“Leave Scara Brae,” William echoed. It was a bold request, but there was steel in Adren’s voice behind the declaration. The assassin was obviously serious about it.

William found, to his surprise, that this was one avenue that he hadn’t expected the meeting to take. Naturally, his instinctive reaction was to expect hostility from the two of them. There were half a dozen combat scenarios that he’d come up with already, plays and counter-plays to whatever the two of them could throw his way.

And then there was the talking. William suspected that if this meeting had been solely between him and Arden, then blood would have already been split. This, William had to admit, was likely the entire reason why Ruby was here.

He’d even thought about a version of these events playing out with them trying to recruit William back into the fold, seeking their companion of long ago. He’d play the role of the prodigal son in the little play they would set up for him. It was an enticing proposal, but not really one that William was looking for.

But to be simply given what he wanted and then asked politely to leave? Well, that was one scenario William hadn’t expected.

Arden and Ruby sat patiently, waiting for his response. He could see that he’d misjudged them, William knew that now. He knew that they hated him and had let his own experiences color his view of how they would react to that. William would take that hatred and make it personal, polishing and refining it until it was smooth and sharp and hard. But to these old souls William was just another annoyance forcing himself upon them. I was better simply to be done with him and move on to more pleasant things.

Anger rose in William’s chest, the old, bitter anger of being dismissed. The destructive part of William’s soul snarled in the back of his mind, proudly defiant. It demanded that he show these two the price of impertinence. It railed at the thought of being given an ultimatum about what he could and could not do. Where he could and couldn’t go. Hadn’t he overthrown the Ixian Knights to ensure that he’d be no master’s slave ever again?

“But isn’t that what this is?” William replied against his destructive urges. Arden and Ruby weren’t giving him an ultimatum, and they weren’t laying down the terms that they’d devised and then forcing him to comply with them. If William agreed to their deal then he would be the one making the choice not to return to Scara Brae. He alone would be determining the course of his own fate.

“Well?” Ruby finally asked, sensing that William had made his decision.

“I have no plans to return to the island after this job is finished,” William said. “But I also don’t know what sort of things the future holds. At best I can give you my assurance that I will not return on my own business and that if it becomes necessary for me to return in the future that I will have word sent to you ahead of time.”

William looked around at the sun lounge, bustling with the crowds of high society. He smiled faintly, “Also, I can guarantee you that if I do have to come back I won’t be doing so in as publicly ostentatious a manner as this time. It’s fun to play around with the nobility every once in a while, but this really isn’t my type of place.”

“If that deal is acceptable, then all I need to know is where Arden’s workshop is and when to meet him there.”