The word "deal" hung in the air between us like a grenade with the pin already pulled. I kept my face neutral, but inside my head, alarm bells were screaming loud enough to wake the dead.
Seraphina Vance wanted to make a deal. With me. The woman who could see probability chains stretching into infinity, who had spent twenty-five years building an empire on the corpses of anyone stupid enough to challenge her, who viewed human beings as chess pieces to be sacrificed for the greater good of her perfect, orderly garden.
She wanted to negotiate.
Which meant I had something she needed.
Which meant I was either about to become very powerful or very dead.
Satori. Natalia's voice sliced through the bond, sharp with worry. Be careful. She's not offering because she's afraid of you. She's offering because she sees a use for you.
