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Odette went pale.
She didn’t clap. She didn’t cheer. She only stared at the bracelet.
“Where did you get that?” she asked in a far-off tone.
I replaced my sleeve. “Bash stole it for me. We’re giving it back as soon as I’m a fae. Please don’t tell. It could cost him his kingdom if the lords knew he took it.”
“Take it off now.” Her voice was hard and I blinked.
“Why? Don’t you want me to become a fae? I’ll be like you.” She grabbed my arm and began to claw at the bracelet. I yanked my arm away. “What has gotten into you?”
“That’s one of the King’s Bracelets,” she said. “It’s a power-stealer for the kings. Thea, it doesn’t harness power. It steals it. The moment you have power to steal, that bracelet is going to suck it all away from you and put it in Bash. Once you force the ambassador to give you their power, that bracelet will drain you of everything you have and leave you on the verge of death. You won’t become a fae if you use that. You’ll die.”
All the hope I’d felt moments before was stripped from me, leaving behind a heavy confusion. Humiliation.
I staggered. “He tricked me?”
Odette nodded just as the trumpets blasted again.
“Don’t use that bracelet,” she begged. “It will kill you.”
I struggled to breathe. “He wasn’t going to make me a fae.”
She shook her head.
I struggled for a solution. “Then I will order the ambassador to give me her power without the bracelet. I have control over her.”
“A mortal cannot hold the power of a fae. All who have tried have died.”
“Then why would Bash suggest it?”
Odette didn’t answer. She didn’t need to. He’d never intended to make me a fae. He only wanted the power of an ambassador. He needed authority to rule the lands after taking the kingdom from his father, and he thought the ambassador’s power would make him strong enough to do so.
He was willing to let me die to do that.
This realm had played many games with me, yet I had begun to grow fond of it in an odd way. My face heated as I realized how foolish I must have appeared, confessing to Bash how I wanted to stay here with him and become a fae. How I loved this realm. Naive, young mortal. He’d played me well. He’d almost gotten me to steal the power of an ambassador for him—and to do so willingly.
While I fawned over him, he must have been laughing at me.
I could cry. I could scream. But the trumpets blasted again.
“You have to go,” Odette urged. “It’s time to see your realm again. But, Thea, do not use that bracelet.”
“I won’t,” I breathed. “I won’t.”
She sighed in relief. “We will find another way for you to live.”
My eyes went to my bag. I had another way. “I need a moment. You go. I’ll be right out.”
I watched her leave, closing the door behind her.
If my heart were glass, it would have shattered right there. The worst part was that I’d been warned repeatedly. I’d been told Bash couldn’t be trusted, that he was ruin, that he was incapable of love. Yet somehow I believed his pretty words and that he’d fallen for a Mortal Queen. I’d believed, in our short time together, I had changed him and that he was capable of love. I’d looked upon his perfect heart and honestly convinced myself that it would love for me. As if I were special.
Bash would always be the fae whose heart couldn’t be cracked. And I’d be nothing but the girl who’d tried for him anyway.
Out of all the tricks in this realm, this one hurt the most. It nearly killed me.
There wasn’t time to cry or drown in this pity. Forget about Bash. I’d almost lost sight of my true home. I reached in my bag and pulled out the gold watch. The one to stop time.
