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atened me with a stint in Samradh if I didn’t do what the king wanted.
Dusk is gone, I remind myself. Even if Helix follows through on his threat, I also know firsthand that it’s possible to stage a break-out from the Unseelie prison.
Okay. Bring it on, Helix. Do your freaking worst.
He lifts his hand. Without a word, he uses his pointer finger to draw a small square in the air in front of him. Reaching inside, the captain takes a small, wooden box from inside of the hovering portal.
Talk about déjà vu. The first time we met, Helix pulled the same stunt. Using his Seelie magic to create a small pocket, he retrieved the box of iron cuffs that he made me put on myself.
On the plus side, this box looks way too small to hold the thick, heavy handcuffs.
Then again, I can’t help but remember what Rys told me all those months ago.
In Faerie, trust no one.
Well, except for him. For better or for worse, I trust him.
Sure as fuck don’t trust Helix, though.
“What is it?” I ask, not even trying to keep the suspicion out of my tone.
“Siúcra asked me to bring this back to you. I said I would.”
“You talk to the prison?”
He sniffs. “You can’t?”
I start to say no, then realize that I’d totally be lying. The day we escaped, in order to leave through its ominous gate, I made my sacrifice—but, before I did, I heard a booming voice echoing inside of my head. It was definitely the prison. No wonder everybody spoke about Siúcra as it was a living being instead of just a fairy jail.
“Fair enough. But what’s inside?”
Helix pops open the lid.
I just about stop breathing when I see the small, silver ring nestled on a bed of cotton. The last time I saw it, I was wrestling it off my finger, leaving it behind as a token of my sacrifice to the infamous Faerie prison.
“Take it.”
I… I don’t know if I want to.
I can feel Rys squeezing my hip. I don’t know if he’s silently telling me to grab it, or if it was an involuntary reaction because he’s just as shocked at what Helix is offering me as I am.
“Siúcra released you from your imprisonment when it accepted your sacrifice,” Helix says. “The Summer King has given you a full pardon in exchange for your meeting with Morrigan. You’ve been freed.”
“What does that mean? Can I…”
Shit. I don’t even know what I was about to say. Go home? Sometime in the last few weeks, Faerie has become my new home. Go back to Jim? Even if that was possible—and, courtesy of his trade, it’s not—I know I couldn’t. Not now that I’ve discovered that I’ve always been fated to be with Rys.
And it’s not about his prophecy. Not really. I fell hard for Rys when he was my scarred Seelie cellmate and I was willing to do whatever I could to get him to take me with him if he ever escaped the prison.
Now I’m willing to do whatever I have to to stay with him.
Helix moves the box closer. Because I know that the captain isn’t going to stop until I do, I snatch the silver ring from the box. I don’t put it on, though. I can’t. Instead, I slip it into my pocket. I’ll figure out what to do with it later.
He snaps the lid shut. “I also have a message for you from Oberon.”
Oh, great. “Um. Okay.”
“The False Queen was never his ffrindau, but she was his mate.” Helix glances over at Rys. “The message was for your human, but you should think on that as well, soldier.”
