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“You . . . framed him?”

“Gold filigree and hung on the wall,” he hissed and pushed away from the bed.

“Because he fucked me?”

“No, Sóna! Gods be damned, no! Because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time and found with a blade in your hand!” He was pacing, his boots chewing up the carpet.

“And . . . that’s it? You’ll just frame a man you’ve known for who knows how long, because some human girl you can’t even fuck was in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

There was a callousness to it I respected and a bur to the blade that made it too jagged, too imprecise. And that bur bothered me.

“You’re not just some girl!” He bellowed and then swallowed whatever he was about to say before settling into that dangerous, quiet knife I knew he was. “You don’t get to show up like this and judge me for my actions. Not now. Not after all this time.”

“What?”

Madness was itching at the edges of his words, and I couldn’t follow him anymore.

Just as quickly as the parchment of his mind unraveled, it snapped back into the roll, and I was shut out as he stiffened and fell back into the smooth courtier I had first met.

“I will send someone with your dinner. I have duties to perform before the day is done.”

The door to his cell, now mine, slammed behind him. “Hey! My hands!”

He was gone, once again leaving me to sit with the mess left in his wake. To sit and chew on everything I had known and everything he had revealed.

Chapter 30

Despite my hands being bound, I had no issues rifling through his possessions. Rule #8: Opportunity seen, opportunity taken. If he wanted privacy, he shouldn’t have brought me to his private room and left me here with my hands shackled in front of me. The smarter option would have been to keep them behind my back. At least then I’d need to work to get them in front of me before I went ransacking his room for something to pick the lock.

I was hip-deep in one of his chests when the door opened again.

“I see you’ve made yourself at home, Cricket,” the jovial voice of Green Man called from the doorway.

Popping up with a start, I blinked at him before a grin split my face wide, and I rushed to him.

He danced around, protecting his tray. “Down, girl! Down, puppy! You’ll spill your meal!”

I laughed, and it felt good to feel my belly shake with it instead of trembling in either fear or lust.

Backing away, I watched with a grin plastered across my face as he took in the surroundings and whistled low. “When they told me to go to the Maw and then keep going, I thought they were daft. No one goes to the Maw willingly let alone dares to venture farther. Had I known they hid a palace down here, I’d be skipping down at every chance. Hallway in’s a little dodgy, but this makes it worth it.”

His rich umber eyes made their way back to me, the vines that crossed his face snapping and creaking into a smile. “Well, take your tray and invite me in, Princess Shithead.”

“Can’t.” I lifted my arms beneath the cloak tenting it around them. “Some asshole left me cuffed.”

“Almost like you’re a prisoner! How very unchivalrous of him. Well. We will have to see to that. Can’t have our dear Princess Shithead locked up, now can we? How will she wreak havoc and mayhem upon the land without her mischief makers?” Four leaves of ivy that made up his brows drew down as he winked. “Lucky for you, I was long ago granted with a magical key that unlocks any and every lock these tricky Fae can create.”

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “Really?”

“Yep. I call it a ha-mur.” He set the tray down next to the discarded, singed gloves The Raven had left unattended and fished a small ball peen hammer from his pocket. “And a chee-zel.” A butter knife that had been pounded into the shape of a rough ice pick like chisel was produced.

I snorted a laugh as he pretended to marvel at the wondrous magic he had produced.

“Eh, this is going to be a little awkward. I’m naked under this thing.” I was trying to hitch the cloak up to uncover my hands for him.

A low, creaking crack of wood moving that had no interest in moving heralded the simple shrug of his shoulder. “I saw your gross, wrinkly brain. I doubt one can get more intimate than that.”

“Green Man! Did everyone get an eyeful of my brain?”