The Luna He Threw Away
But something close enough to matter.
“The House of Thane,” he said quietly, “will leave the child alone.”
A pause.
“You are… an unusual kind of enemy, Ariadne Voss.”
“I’m not your enemy,” I said. “I never was. I’m just someone who understands value. Your house forgot that everything has a cost even cleverness, when you spend it on the wrong fight.”
I stood.
“You should have tried the wine,” I added. “It was good.”
He left.
And just like that, the most dangerous of the three the calculating house, the one that could only be beaten by thinking faster walked out defeated.