The soldier hesitated, clearly confused, but Cassius fixed him with an impatient stare, making clear his order, and closed the door. He turned to the women and found another confused expression on the maid Novaya’s face. But the other, the one who had single-handedly fought a dozen or more of his men, if the stories were to be believed—she looked almost … smug. Certainly not an expression he had ever seen before on a prisoner’s face. It was almost enough to make him open the door and reverse his request, but then he remembered the note in his pocket.

He did not fear reprisal, but whoever this girl was to Aurora, clearly she was important.

“You do realize who I am, don’t you?” he said to the woman, unable to adopt a completely welcoming tone.

The girl snorted, flipping her strangely styled hair as if she were captured every other day.

“I have heard things about you, yes. A great many things. Most of them bad, if you were wondering.” She held up her hands in mock innocence. “No offense. Honesty among friends, and all that.” She leaned back into the wall with practiced ease, not a bit of fear showing.

“I’ve heard about you as well. Quite the fighter, it seems. Rebellion, are you?” Cassius asked.

“Hardly. I don’t have a say in this storm. This isn’t my city. I’m just passing through.”

“You mean to say you are not a legal citizen of Pavan?”

“Last time I checked, neither were you, since that wedding fell through.”

Cassius’s eyes narrowed. “I am a guest of the royal family of Pavan.”

“Are you now? And where are they? I would love to have a chat with them about the subpar hospitality we have received. Nova, here, is even quite good friends with the princess, I hear. I am sure a moment with the queen would clear all of this up.”

No wonder Casimir had not yet stamped out the rebellion despite his brutal tactics, if this was the kind of woman they had in their midst.

“You are quite brazen, aren’t you?”

“And you are ‘cold and calculating,’ ‘carnivorous,’ and like a ‘shark,’ from what I’ve heard. Now that we have had our introductions, can we move on please?”

“Who told you that?” Cassius asked, his eyes tracking to Novaya.

The chatty one snapped, “Not her, so do not think about harassing her more than you already have. Don’t you think you have caused enough trouble?”

“I? You were the one captured amidst a rebel raid.”

“I simply assisted in the rescue of someone wrongly imprisoned when asked by a highly respected friend.”

“A highly respected friend?” Cassius jumped on the clue, barely resisting the urge to reach back into his pocket for the note.

“Yes, that’s right,” the girl said.

“And who would that be?”