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I glanced quickly at Cosette, but her facade was so thick, I couldn’t even read her.
Well, I guessed this was it. I was placing my bet, I just prayed that it worked out in our favor.
My heart was racing, my wolf was rising, and I knew that in this second, everything about my life was going to change. I wasn’t sure what life without a lunar tie was going to be like, if I’d lose everything when it was gone—my strong senses, healing powers, ability to become a wolf—but I would lose Cosette if I didn’t try.
Fuck it.
I handed Ziriel the glittering, golden bargain.
“Oh, wow.” Ziriel turned to Cosette. “Do you know why this has grown so much?”
“I have a theory.” Again with the bored tone, but she stiffened, her back going straight and her chin tilting up. The picture of a prim princess.
“Well, let me tell you what I know.” Ziriel stepped back and addressed everyone in the arena. “This is some bargain. Maybe the most valuable one I’ve ever seen.” His voice echoed, bouncing off the smooth, glossy walls. “Not only does it tie to Chris, but because they have a barely there bond that ties them together, it’s bound to Cosette. And from Cosette, to her mother.”
There were some gasps, but all I could think was that if this coin was that big of a deal, then he was going to have to give me what I wanted.
“But that’s not all. From her mother, it ties to her father. The bond there is thick. The princess wouldn’t tell me who her father is but one touch of the coin and I know. I know!”
There was a chant in the crowd. One voice at first. Then more. And more.
“Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!”
With each chant, my wolf rose closer to the surface, waiting to rip through my skin if anything else happened.
I wasn’t even sure if Cosette knew which archon was her father. She didn’t show any emotion on her face, but I saw the way she was holding her hands, wiggling her fingers ever so slightly to keep them loose when all she wanted to do was clench them.
“I understand why she wouldn’t tell me,” Ziriel’s voice boomed, and the chanting died. “With the possibility of this much power coming down the lines to her, there is no reason Helen would ever want anyone—even her daughter—to know which archon she fucked.”
Cosette sucked in a quick gasp of air, but I couldn’t look away from Ziriel. He was floating a foot above the ground, and he started drifting back to us. His feet were smoke and then his eyes…
His eyes…
Oh, fuck no. His eyes.
Red circles surrounded his pupil glowing brighter and brighter with every word he spoke and I couldn’t look away. Everything disappeared around me except those glowing red rings.
And then I looked around and everything came into focus. It wasn’t one thing, but a bunch of different things that all came together to form one picture, and I finally—finally—knew what Cosette couldn’t tell me.
Turning to smoke.
Rotten human meat.
Telling fortunes and betting.
Tricksters. Dealing in information.
Eavesdropping in Heaven and Hell.
Even the fucking containers in the library.
I knew exactly what he was and what he’d ordered Cosette not to tell me.
Goddamnit. Ziriel was a djinn.
The entire Court of Gales were djinn.
And yet, it didn’t change a damned thing. I still had a deal to make. With a fucking djinn.
