Lady Mutiny

Eleven

"The Rule of Succession hasn't been used for centuries!"

"You brought it up, Wil," Baz reminded him as the three assassins entered the Leader's private chambers once the meeting dispersed.

"Where traitors were involved! Lilia was a traitor to the Guild, and we all know it." He dared a glance at Cass as she followed, and she responded with only a glare at the reference to her sister.

"And spouses and offspring are included in the very clause you have vocally denied Lilia," Baz countered as he turned to him. "Or will you have me pull out the clause for review?"

Wil, for once, was silent as he glowered at their Leader, and Cass couldn't help the smirk that grew on her lips as she remained leaning against the now-closed door.

"Cassandra is neither Lilia's spouse nor offspring," Wil finally sneered through clenched teeth.

"No, but she is Lilia's heir," he reminded the assassin.

"Which amounts to nothing in the underground!"

"No, but marriage may," Cass chimed in, walking up to the desk where Baz and Wil faced off.

Both men turned to her, Baz with a look of amusement and Wil with one of sheer annoyance.

Cass ignored the latter and turned to the Leader of the Assassins. "If I were to marry you, would that give me the right to claim my place as the Second of the Guild?"

Baz glanced at her, his eyes roaming over her face as if to determine her angle, and he nodded slowly while he leaned back, his arms resting on his chair. "If that were the case, and you were to marry me, and had an interest in being the Second of the Guild... yes, you could have that right."

"But she's not," Wil snapped at Baz, turning to Cass. "And you don't!"

"Is that so?" she smirked with a knowing glance towards Baz.

It seemed Baz finally understood where she was going with this and chuckled slightly in return.

Wil looked between the two as the realization of their silent conversation blossomed in his brain. For a minute, Cass swore there was a flash of pain across his face before it morphed into one of complete and utter incredulity.

"You can't tell me you- and her-" he sputtered as he looked between the two of them, and Baz merely shrugged in response.

Cass didn't even feel the need to blush. Her relationship with Baz was not private, in the sense of its existence, so she did not know why Wil was so taken aback by this turn of events. Especially when he, himself, referred to the rumors of their engagement when last time they faced off.

Instead, she walked around the desk to where Baz sat and perched herself in his lap, her arms draping around his neck as she returned her attention to Wil. "I believe Midsummer is a wonderful time for a wedding, don't you?"

Cass noticed the tightening of the muscles of Wil's jaw, the clenching of his fists at his side, as he observed the display before him. Baz, to Cass's relief, had wrapped his arms around her waist the moment she sat down, but whether it was out of habit or to piss off Wil, she didn't truly care. She nestled back into his chest, a saccharine smile on her face as she faced watched the Guild's second.

"You have a decision to make, Sebastian," Wil ground out, daring to point a threatening finger at the Guild's Leader.

"And I shall make that decision, William, when I am ready to do so. And as we now have two nominations for the position-"

"You can't be serious!" Wil snapped, but Baz continued.

"And as we now have two nominations for the position, I will need to consider the replacement of my Second very carefully."