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His eyes were sad. “You’ll see them at next year’s Choosing Ceremony and no more. Same as if you’d died.”
I weighed the options in my mind—live among the fae or live among my family. Live for centuries or live for less than one. Bash or my brothers. Whichever way I chose was sacrificing one in favor of the other.
“You don’t need to decide now,” Bash said. “In truth, I’m uncertain it would work.”
I twisted the ends of my hair between my fingers. “How would we try?”
“Well,” he wrapped his fingers around mine. Now that he’d touched me once, it was like he couldn’t stop. “The power belongs to the three ambassadors. They are this realm’s connection to yours. It’s a way of keeping some balance to the power here. The queens rank higher than the kings, then the three Houses rank below them. Next are the representatives, one for each House. After them are the lords. Then the ambassadors.”
I hadn’t realized that Talen, as a representative, ranked so high. But hadn’t Odette told me as much? How he’d traded her for that power?
“Okay,” I said. “So we need an ambassador to help us. I can ask one to assist.”
He shook his head. “She won’t. Making a mortal a fae means transferring power to you. You’d get her power and they’d lose it. One must be tricked into it.”
I blinked. “We both rank far higher than them. Can we not force the exchange?”
“The ambassadors rank low, but they hold their power with pride. None would give it up willingly. Trickery is the only way.”
Of course trickery was the answer. “How?”
The corner of his mouth curved upward. “Rumor has it, Lord Winster has seen one of the ambassador’s true face. With that, we needn’t force her. We must only ask, and she will be required to say yes.”
That sounded like forcing to me, but if it worked, I didn’t care about the technicalities. The mixture of relief and disappointment was an odd sensation. “I need Lord Winster.”
“Correct. But only a little. Call upon your alliance to gain power over the ambassador, and her power will be yours.”
It sounded enticing when he said it, like he was personally inviting me to a magical event where I’d find eternal happiness, and there was no way I could refuse. It almost made it worth having to interact with Lord Winster again.
He lifted a hand. “There is a small trick though.”
“There’s always a trick here, isn’t there?”
“It wouldn’t be fun any other way.” His lips lifted into a smile, but the look in his deep-set eyes was as if he were a moment away from losing me, and he could hardly hold on. “Mortals cannot hold the power of a fae. So for that moment, between taking her power and becoming a fae, you’ll need something to harness the energy. I can get a bracelet that will do so, but I’d have to steal it. I’ll be doing this at great risk.”
I took a deep breath. “I speak to Lord Winster, and you steal a bracelet. We turn me into a fae.”
“Then put the bracelet back before we get caught,” Bash added. The hard set of his shoulders pulled tight, like this were the most important bit.
“That doesn’t sound too complicated,” I mused.
“Here’s the trick—” Bash began.
I stopped him. “Just for my own knowledge, how many tricks will there be?”
He was quiet for a moment, something delicate dancing behind his eyes, then said, “This is the last one, promise.”
“I can handle that. What is it?”
“It’s no small matter to steal this bracelet.”
That was no surprise. “We will give it back,” I pointed out.
“We must. But it’s a crime to take it in the first place, even as a king. And I’m already on thin ice with my lords after I took the crown from my father. If they find out I stole this power token from them to help take the power from an ambassador, it will be considered an injustice. I could lose everything.”
My chest constricted at the gravity of what failure could mean for him. “Maybe we shouldn’t. You may not know this, but Lord Winster is not a favorite of mine. This plan may not work.”
“I’m aware it’s fragile, but there is no other way to become a fae. You need the strength of this forbidden bracelet to take her power.”
