, but he was staring intently at me. He was a smart man.

"All of them?"

"Every single one."

I nodded, thinking. This could be the chance I'd been waiting for. They could do my dirty work for me.

"How about this. In exchange for not busting you and helping you get into the dungeons, you have to take everyone in that dungeon. Check for a secret one a dungeon. This castle has more secrets than people."

They murmured to each other before Pharaoh turned back to me, sweat forming on his forehead, and held out his hand to me.

"Deal."

I grasped his hand and gave it a firm shake.

"Follow me," I said and marched off without looking to see if they were following. If they didn't keep their end of the deal, I would behead them and stick their pretty faces on stakes along the wall.