“Did you fall in love with Hera Galenos?”

Nira asked the question in a perfectly balanced tone that was a mixture of curiosity, skepticism, and humor in such proportions that she couldn’t be accused of gossiping, excessive pessimism, or offensive mockery. But Dago could see desire at the bottom of her dark gaze. Nira wanted to know the truth, wanted to know his thoughts, simply wanted him, wanted no one to know, and wanted not to want any of it.

Or so it seemed to Dago. He would be lying if he said he understood her. He had the impression that she was in love with him. From the countless love poems that made it clear that love was a pain in the ass, he suspected that she found her feelings for him burdensome. He assumed she knew he wouldn’t reciprocate them, and he guessed that was why, like him, she never tried to push the boundaries of their friendship. He imagined that she must have been feeling frustrated. How she endured it, he had no idea.

He didn’t know how to help her either. He’d known her since she was a baby. She was like a sister to him. He couldn’t…

He could try to be so mean to her that she wouldn’t want to spend time with him, but she didn’t deserve to be treated that way, nor he did want to push her away. He liked her.

He would also rather not upset her influential father, but that wasn’t as important.

“Hera and I have an agreement,” he said, answering her question. “Or rather, we will, if my friends’ lack of manners and double-edged comments don’t put her off.”

His friends didn’t have the decency to even try to show remorse.

“You brought her to the Sweet Lodge,” pointed out Zeno, who was sitting on the black sofa next to Nira. “If you had warned us, we wouldn’t have been so shocked.”

“What kind of agreement?” Nira wanted to know. “Are you going to marry her or something?”

Given the number of years they’d known each other, he shouldn’t have been surprised by the speed by which Nira formulated conclusions, but since the topic of marriage still made him a little uncomfortable, Dago remained silent a little too long.

Zeno’s eyes widened. “Is this what you meant by borrowing her reputation?”

“This is the only certain way for me to become the Archmagus,” Dago said, regaining his composure. “You will understand this when you think about it carefully.”

For the next five minutes, his friends did think carefully. Zeno made a face as if he had a stomach ache. Nira looked like she wanted to do something illegal.

“Indeed,” Zeno admitted reluctantly. “I can’t think of anything more certain.”

“Does the contract have an expiry date?” Nira asked, again using that special tone of innocent curiosity.

“Yes,” Dago replied. “It will expire when it is no longer useful.”

He had no desire to conceal the truth from his friends, but an instinct, likely inherited from his nightmarish ancestor, told him that if he gave a specific date, Hera might experience great distress the day after the contract expired.

Luckily, his friends knew how to do business.

“Do you have lemonade?” Zeno asked. “Time to drink to your promotion.”

Nira smiled. “Long live the new Archmagus.”

***

“Did Dago Midais really fall in love with you?”

There was curiosity in Gaiana’s voice, but her eyes were measuring Hera with a watchful gaze, and Hera knew she wouldn’t be able to dissuade her friend from the subject. The problem was that Hera couldn’t tell her the whole truth. Gaiana was a believer of True Love, and if she found out about her bargain with Dago, she would immediately try to talk her out of it.

“I don’t know if he’s really in love,” Hera said. She dropped a sugar cube into her tea. She usually did it with her fingers, but ever since her hands were cursed to turn sugar into gold, she’d been using metal tongs. “Just like I don’t know exactly what I feel. I’m as surprised by the situation as you are. We’ve always been rivals. I don’t understand why I don’t find him repulsive now.”

Seeing her friend frown, she added hastily, “I’m not Captivated. You know I’d burn his sandals if he even tried to use his Charm on me.”

She looked around the small cozy kitchen. It smelled of fresh herbs, and its shelves were full of preserves signed in meticulous handwriting.

“Maybe I’ve been spending too much time in the lab and I’ve gone crazy,” she said suddenly.

In an instant, Gaiana transformed from a danger-watching scout into a woman full of love and compassion.

“You aren’t crazy,” she said kindly, taking Hera by the hand. “It’s probably your heart deciding you’re working too much and yearning for something else.”

Hera gave her a skeptical look. “Yearning for Dago Midais?”

“He’s handsome and charismatic.” Gaiana hesitated. “And quite different from your previous partners.”

Hera looked down at the cup of tea in front of her, feeling a blush on her cheeks. Her previous partners had been honest, warm-hearted people. What did it say about her that now she’d chosen a cold, manipulative man who spent most of his time thinking about how to gain power?

I didn’t choose him, she told herself. Circumstances forced me.

Sensing her mood change, Gaiana withdrew her hand. “Did you have a fight yesterday?” she asked gently.

At another reference to Erato Adonis’s article, which was probably all Olympus was talking about now, Hera’s face fell even more. To give herself time to respond, she stirred her tea with her spoon, then took a sip.

“You know how he is,” she finally murmured. “I know that too, and I still can’t believe someone can be so charming and so cynical at the same time.”

This time it was Gaiana who fell silent, sipping her tea with a thoughtful expression on her face.

Hera couldn’t take it anymore. “Why are you so quiet?”

“I imagine you and him in the future.”

“And?”

“I don’t quite understand why, but I think it makes sense.”

Hera’s eyes widened. “Dago Midais and I make sense?”

Gaiana nodded. “You’re different, but also similar. You are both ambitious and sturdy, although you have different goals and methods of achieving them.”

“And that doesn’t contradict itself?”

“Not necessarily. Yes, you could still be rivals like you were before, but if you decided to become partners, you could learn from each other.”

Hera’s mouth dropped open. Was Gaiana Hercules, a model citizen, knight, wife of a national hero, suggesting to her that she should learn from a calculating schemer how to achieve her goals?

And then it dawned on her.

“You want me to spy on him!”

The fox maga raised her hands in a placating gesture. “I don’t want you to spy on him. I want you to be happy. If you find evidence that he’s a cheater, you probably won’t be happy, right?”

After a confused pause, Hera admitted cautiously, “Right.”

Gaiana smiled. “So try to be happy, but keep your eyes wide open, okay?”