The Dire King (Jackaby #4)(42)

“You want revenge on the Dire King,” said Jackaby, his eyebrows rising.

Pavel nodded. “And you two want to save the world. We can help each other.”

“Just because you’ve fallen out of favor with your mad monarch, we’re supposed to believe you suddenly care about protecting the earth?” I said.

“The earth can rot,” Pavel snarled. “I served that bastard for a century, and he cast me out the moment I was not of use to him. He cut pieces off me when he was displeased, he took my fangs when he was through with me, and then he threw me into the sunlight to die. I should have died—I would have died, if I had not reached that reeking grate in time. My whole body was burning in agony, greasy smoke pouring out of my lungs. But I refused to die. Not yet. The Dire King took everything from me. So, while I was choking down foul swine’s blood, week after week, I began to ask myself, how do I make him suffer? How do I take everything from him as he did from me? I take the one thing he cares most about.”

“Morwen?” I hazarded. “I’m afraid you’ve just missed her.”

“No. He would let her die for his cause. He would let us all die. I want to rob him of his victory. He’s waited so long—he yearns for it. It consumes him. I want to throw a wrench in the works of his grand plan. I want him to watch it fall apart around him.”

“And how do you intend to do that?” Jackaby asked.

“You,” said Pavel, “are the biggest wrench I know.”

“That’s a lovely thought,” I said. “But we haven’t come close to halting the Dire King, and it hasn’t been for lack of trying.”

“You didn’t have me before.” Pavel gave a crooked smile that pulled the scars all over his face in sickly contortions. “The rend. I will take you to it. The council’s stronghold. The machine. The Dire King. He’s yours. Everything you want is everything I want to give you.”

My pulse quickened. Jackaby narrowed his eyes. “And what’s in it for you?”

Pavel chuckled again. It sounded something like a badger being strangled to death. “That’s the beauty of it. Your success is my success. I show you the way, and then I go my own way. Everybody wins. Except the Dire King, of course.”

“If we accept your terms,” said Jackaby, “that does not make us allies. The next time we meet, you will still be held accountable for the lives you have taken.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Pavel replied with a courtly and rather melodramatic bow.

Jackaby’s jaw was set. He glanced at me and I swallowed.

“Sounds foolish and decidedly dangerous,” I said.

Jackaby took a deep breath, his face leaden. And then he made a deal with the devil.

“Come in,” said Jackaby.

Pavel’s eyes were half-lidded as he grinned drunkenly across the table at me a few minutes later. He swayed in his chair.

“Am I the only one who sees that this is a terrible idea?” Jenny said, hovering anxiously over us.

“No, no,” I assured her. “We are all well aware. That’s why we’re moving forward at all. Obviously, only an absolute idiot would trust Pavel after everything he’s done. The Dire King knows that we are not absolute idiots, so he knows we would never trust Pavel. Which is why we’ve chosen to trust Pavel. It has the element of surprise.”

“So does a trap,” said Jenny. “He shows up the exact same night Morwen escapes. That doesn’t sound a little suspicious to you?”

“I don’t bother with traps, love.” Pavel smirked. “When I want someone dead, I . . . well, just ask your boyfriend.”

Jenny’s face darkened, and the air in the room dropped several degrees.

“Oh, ho, ho!” Pavel said, shivering a little in the sudden chill. “Very impressive. She must be handy to keep around in the summer. You’re better than an ice chest.”

“Jenny’s right,” Charlie said. “I don’t trust him.”

“Of course not.” Pavel flopped his head toward Charlie. “But that’s only because I would happily throw you to my least favorite wolves if I thought it might give them indigestion. See? Honest. It must not be denied but I am a plain-dealing villain. That’s Shakespeare, love. Much Ado. Don’t look so surprised. I like Shakespeare. Makes me feel classy. Classy and honest—I’m the whole package.”

“We don’t have to trust him,” I said. “But we can trust his nature. He’s a self-serving coward. He wouldn’t have come to us this vulnerable if it weren’t in his own self interest. He wants something, and we can deliver it. That’s what I trust.”

“You’re a shameless flatterer,” Pavel drawled. “Compliments will get you everywhere, my darling.”

“Please don’t,” I said. “We find the rend. We find the Dire King’s war machine. We disable it. I am not your friend. I am not your darling.”

“You think I enjoy slumming it with you lot? Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows, Miss Rook.”

Jackaby strode back into the room. He had one sleeve rolled up past the elbow and a slim bandage tied tightly around his upper arm. Under his left arm was tucked what appeared to be a small bundle of firewood, and his right hand held something slim that clinked like glass. “All right,” he said. “If we’re doing this, we are doing it now, tonight, before word reaches the council; before we lose the element of surprise.”