Interlude [h.s]

fifty-three

"Tell me about the assassination attempt," Alouette says after a while conversationally.

She's had the whole night to reflect on the events from yesterday, but it has only left her feeling even more confused than before. She feels like a new player has suddenly stepped onto her chessboard mid-game, someone she knows nothing about and can't predict the moves of. Someone like Harry. It makes her feel uneasy, but after all, it takes one to know one. If the stranger feels like Harry, then Harry is her best weapon against them.

"Pardon?" There's faint confusion in Harry's eyes. It isn't the right time for that, but Alouette secretly rejoices about managing to catch him by surprise all the same.

She taps on the steering wheel nervously. The street is old and cracked ahead, and the golden sun reflects off the whitened asphalt. She doesn't want to admit she doesn't know what to think of it—and especially doesn't want Harry to realise just how much she needs his help. That would give him power over her.

"You boasted about your experience yesterday, so why don't you use it to figure out who tried to kill me?"

Harry raises an eyebrow. "Do you think I know everything?"

"You offered your help. I want it."

He stares ahead, his cunning eyes focused on the road as the wheels of the car jump over the cracks in the street. For a moment, Alouette thinks he ignored her request. Then, he speaks.

"The paper was low-quality, the picture was the one of your public account, there was no name on it," he lists effortlessly. As she suspected, he picked up more details than she did. "Also, the man was clueless and underarmed. It was not the Palace."

"How can you be so sure?" Sending someone to kill her doesn't seem to be that far away from the Palace's modus operandi. Then again, if the Palace knew where she is, guards would already be storming the streets.

Harry gives her a light shrug. "That was the most embarrassing hit I've ever witnessed in my life. If the Palace had issued it, you wouldn't have stood a chance."

"Well, aren't you an expert at this," Alouette mutters under her breath. His self-assurance annoys her, but it's also the reason why she asked him to help in the first place. If there's someone that can solve this riddle for her, that someone is certainly Harry.

"I've issued some of these myself in the past. Ours aren't so easily avoidable," he says casually, as if he sees nothing wrong with his sentence. She can't say a word against it, though. After all, the Revolution has done the same thing—she's the living proof of it.

"What else?"

"It isn't the Revolution either. You were trained and armed appropriately, and that man was not."

Alouette looks away to hide the little smile that curves her lips. Such a compliment coming from him makes her feel proud of herself and of the Revolution, even though she knows it really shouldn't. Him recognising her value has much more importance in her mind than it should have.

"Unless they don't give you much credit and don't find you relevant," Harry adds in a lighter tone. "In this case, though, I don't see the need to try to have you killed. You're stuck with me, after all. It's only a matter of time before you go down, they would simply need to wait it out."

Alouette scowls at him. "I'm not irrelevant."

"I would hope so," Harry replies. "It's likely someone that doesn't have money to waste. Someone with a personal revenge, or a group without a large income."

"I can't think of anyone." She hates the secluded lifestyle she followed when she was with the Revolution, but it's also thanks to it that she has never made any enemies. Now, though, she isn't so confident about that anymore.