Page 91 of Dishonored

“Then why—”

“They’ll know. The clan, I mean. My people. They’ll challenge me after. Kill me, at the most. Shame me, at the least. I need my position to be unchallenged.”

Caesar laughed, and glanced up at the ceiling like he expected it to crash down on them. “You’re doing all of this—this … production of a war just to kill one man? It’s not even about the streets or the power at all, is it?”

“It is—it’s the high I keep chasing. Power, I mean. The more power I have in the end, the less likely I am to be challenged. It gets me so fucking high. It’s the heroin that’s either going to save me, or it’ll kill me. Either way, I’m going to be free of him, and I’ll take it.”

His gaze came back to her—blue and stormy in a blink.

It was shocking, really.

“He doesn’t know what he has in you, does he? He doesn’t know at all.”

Aria stilled. “I don’t—”

“He doesn’t know what you’ll do. Or what you’re willing to do. What you can and have done. He doesn’t know how smart you are, or how cunning you can be. He just … doesn’t know at all.”

“He doesn’t have to know, Caesar,” Aria replied. “He only wants to be able to say that I’m his—I just need to be his thing.”

“What a waste of a woman.”

Aria found herself smiling again.

Caesar blew out a slow breath. “He’s so fucking stupid.”

“Most men tend to be when a beautiful woman is in front of them.”

“That’s fair.” Caesar still hadn’t let go of her, but he loosened his hold, and scrubbed his other hand down his jaw. “I came here to do something, but uh … I don’t think I can now.”

“And what was that?”

Although, she thought she knew.

Caesar shook his head once. “Not important.”

“All right. Then, would you stay for a bit?”

His gaze cut back to her in an instant. “You don’t have to pretend like this is anything more than what it is with us—you use me, and I was stupid enough to let you.”

Aria shrugged. “Maybe it is more; I tend to be good at multitasking, il mio tiranno.”

His gaze darkened, and that smirk of his deepened.

“Your tyrant, huh?”

“Fits, doesn’t it? I think so. You were named well.”

He laughed again.

Aria grinned.

Yeah, he wasn’t going anywhere. She was going to hate herself for it, but she wanted him to stay. To make her feel. To let her be alive. To give her that escape.

He did that.

He barely had to try.

It was everything else that made her feel dead.