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“I don’t think you do. I need an alliance with a Mortal Queen to prove I’m not heartless. I need a tight alliance. Then the islands will let me lord them.”
My eyes narrowed. “How tight?”
“Being seen often with a pretty queen would be beneficial. To show your bond with me, you’d need to make no further alliances. If you make many alliances, the value of each is diminished.”
That made sense. One alliance showed a strong bond. Ten alliances would mean I was stretched out. But agreeing to give up my power to form new alliances put a lot of trust in this one to grant me enough prestige. With so many unanswered questions about how to survive, I’d need all available options. And I planned to break my alliance with Lord Winster, which would leave me solely with the House of Delvers and King Bastian.
“I save your rulership, close myself to all other alliances, and all I get is a star?”
“I can give you two.” Though he joked, he didn’t smile. “I need this. I’ll grant you whatever you ask.”
That promise hung between us, and I searched for what he could give me that could save my life.
“I give you two years of my allegiance, and on the final day, you take me home so I live.”
He hung his head. “I can’t grant that. It’s forbidden.”
“By whom?”
“The fabric of this realm. I’d die.”
I turned away. “Then I don’t want anything.”
His hand caught mine, sending a tremor to my heart. “Please, Althea. I need this.”
I startled at his use of my name and slid my hand out from his. He stood with desperation in his eyes as he waited for me to give an answer, but while my heart broke for him, he could be twisting my emotions to make me care. As a fae king, he was one of the most powerful beings in this realm. Refusing him could be unwise. The choice balanced before me.
The key to my freedom might rest with him—if I was clever enough to find it. “I would want the honest answers to two questions of my choosing,” I decided.
“That’s it?” He brightened.
“And three stars.”
He clapped his hands with a boom louder than thunder. When his hands separated, three blazing stars rested within. “They are yours. I would have given you the galaxy.” With a snap of his fingers, a glass globe formed around the stars, and they twinkled inside. My little stars. They had no value, but they were gorgeous.
The smooth glass rested weightlessly in my palms.
“Now your questions.”
I only had one for now. “I want to know why you need Mortal Queens. What is our purpose?”
His brows shot up before settling back beneath his gold mask. I kept my own expression blank. If I knew the purpose of the Mortal Queens, I could fulfill it and be freed. I might never need to ask my second question.
Our alliance bound him to give me an honest answer, and that answer would lead me home.
Bastian swept his cloak away from his shoulders and tossed it back toward the door. “That is not a tale we fae give up lightly.” In three strides he crossed to his throne, built of rock, and took his seat. Beside it sat an obsidian pedestal holding up something shaped like a cloche but covered with red cloth. Bastian’s hands flickered in its direction as his eyes darted like he was making sure I couldn’t see underneath.
I held my stars to my side. “What’s in the cloche?”
“Is that your second question?”
“No.” I eyed the thick drape. Its ends skirted over the stone floor with a hushed sound.
Bastian leaned forward and looked down over me. I’d been right—the large throne didn’t dwarf him at all, it only exemplified his magnificence, and once more his beauty awed me. I could search the entire five islands and never find anyone quite like him. After a moment of my dumbed silence, he grinned. “Do you still want the answer to the first question?”
I set a hard look over my face. “I’m listening.”
Instead of beginning, he focused on me with an intense gaze that was difficult not to squirm beneath. The stars beside me hummed to fill the silence, their vibration ringing in my ear. When Bastian finally spoke, it wasn’t to give answers.
