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Nine answers for her. I guess, despite being Unseelie, he’s just like Rys in that way. “We’ll be better when this mission is complete and we can return home.”
“What’s the matter, Nine?” drawls Rys. “You don’t miss living in Faerie?”
“Once I got used to living with the iron and the tech, it’s not so bad. I can even go out in the day now. Plus, there’s none of the Court politics to deal with.” Nine scoffs. “Well, not usually.”
“Hey, Oberon can’t hold his part of the Shadow Prophecy over my head forever,” Riley says. “We find this Winter Queen, we get her to agree to meet with Oberon, and we can go back home and never have to deal with this shit again.”
Rys tuts. He actually tuts. “Us fae are basically immortal, Shadow. Just like any humans who stay in Faerie. If the Summer King believes you owe him, he’ll never close that debt.”
While Riley sighs at Rys’s glib response, and Nine scowls at him, I’m actually a little bit caught off guard by the easy way Rys slips that part about humans in there.
Huh. That’s… that’s pretty good to know. I’d been wondering about that, especially since I know time doesn’t work the same here. In the stories my mom used to tell me about Faerie, humans who cross the veil into the magical realms could spend centuries on the other side and come back looking like they’ve never aged a day.
Oblivious to how his off-handed comment has gotten to me, Rys places both of his boots on the floor before leaning forward in his seat. “Now that that’s settled, is everyone ready? I’d like to start out as soon as we can.”
Nine nods. “I’ve gone over the plan that you submitted to Oberon. It’s very well done. I think it’s our best bet, too.”
Plan? I look at Rys.
He cocks his head slightly in my direction. “You sound so surprised. You forget, I was a soldier, trained at the Fae Queen’s academy. This isn’t my first mission. And,” he adds, his golden gaze locked on my face, “I have infinitely more at stake this time.”
A shiver runs up my spine. That look was so heated, I feel it warming me up from the inside out.
What was that about?
I’ve got no clue.
Riley’s staring at Rys, too—just not for the same reason that I am. Her eyes are drawn to the scar stretching across the left side of his face.
And that’s when she mutters, “Before we go, I want to say I’m sorry.”
Rys finally tears his gaze away from me. Glancing at Riley, a stray smile tugging on his lush lips, he waves his hand carelessly. “Think nothing of it.”
“No, it’s just… Nine doesn’t think I should say anything, but if we’re going to be doing this as a group, I just want to put it out there. I’m sorry. You were a pain in my ass, but I never expected there to be iron in the shovel. I didn’t think you’d scar.”
“Trust me, Shadow, neither did I.”
“She’s not your Shadow,” Nine tells Rys, his silver eyes going dark.
Rys doesn’t seem to be bothered by Nine’s harsh retort. Instead, he shrugs and says, “And that was the problem, wasn’t it, Nine? She was never mine.”
Riley clicks her tongue. “Stop this crap. Both of you. I swear, if you two are going to act like this the entire time, I’d rather take my chances with Oberon. Nine, you’re my mate. End of story. No one else.”
No one else…
Realization slams into me. Between the daggers that Nine is shooting at Rys, the way Rys is all but smirking at the Unseelie, and poor Riley looking like she’s caught in a tug of war between the two of them…
I’m suddenly reminded of everything Saxon told me, added to the few tidbits Rys let drop whenever he mentioned his almost mate. And then I focus on Riley’s bright blue eyes and her white-blonde hair. My gaze slips to the Dark Fae who stands beside her.
Oh, come on. Even my luck can’t be that bad.
Of all the people Oberon could be sending us off with, does it have to be the woman that Rys was convinced was his mate before he met me?
I hope I’m wrong. I don’t see how I can be, and I decide then and there that ignorance is fucking bliss. If I don’t ask, then I don’t have to have confirmation that Riley is the woman Rys chased before me and that Nine is the fae she refused him for. Besides, does it matter? From the first time I met them at Oberon’s palace, I could tell that these two are tight. I have nothing to be jealous of, even if I didn’t have my hands already full with Jim.
But wait a second—
“You did that to Rys’s face? Really?”
