Page 56 of Taken By Shadows

Audrie shook her head. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Where … where is Kaed now?”

I wasn’t sure why I cared. Maybe something had softened in me from what Celeste had done.

“He doesn’t want to be disturbed.”

That wasn’t an answer, but I picked at a cake while another silence filled the air.

Audrie didn’t meet my eyes as she spoke. “Where were you going?”

I hung my head and couldn’t look at her. “I really was just curious,” I said, feeling oddly childish. “I … I’ve never been to a place like this. And I know it’s silly, but—” I looked up to see Audrie’s bright eyes patiently waiting, not judging. “I just wanted to see the sea. It felt different to be near it. Like a part of me had been missing until I saw it.”

I expected Audrie to laugh, to mock me. But she just smiled.

“I don’t think I belong in a place like this, though.” My fingers fanned over where the cuts had been just last night. I hadn’t really considered that danger was real. It was always imaginary until you came face-to-face with it.

And last night just highlighted how ill-suited I was to fae cities. Or meadows. Bleeding Crowns.

“Seeing Celeste’s magic—” My voice cracked a little. “Only reminded me of that. I’m … I’m not like them. I can’t heal.” My finger traced an errant thread in the bedsheets.

“Healing magic is rarer than you’d think. At least offering it is,” she continued. “Emotions favour violence and anger over peace and compassion.”

My face was going to end up permanently scrunched to look like a gargoyle on a weather-beaten building at this rate. I had thought all fae could offer healing, heal naturally. Showed what I knew about “my kind.” I blinked before I could roll my eyes.

“My studies,” she explained, “they cover fae history. Including magic-wielding.”

My eyes sparked at that. But I felt the shimmer of my excitement die as I saw Audrie’s expression. It was hurt in her eyes as she looked me over.

“Will you tell me about your studies?” I tried to soften my words.

“Are you going to endanger yourself again?”

“I wasn’t trying to get attacked. It just happened.” I leaned in, but she pulled her hand out of mine.

“Walking around here—anywhere—you’ve got to be careful.” Her voice was softer than I had any right to be privy to right now.

“Audrie, I’m not helpless. They were just—”

“You. Need. To. Be. More. Careful.” Her arms folded. “This isn’t like some small town. It’s not safe. People go missing all the time.” A stern look crossed her brow. I wasn’t sure she pulled it off. “People aren’t always kind to … people like you.” The echo of Jon’s words hit me.

She was right. This was so far from anything I knew. Not that Shadowfall had been particularly kind to me, but it was only after I left that I’d really landed myself in trouble. And frequently, it seemed.

While I pondered that, Audrie stood and began a tight pace back and forth.

“I have a bargain with Kaed, but I am still very much his prisoner, even if it doesn’t feel like it always.” It felt strange to admit any of this to Audrie. She was under his roof. But there was something in her that I couldn’t deny. I knew she was a friend to me.

I scoffed at the whole situation. Nothing about this situation was normal. I was a prisoner in a room of silk and finery. I was healed by a kind soul and kept by a dark one. I was sitting, eating lemon cakes with the sweetest person I’d ever met. And I was ready to leave at a moment’s notice for parents and a family who didn’t want me, a village that didn’t spare me a thought, for a future I wasn’t even sure still survived.

“Maybe he’s not as uncaring as you think.” Her eyes were unguarded, like she truly could believe that, as they dipped to search mine.

I laughed. “Oh?”

“See?” She pulled open an armoire.

Gowns. Lots of gowns. They spilled out like rivers of a rainbow in every shade of blue, green and lavender. Silk and velvet and jacquard.

“He’s picked this one for tonight.” Audrie held up a sea of fabric. A wispy dark-blue gown of fine tulle and silk that swayed like clouds in a breeze. The gown was scooped low and open at the shoulders, and two pieces of fabric were tied off at the nape. Shimmering amethyst beads danced along the hem and all through the skirts.