Chapter 10: Her Terms

At seven the next morning I put four mugs on the kitchen table and sat down in the middle of them.

Nobody had slept much.

Stefan was grey under the eyes, and Felix had a pencil behind each ear.

Jonas would not look at Tobias.

Tobias sat across from me with a bruise on his cheek the colour of a plum.

"Before the buyer gets here," I said, "I have terms."

"Terms," Stefan repeated.

"Three of them. You can say yes or you can leave the room."

Nobody left.

"One," I said. "Nobody touches me unless my eyes are open and I'm looking at you."

"Agreed," Tobias said at once.

"Two. Nobody decides anything about me for me. Not the share, not the room I sleep in, not what I can handle."

Jonas raised his eyes.

"That includes me," he said.

"That includes you."

"Fine."

"Three." I put both hands flat on the table. "Nothing is said about me in a room I'm not in. If you have an opinion, say it where I can hear it."

Felix took one of the pencils from behind his ear and put it down.

"That is going to be difficult," he said.

"Good."

"I'll try."

"Do more than try."

"Yes," he said. "Yes."

Stefan lifted his coffee in a salute.

"Anything else?" he asked. "A ring? A blood oath?"

"You'll know when I think of it."

Tobias stood.

He walked around the table, and he stopped beside my chair.

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