Avery gaped at him in mock surprise. “Oh, am Iallowedto speak?”
Gideon grimaced, and despite both of them knowing the following question was leading the Archfey into a trap, he posed it regardless. “Why wouldn’t you?”
“It would seem to me you are a little confused as to what you expect of me. You ask me to stop talking, and now it is absurd that I am silent.” Avery’s tone was petulant, bitterness bubbling beneath every word. Gideon had a way of making her feel like a child, and she did very little to fight theimpulses that often came with it.
“Fates alive, when did you start actually listening to me?”
“When I knew it wouldannoyyou,” Avery muttered. She turned once more to the comfort of the passing scenery—the world both familiar and concurrently strange.
A minute passed before Gideon broke the silence once more. For a man who had claimed he wantedherto stop talking,hewas doing an awful lot of it. “Did you sleep?”
Avery rocked her hand back and forth in a lackadaisical fashion. It had been her first sleep without the curse, but it had not been restful or without nightmares.
“Strong curses, even when broken properly, can have lingering effects. Should it begin to affect your work, you are to alert the council so some remedies can be made.”
“Should it affect my work,” she repeated snidely.
“Don’t make this an argument.”
“No, Gideon, stop trying to turn a hostage situation into small talk.”
“Very well, perhaps it would be better ifIsaid nothing,” Gideon suggested, and the air around the back seat chilled to winter.
This, in turn, lit a fire in Avery. “That would be one of your stronger assets, would it not?” She did not wait for a retort. “They condemned me to five hundred years of mental and emotional torture, a fate far crueler than death, and you saidnothing.”
“You committed treason.”
“I did whatneededto be done,” Avery spat. “What your precious council was too terrified to do, whatyouwere too much of a coward to attempt!”
The accusation hung in the air like the sword of Damocles, but disaster never struck.
“I know,” the Archfey admitted in a low tone.
It was the agreement that gave Avery pause. In the centuries they had been forced to interact, never once could she remember a time when Gideon had ever agreed with her, let alone to something that could beeven remotely incriminating. To her distaste, it also didn’t give her the swell of pride she was expecting. Instead, the fire died in her, and she felt akin to a deflated balloon.
“But blood cannot go unanswered.”
“Itwasanswered,” Avery said quietly. “Ianswered it.”
“The council did not agree.”
“Clearly.”
“Nor was I in a position to persuade them at the time.”
At thetime?
Avery shifted, suddenly unable to find a comfortable position in her seat. Her focus on the passing buildings softened as his phrasing set a flock of theories racing out in all directions of her mind.At the timeimplied that times had changed.At the timeimplied the actions that had been were not the actions now. She took a slow controlling breath and pursed her lips. The inquiry rattled around within her, shouting,nagging.“Gideon,” she began cautiously. “Didyoupersuade the council to release me early?”
“Your incomparable skill as an investigator, knowledge of criminal psychology, and ability to move between the human world and ours is why the council released you early,” came the stiff reply.
It was the closest statement to an admission of advocacy she knew she might ever get. This did not comfort her. The council changing their minds was an enigma, but Gideon being the one to propose it likely meant he had a larger plan in mind. While not the mad king their father was, Gideon Blackthorn did not do things out of the goodness of his heart.Thiswas leverage;thiswas a favor to be cashed in at a later date;thiswas a greater debt owed than first depicted, and it set her rightly on edge. In for a penny, in for a pound… “On the note of ability to move between… I hope the council realizes I will need some kind of compensation. I am afraid I had to pay for my breakfast on credit.”
“We have agreed upon a stipend pending each solved case.”
“Pending eachsolvedcase? Starvation is a rather medieval motivation,wouldn’t you say?”
“Your meals at Hudson’s are taken care of, as is your lodging,through the council’s generosity.”
