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Maybe?
I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to figure this out. Probably beca
use, all along, I’ve been thinking like a human. But while I’ll never be anything else, I’m part of Faerie now. If I want to survive—if I want to thrive—then I have to think like one of the faerie folk.
It might work. I mean, it’s my best shot. My only shot, really.
Hopping over the mess I made, I dash over to my dresser. I yank out my jeans, shoving my hand in the right-hand pocket. It’s gotta be in here. No matter how many times I’ve worn these jeans, I’ve held onto it just in case I ever needed it. Where is it? Where is it—
Yes!
I pull out the tiny bag that I got off the imps all of those weeks ago. Fisting it tightly, I toss my jeans back into their drawer. I don’t even bother closing it. I just hold onto the bag and run out of my room, racing straight to Rys’s closed door. I don’t knock because I’m not about to give Rys the chance to turn me away. I just hope he’s back, that he’s inside.
Fingers crossed.
I take a second to settle myself before shoving the door open.
Rys is sitting at his desk, his head bowed over a stack of papers. His head lifts as soon as the door swings inward, an annoyed expression flashing across his face before he realizes that I’m the one who’s disturbing him.
He shifts in his seat before standing up. He walks over to me, wearing the same closed-off look that makes me want to scream. “Leannán? I thought you were in bed already. Is everything alright?”
If everything goes according to my plan, it will be.
I’ve always been impulsive. Jim accused me of jumping headfirst into things more than once, and the fact that I’m trapped in Faerie is proof of that. If I had thought twice before I walked through the fairy circle in the first place, my whole life never would’ve been turned upside down at the same time as the world went sideways.
Then again, I never would’ve met Rys. And if I had to go through it all to find my soul mate, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
So maybe I’m not just impulsive. Maybe this really is fate.
Welp. Here goes nothing.
No.
Here goes everything.
I hold the bag out to Rys. “This is all I have.”
When he doesn’t take it, I give it a shake. The coins jingle, making Rys narrow his golden gaze on the tiny bag.
“Go on. Take it.”
“What are you doing, Leannán?”
“I know what that means,” I blurt out. “Riley told me. It’s not as simple as being a sweetheart or a lover. The Leannán sídhe”—and I totally butchered that—“are human lovers. I remember, back when we were in Siúcra. I asked you what it meant when you first called me that name. You said it was a reminder. You knew all along that I was your mate, and you admit as much every time you call me that. That you… that you love me.”
He doesn’t deny it. He just stares pointedly at me, almost as if waiting for me to get back to the topic at hand.
Right.
I snag his wrist, pressing the imps’ coins against his palm. “Fifty gold coins. It’s all I have. I traded one of my apples for it… but you used Saxon to give them to me, so they were really yours, too.”
“They were a gift.” He tries to give the coins back to me. “So this is rightfully yours.”
“Even if it is, you still bought me. At the auction—”
“Leannán.”
“Please. Let me finish. You gave the redcap seven hundred coins to buy me. When that little dick took your money, the contract was sealed. I belong to you. That’s the thing about Faerie, right? One of the first things I had to learn. Balance. There has to be balance.”
