Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant #1)(34)

Well, that didn’t take long. From how green she looked after he started on the merc’s ears, he thought she’d take the evening off. The hopes of mice and men…

“Not tonight,” he called out.

The door flew open. Elara marched in, her jaw set, brimming with rage and magic.

Elara didn’t bother looking at Vanessa. “Leave.”

Vanessa opened her mouth. Something snapped in her eyes. “No.”

Elara swung toward her. The storm within her was straining to break out, and Vanessa had just designated herself as a lightning rod. This ought to be good. Hugh landed in a chair and leaned back, his head resting on the interlocked fingers of his hands. He wished he had a beer.

“I’m not leaving,” Vanessa said. “You leave. You’re interrupting.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Elara said. “After I’m done, you can come back and entertain the Preceptor all you want. But right now, I need you to go.”

Vanessa swung to him. “Tell her I can stay.”

“I already told you to leave,” he said.

Vanessa pushed from the wall. “I’m staying.”

Playing for keeps.

“You’re pissed off, because he doesn’t want you,” Vanessa said.

And now she decided to dig a hole.

“He wants a woman,” Vanessa said. “Not an iceberg.”

Doubling down.

“I understand why that’s upsetting, but I don’t really care. He likes me, this is his room, and you’re intruding. Go. You’re not wanted or needed here.”

Hahaha.

Elara regarded Vanessa for a long moment. She reminded him of the black-footed cat he had seen in southern Africa on a long trip to retrieve one of Roland’s artifacts. They’d had to search a wide area, and every night, once they came back to camp, he would take the midwatch, and the little black-footed cat would leave her burrow to hunt for food for her two kittens. She would sneak up on the birds and rodents, line her jump, wait, motionless, calculating distance and wind, and spring just at the right moment to break her prey’s neck. She was relentless, and she killed with a precision he had never seen in great cats. Now he saw the same calculation in Elara’s eyes. She was about to leap into a kill.

“I was going to give you time to correct yourself, but you leave me no choice,” Elara said. “First, the Preceptor isn’t going to help you. He’s here because he’s responsible for the welfare of his people, just as I’m responsible for the well-being of mine. We rose to our positions of power, because we have learned how to lead and compromise. We hate each other, but we are both cognizant of the fact that we have to work together for our mutual survival and we both sacrificed a great deal for the sake of this partnership. There is much more at stake here than sexual gratification. In an argument between you and me, the Preceptor will always side with me. I’m the bigger threat. All you can do is withhold sex, while I can divorce him and throw his soldiers out of the castle.”

Vanessa narrowed her eyes.

“Before you speak, remember that you are also one of my people. Your welfare is important to me,” Elara said. “It’s critical to your safety that you understand this: he isn’t besotted with you. He is a cold, calculating bastard. Love isn’t in his vocabulary. You don’t hold any power over him and if you annoy him enough, he will replace you with a different warm body. You must never gamble your safety on his attachment to you. There isn’t one.”

Vanessa turned to him.

“She’s right,” Hugh said. “I told you this when we started.”

Vanessa opened her mouth.

“I’m not done,” Elara said, her voice cold. “According to your performance evaluation and the testimony of your coworkers, you are laboring under the mistaken impression that having sex with the Preceptor excuses you from your duties. As of last night, you have a nine-day backlog. You speak down to your colleagues, you imply that you are better than them, and you argue with your supervisor. One of your colleagues described your behavior as toxic.”

“I do my work!”

“Should I ask Melissa to come up here and give you a detailed breakdown of the assignments you failed to complete?” Elara asked.

“She’s lying.”

Elara grimaced. “Please. Don’t waste time, Vanessa. You’ve decided that you are better than your current position and you’ve made everyone around you aware of it. In this community, your position is based on merit, not your choice of bed partners. Having a relationship with the Preceptor doesn’t entitle you to any additional benefits. You don’t get hazard pay.”

Hazard pay?

“You have one week to catch up on your assignments. You won’t be paid until your backlog is cleared.”

Vanessa opened her mouth.

“You will apologize to your colleagues and to Melissa for your conduct,” Elara continued.

“I won’t,” Vanessa snarled.

Elara’s face was merciless. “If you no longer want to be employed as a paralegal, you are free to look for a different job. You know our rule: if you don’t contribute to the best of your ability, you receive no support. If you don’t like it, you know where the gates are.”

An angry red flush heated Vanessa’s face. For a moment he thought Vanessa would charge her. Instead, she spun on her heels and tore out of the room. The door slammed closed behind her.