I had stayed faithful to Aki, despite us never actually being together. One night he asked me to not let anyone else see me, and I was drunk, so I thought it was awfully romantic.

He wanted to cut me off from other people. He had very subtlety cut me off from everyone, I realised. I used to have friends. But Aki had taken up so much of my time, I had kind of forgotten about them. He was so subtle about it, and now I felt like an idiot for not noticing. I had to de-tangle myself from the mess that was him. I had to connect with someone else. I had to just not think about him for a second. Just for a second. We weren’t friends anymore. We had never been friends. What we had been were two people just using each other. I used him to feel close to someone.

And now that was enough.

I slid inside the councillor’s room. He looked wide-eyed up at me and then tipped his head to the side, grinning.

“Councillor Charred,” I said and plastered on a smile.

“Regent av Stál.” He didn’t rise from his seat. He had been in the middle of his dinner, so he just dabbed his mouth with his napkin and leaned back. “What can I do for you at this hour?”

I shrugged my jacket off and sent him a saying look. “I’ve seen how you look at me.”

“Have you now?” His grin widened. “And what would your master say to that? It was his name you’ve been screaming, wasn’t it?”

“He’ll live,” I said and walked towards him. I grabbed the high backrest of his chair and sat down in his lap.

He put his hands on my thighs and chuckled. “And what would I gain from this match exactly?”

“I remember quite well, you see.” I lowered my voice. “I want these dogs out of my home, and I bet you do as well. You’ve always been in favour of absolving the monarchy. With my sister no longer here, and me… Not wanting the throne, I will absolve the monarchy. If you help me.”

His hands ran further up my thighs, his fingers digging into my skin. “That’s a nice proposal. I might just take you up on it. If it wasn’t for the fact that you’re still the usurper’s little bumboy. Do you take me for a fool?”

I snorted. “He funnily lost interest the moment he and his group took over the stronghold.” I leaned in close, and the councillor inhaled sharply. “If I don’t do as they say, they’ll do far worse than what they’ve already done.”

“Well...” He, for once didn’t seem to know what to say. Which uncharacteristic for him. “We assumed you were in on it. But his behaviour does seem to say the opposite.”

I leaned back and put my hands on his shoulders. “So? Scratch my back, and I scratch yours.”

“And what of… This?” He looked down at his hands before meeting my gaze again.

“You can take it as my own personal revenge.” I leaned in and kissed him. He lifted his hips immediately and inhaled sharply. He pushed me off him and rose to his feet, taking my face in his hands and led me to the bedroom, his lips never leaving mine.