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“There can be now,” insists Nine. “Oberon wants to be the Summer King, not the Fae King. But there can be no Summer King without a Winter Queen.”
That makes sense to me. From the way Morgan stays quiet a moment, she’s probably thinking along the same lines.
And then she says, “Why should I believe you? You served under Melisandre.”
“I did,” Nine admits. “But only because I was working against her.”
“What about the Seelie lurking outside of my curtain? Was he loyal to the False Queen?”
It’s my turn to jump into their conversation. “You can sense Rys? You know he’s out there?”
How?
Morgan nods over at me, an indulging smile on her face. “I can. But don’t worry, Elle. I recognize him from the brand on your skin. You’ve claimed that one. So long as he’s with you, he’s safe in my woods, even if he once served Melisandre.”
Um. Sure.
“So is your human friend.” Her gaze slides behind me, finally finding Jim. “Oh.” Her smile goes from indulging to blinding. “Hello.”
When Jim doesn’t say anything, I turn to see what’s up. He’s normally not so rude, and even if he’s still dealing with… well, everything… I thought he would at least be polite and say hello.
That’s when I realize why he’s been so quiet.
He’s staring. Like he’s been struck dumb, he’s watching Morgan so closely, I don’t even think he’s blinking.
I elbow him. “Jim. Say hi.”
He jumps, his tanned skin turning a bright red beneath his cuts. Holy shit. Now he’s blushing.
“Oh. Sorry. Hi. I’m Jim.”
“Morgan.” Her smile dims just a little. “What happened to your face?”
His hand lifts to his cheek. “Oh. This.”
“Actually, Morgan,” I say, dragging her attention back to me, “that’s why I came back to your place. Yeah, we’ve been searching for the Winter Queen”—and I still can’t believe that it’s Morgan—“but after what happened to Jim…” I hesitate. I don’t want to bring it up again if it’ll only hurt him. “I knew you were nearby. I was hoping you could help him.”
“For you, Elle, I would. Consider it my repaying my debt to you.”
Debt? “You don’t owe me anything.”
“Maybe if I had been able to save you from the Faerie Market, I’d agree with you. I’m glad you’re well. By the time I went back for you, they told me you were already—”
“It’s okay,” I say loudly. No way do I want Jim to hear that I was sold on the auction block. “Don’t worry about it.”
She gets the hint. “Yes. Well. I’ll gladly take care of the human for you.” She gestures to Jim. “Please. Come inside.”
“Uh. Yeah.”
Huh. It was that easy? Jim doesn’t even turn back to look at me, or see if I’m going with him.
That… that’s different.
Before I can really focus on that, Nine comes up next to me. He can’t touch me, since I never gave him permission, but as he jerks his head away from the front of Morgan’s cottage, I get the gist. I follow him until we hit the inner barrier of the shadow, Riley right behind us.
“I assume you didn’t know.”
I snort. It just slips out. “You think I wouldn’t have mentioned that the Winter Queen we’ve been told to find is the same person as the friend that I’ve been talking about for ages now?”
