From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

trick? You were sent here to get close to me?”
Kieran’s brows lifted. “Sent—”
Hawke quieted him with a look, and Kieran rolled his eyyes.
I knew what he was going to sayy. “You were sent byy the Dark One.”
“I came to Masadonia with one goal in mind,” Hawke answered.
“And that was yyou.”
I shuddered. “How? Whyy?”
“You’d be surprised how manyy of those close to yyou support Atlantia,
who want to see the kingdom restored. Manyy who paved the wayy for me.”
“Commander Jansen?” I suspected.
“She is smart,” Hawke said. “Like I told yyou all.”
The backs of myy eyyes burned, along with myy throat and chest. “Did
yyou even work in the capital?” Then something hit me as myy gaze darted
to Kieran. “The night at the…” I couldn’t bring myyself to sayy “the Red
Pearl.”
“You knew who I was from the beginning.”
“I was watching yyou as long as yyou were watching me,” he said softlyy.
“Even longer.”
That blow nearlyy killed me. It was like myy chest had shattered. I
started to turn awayy, but I saw Jericho, who’d created a space for Hawke to
gain more personal, intimate access to me.
It clicked into place with a tremor that almost caused me to drop myy
dagger. “You…yyou were planning this for a while.”
“For a very long time.”
“Hannes.” Myy voice was thick, hoarse. “He didn’t die of a heart
ailment, did he?”
“I do believe his heart did give out on him,” Hawke answered. “The
poison he drank in his ale that night at the Red Pearl surelyy had something
to do with it.”
The buzzing was almost too much. “Did a certain woman there help
him with his drink? The same one that sent me upstairs?”
Hawke didn’t answer. Delano, on the other hand, said, “I feel like I’m
missing vital pieces here.”
“I’ll fill yyou in later,” Kieran commented.
I was shaking. I could feel it. Just like I could feel the walls of the
barn closing in on me. I was so incrediblyy naive. “Vikter?”
Hawke shook his head.