A Duel

"I heard before the fall of your family you were quite skilled with a sword."

Juno straightened her spine a little more instinctively at the mention of her swordsmanship.

"Yes," she said carefully.

"I have been challenged to a duel by the Rusteau's son." Juno raised her eyebrows, eyeing his round stomach. The Rusteaus were famous for their military prowess. Victor was an older noble, and a very shameless one at that. He was the underbelly of society. Drugs, prostitutes, gambling, he had his hands in all of it. Which is why she had become so well acquainted with him lately.

Juno doubted he ever lifted a sword in his life.

"It's a very petty thing," he said simply. "Something as pointless as honor."

Ah... He probably said something that offended one of the sons. Knowing Victor, it was probably something worthy of death.

"How am I to be involved?" Juno asked coldly. She wanted to get away from Victor. Nothing good ever happened when they were in the same room for too long.

"Well obviously you'll fight for me."

Juno frowned. There it was. At first glance, the situation would seem entirely too advantageous in her favor. A hundred gold for a duel? She could go in, barely fight, let the other party draw first blood and be done with it.

But the more she thought about it, the more sketchy the whole thing seemed. Victor had absolutely no pride. He didn't care about losing a duel. He often rubbed people the wrong way resulting in a staggering amount of duels. Duels that he often showed up to piss drunk. So why did he need a surrogate for this particular fight?

Juno was confident in her swordsmanship, but the Rusteaus were captain of the imperial guard. Their teachings would be on a whole different level of a baron's daughter. If she was killed in the fight there would no longer be someone to support her family. A measley hundred gold was not enough for four children to live the rest of their lives on. And she doubted Victor would give her family a single cent of the fines that the killer would be forced to pay in the result of a death during a duel.

She would have to kill him first.

Seeing her hesitation, Victor quickly added, "I'll add another hundred gold if you win the fight."

"You'll pay the fine in case I kill him," she said, offering her hand to close their deal. "And if he kills me, the money goes to Killian."

Killian. If she didn't think that Venus or her mother would squander the money, she would give it to one of them. She didn't want to force Killian to take her place when she died. Juno had always hoped she would live long enough to see Killian restore their family to their rightful place, that way he wouldn't have to worry about the care of his siblings.

But Killian was the only one Juno could trust.

Victor's eyes widened with a practiced innocence. "Of course."

Juno sighed and raked a rough hand through her hair. "Which brother is it?"

Victor gave her a sheepish smile. "Marquis Cesare Rusteau."

Juno felt a cold drop trickle down her spine. Cesare Rusteau.

The man the whole damn parade just outside the building was for.

As the third son of the Rusteau family, Cesare was always expected to enlist in the imperial military. But since he was a mere third son, the expectations were placed more on his older brother to succeed the family and become captain of the imperial knights.

However, during the war Cesare proved himself adept at war, single handedly securing a majority of the victories for the empire. Once the war was won, the emperor granted Cesare a noble title of his own and several properties. He was renowned as the hero of Almyra. There were even talks of him being married off to one of the princesses.

Who in their right mind would cross a man like that?

Juno searched Victor's face for some sort of regret or at the very least an apology for sending her to duel with the hero of Almyra. But he just met her gaze, as shameless as ever.

"What the fuck did you do, Victor?"

His eyes left hers, landing somewhere above her head. "I simply implied that the family was exceedling close."

Juno narrowed her eyes at him.

He cleared his throat and continued. "And I may have asked if he would like to have separate rooms or to share a room with his sister."

Juno pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling another headached coming. Not only would she be fighting an honored soldier, but she would also be fighting a man defending his sister.

She couldn't help but feel like her death was staring her in the face.

"You're an idiot," she told him, tucking the gold into her waistband. "You'll get yourself killed soon enough."Victor gave her a wicked grin. "Not while you need money."

Juno scowled, slamming the door behind her.

***

Juno hid the gold as soon as she returned to her room. She applied for the two days off. One to go to Killian's school and one to go to the duel. She calculated the addition of the fee to leave the brothel on top of her already existing debt.

The numbers in her mind blurred and her eyes burned.

But she didn't have time to cry, her sister bursted through the door with Effie in tow.

"Juno!" Venus cried, falling onto the bed. "I've fallen in love."

Juno raised her eyebrows, cutting a look to Effie, who was shaking her head. Juno sighed. She really wasn't in the mood to listen to another of Venus's long love at first sight stories, but she forced a smile on her face anyways, wrapping an arm around her sister's shoulders.

Sometimes Venus's appearance amazed Juno. It was an exact reflection of her own, a complete mirror image. But there was often a light in Venus's eyes that never showed in Juno's. Had she ever looked that happy before? Or was that kind of happiness reserved for Venus alone?

"Jun?" Effie called to her, interrupting Venus's tale of a tall, handsome knight retrieving her handkercheif for her. Venus made a small noise of displeasure. "Are you feeling alright?"

The stinging sensation in Juno's eyes had not ceased. She brought a hand to her face to cover them from Effie's sharp eyes. "Of course," she let out a shaky laugh. "I'm just tired. Go on, V."

Venus wasted no time to launch back into her story, like the interruption never happened. Juno watched her animated faces, feeling an odd sense of jealousy wash over her. She caught herself resenting her sister's smile. She wanted to crush the ugly feeling in her gut. How could she think something like that? Everything she was doing, everything she had ever done was to protect that smile. So why did it irritate her to see it?

She shut her eyes tightly, the numbers returning to her head. She focused on what was to come to drown out that disgusting feeling. In the back of her mind, her sister continued to speak, but Juno was no longer listening. Instead, she thought of sparring with Killian when she saw him. She thought of what she would say to him.

She would have to tell him about the duel. She wouldn't want her brother to get a sudden notice of her death without any preparation. She recalled how difficult it was to process their father's death. She would not put her brother in the same situation. She would make sure he was fully prepared.