Over the months they’d known each other, she’d come to associate him with the folktale “The Wolf and the Fox.” It was short but brutal, with a simple message: if you couldn’t be the strongest creature in the woods, you could be the slyest. If you were agreeable enough, you could call in favors like debts. You could persuade people into revealing their weaknesses and make them feel like they’d given you a gift. That was what made Ludwig dangerous. He had a face that begged to be trusted and a smile as sharp as a knife in the back.
