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We moved past a shop selling the sweetest smelling breads. It was difficult to keep from going inside, but a question spurred me on. “Can fae die?”
Thorn’s brows raised. “Why, my Queen, are you planning a murder?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m just curious. Can you die of hunger or old age?”
“Eventually, yes. No one lives forever.”
“But you do live for a long time.”
“Yes,” he said easily. “Much longer than mortals.”
Especially longer than Mortal Queens. We kept going with me absorbing every detail of the island. In the distance, an elephant trumpeted.
An elephant.
I scoured around to see it, but a hand found my elbow, one belonging to an older fae with grey hair and a hunched back. Her violet eyes gazed at me from behind a teal scarf. “It’s been a while since a Mortal Queen set foot here. Though some might say not long enough.”
I stepped back, bumping into Thorn, who tightened his hold on my hand. “She’ll be no trouble today.”
“Hmm.” The woman’s croak sounded suspiciously like disappointment.
“Gaia and Ivory used to come,” Thorn whispered as the woman backed into the tent, where pools of woven baskets sat, but her eye didn’t leave us until a group of loud fae passed, blocking her view. I looked to Thorn.
“I can’t imagine Gaia here.” I tried, but the image never landed right.
“Not the Gaia you see now, but she was different before. Gaia and Ivory ruled this island, and their tricks put us all to shame. The pair was unstoppable.”
I tried to picture Gaia like that, fierce and unrelenting. Cunning. But the only image I had of her was a sullen shadow who clung to the walls and frowned at those who got too close. Nothing deserving of the admiration in Thorn’s eyes. She was hardly more than a shell.
I shuddered. Someday that could be me. If this realm broke me and stripped my spirit. “What changed? I know she made a bad deal, but why is she so . . .”
“Lifeless?”
I nodded.
“Ivory died. The better half of the Ivory-Gaia alliance was gone, and all that remained was the ghost of her former self.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. Ghost was the perfect word to describe her. A vapor of life, clinging to a body.
“It broke our hearts when Ivory died.” To his credit, his eyes did glisten. “But for the first time, I think it broke the remaining queen more.” We paused in front of a tent, and he coughed his sorrow down to spread out his arms. “This is my favorite place.”
It wasn’t much from the outside, nothing more than a blue-and-green striped tent barely reaching the top of his head and about as wide as my outstretched arms. But he held back the flap and stepped inside, bringing me after him, and it all changed.
The tent was suddenly much larger, as large as my home back in the mortal realm, and much taller. Thorn’s words came to mind. Nothing on this island is as it seems. The smoky air smelled of papaya, and the perimeter was coated with bookshelves of merchandise and racks of clothes. Despite the massive size, it didn’t appear like much more than a humble store, yet at least ten other fae stood in this room, with several others in rooms that branched off.
A thin man with pointed ears and a slick beard glided to our side. “It’s a blessed day when royalty comes through your door,” he said smoothly.
“Percival,” Thorn said with a nod. “Have you the shipment?”
“That I do. Right this way.”
Thorn released my hand. “I’ll only be a moment,” he promised. He buttoned his suit jacket and followed the bearded man. I watched them make their way to the back of the tent, where the man sorted through rows of boxes, wondering what sort of shipment Thorn could be here for. But that was not my job today. Charming him was. Acquiring his favor.
Eventually, trapping him into draining his power to free me.
When he looked back, I smiled as sweetly as I could manage and turned away.
The shelves sparkled, though no starlight reached them. The trinkets called to me like I was bait and they were reeling me in. Shiny bottles with crisp labels were aligned in perfect rows on the shelf. I wondered what they held inside. Whatever it was, it was strong enough that my hand involuntarily moved to the caps. I had to know.
