I strutted past him into a carpeted hallway and moved left toward a door.
He seized my arm. “We don’t go that way.”
“What’s that way?”
He led me to the right down a slightly longer hall with another door at the end. Once inside, the walls curved as if forming a circle, and the doors were spaced apart. I reached up and made sure my necklace was facing the right way and not tangled up in my hair. Hopefully Wyatt was getting all this.
“What did you do before working at the White Owl?”
I walked a step behind him. “I mostly lived on the streets.”
“And how did someone with your lack of experience acquire a job at such a prestigious adult club?”
“I grew up in bars, so I’ve got the experience. They were looking for a Mage, and I guess I checked off all their boxes.”
“It’s unfortunate that we don’t all have responsible Creators who will guide us through the pitfalls of immortality. Perhaps then we wouldn’t have so many like yourself, struggling to make ends meet. You might be surprised to know just how many people have entered this world under false pretenses or even by force.” He glanced up at me over his shoulder. “Is that what happened to you?”
I pressed my lips together and nodded.
Pablo reached a narrow staircase against the outer wall and went up two steps before turning to face me. “Is this someone I’m going to have to worry about?”
I opened my mouth but wasn’t sure how to answer.
Don’t be eager to answer, Raven. Figure out what he wants to hear.
“I have patrons with excessive riches. Is your Creator likely to be one of them?”
I exhaled the breath I’d been holding in. “No. That’s not the kind of trouble I thought you were talking about. I’m an independent, and no one has any claim over me. And you can bet your ass that if some rich guy turned me against my will, I would have milked him for every dime before parting ways.”
A doleful smile stretched across Pablo’s face. “You’re candid. I once knew a woman like you, but this world ate her alive.” He turned back around, heading upstairs. “Most pretend to be blunt, but they’re professional liars.”
After a short twist in the stairwell, I followed him to a spacious floor shaped like a donut. Windows circled the center, and when I reached the glass and looked to the other side, I couldn’t see my reflection since they were two-way mirrors. Down below, an empty room.
“We used to hold the viewings up here,” Pablo said, scooting onto one of many armchairs that faced the glass. “But people wanted more privacy. They were afraid of being blackmailed or found out, so we built them little rooms down below. The renovation took quite some time. We escort them in one at a time through a second entrance to guarantee their anonymity.”
Pablo’s feet didn’t quite touch the ground, but he made no effort to move or stand.
I leaned my shoulder against the glass and looked at the outer walls surrounding us. The sandalwood-brown paint and recessed lighting were classy touches.
“The view is better up here,” he said absently.
“What does this job pay?”
“A woman who gets right to the point. I like that.” Pablo stood up and stared down at the empty fighting room below. “Two hundred thousand per match. That’s the baseline salary, but if you’re a proven champion, the sky’s the limit.”
I joined his side. “How did you get involved in this? You don’t look like a guy who’s into death matches.”
“Death matches?” Pablo tossed back his head and laughed. “Is that what Flynn told you?”
“No. But I just assumed…”
“These are clean fights.”
“Seems like there would be more money in death matches.”
He looked up at me and arched an eyebrow. “If you don’t know how to show mercy, you don’t belong here. This audience has a very particular taste in watching a Mage fight.”
Something about the way he said “this audience” had me wondering if there was another audience, but I didn’t want this interview to come off like an interrogation.
“That’s a lot of dough,” I said on a breath. “I could use that money.”
“Splendid. Flynn had nothing but good things to say, but he’s made an error in judgment once or twice. I need to see your skills before I commit to hiring you.”
I thought about Viktor’s instructions. He didn’t want me to get as far as fighting—just far