Page 78 of Dishonored

Raffe’s attention was back on her. Over his shoulder, she saw Nico relax a slight bit. Not a lot, but it was enough for him to roll his eyes, and take a quick breath.

“Because they had their own plan to answer me back,” Raffe murmured, his thumbs roving over her cheeks with a soft touch. Oh, it felt nice, sure. Had he been a kinder man, she might have enjoyed his attention and affection. Except she didn’t, and he was nothing more than a lie wrapped in a pretty package. “I would say the diplomatic way to resolve this has now passed after today.”

It had passed a long time ago.

Aria made sure of that.

She wanted war.

She wanted Raffe to die.

And it couldn’t be by her hand.

“You’ll have to go for a bit,” he told her with a nod. “Head out of the city to be safe, and settle in somewhere else where they can’t find you. Let me handle what I need to for this to be over. Understood?”

She didn’t want to be away.

She needed to be here.

Aria didn’t get a choice; besides, being away meant not being under Raffe’s control all the damn time, and that gave her another opportunity.

And when opportunity knocks …

“Where do you want me to go?” she asked.

Raffe smiled. “Nico knows where.”

Of course, he did.

The highway was dark, and the sedan was quiet. Nico focused on the road ahead of him while Aria stayed lost in her thoughts. It had been like this for a good hour, but she knew her companion was just about ready to spill his thoughts in a vomit of words.

He was predictable like that.

Aria prepped for it.

They drove another fifteen minutes before Nico finally spoke for the first time since they had left the house with a bag of Aria’s things in hand.

“You were lucky today,” he murmured.

“We had the whole thing planned out to a—”

“No, I mean with Raffe. We both know he isn’t a stupid man, Aria. You pull too many tricks on him, and he will start to notice. When do you think he’s going to notice or figure out that it’s actually you who has been rising tensions between our clan and the Accardos? And when he does figure that out, it’s one step away from him figuring out why.”

“You know,” she mused, “that might not be such a bad thing. Him figuring out the why, I mean. A part of me wants him to know it’s because of me that he’ll die. It would be even better if that was the last thing on his mind before his heart stopped beating.”

She took great joy in that thought.

The idea made her gleeful.

“You are playing with fire,” Nico muttered heavily.

“This is my only way to be rid of him—he won’t let me go unless he kills me. I will finally be rid of him. He was forced on me, and I was given to him like a pretty little gift. All I did—my whole life was to be exactly what my father wanted of me, and furthering his cause. I did everything he wanted!”

“I know,” Nico said quietly.

“And look at what he did to me. Look. He gave me to a man who raped me on my wedding night, and who hurts me all the time. And what of you, Nico?” she snapped, glaring at him from the passenger seat. “What, you want me to back off or be safe because he might find out? It doesn’t matter. I have come too far and done too much to back off now. This is my one chance.”

Nico quieted, and his gaze drifted to her.