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I sense Nine the second he comes up behind me.
I don’t have any idea how long he’s been here, if he stumbled on Carolina before me, or if he just so happened to slip in through the portal some time before I returned to the Wilkes House, or if it’s just bad luck on his part that he’s returned to find me mourning my friend.
He said he would come back. I see the black bag he’s clutching in his slender fingers. The rowan he promised? I’ve got the t-shirt under my hoodie turned inside out like he told me to, but with my friend lying on the floor in front of me, it all seems too little too late.
He reaches inside of his duster, disappearing the bag in an instant. He probably realizes it, too.
“You know this human girl?”
I can’t find my voice. I nod.
“Did you know that she was touched by a very strong Dark Fae?”
Another nod.
Nine crouches low. His dark coat fans out behind him as he bows his head. His raven-black hair covers him like a curtain, hiding his face and Carolina’s peaceful expression. The way his head is angled, it almost looks like he’s giving her a kiss.
A sob bubbles up from my throat. Or maybe it’s a laugh.
The world’s most twisted version of Snow White. That’s what this is. Only Carolina was poisoned from her first bite of apple; it just took almost a year for her to finally succumb to it. And Nine? He might have been my Prince Charming once, but what can he do for Lina now?
Unless—
“Touch her,” I tell him. My voice is thick. I swallow roughly, then try again. “Nine, please.”
He doesn’t say no. Instead, he asks softly, “She’s eaten food from Faerie, hasn’t she?”
He slowly straightens. Since that’s the opposite of what I want him to do, I can’t handle it. I start to beg. Anything to save Carolina. “It’s okay, right? You saved me when I did. All it took was a touch. Touch her. She won’t care if it fixes her.”
“I’d do anything you asked of me. But this is beyond even my type of magic.” He backs away. “Say your goodbyes, Riley. I’ll take care of her after you do.”
“Take care of her now! She’s not dead… she can’t be. She was just fine. She was supposed to have another apple. Her mistress promised her another apple.” Carolina’s stubborn expression, the way she told me fiercely that she would never beg for a bite. Is that what happened? “Damn it, Lina, why didn’t you eat the fucking apple?”
“It was too late. Even if she did, and she might have, it would’ve only prolonged the inevitable,” he murmurs. “The brand’s too deep. She was charmed for too long.”
“She wasn’t charmed. She was cursed.” I whirl on Nine. I want to lash out, to hit him, to make him hurt like I’m hurting. I don’t. I can’t. I’m right back where I began. Just the idea of touching anyone else—even Nine—has me ready to crawl out of my skin. Instead, I point a leather finger at him. “You could have touched her. You could have saved her.”
“It wouldn’t have helped. You know that, Riley. When the shock fades, when you get past your grief, you’ll accept that.”
“She was my friend,” I whisper. I don’t care what she did or what she planned, she was still my friend. She didn’t deserve this.”
“I’m sorry. I am. But we’re fae. It’s part of our nature.”
I goggle up at him. I’m not as furious as I was. More… stunned.
“Are you justifying what that other Dark Fae did?”
“Shadow—”
My voice is nasally. Dull. I swallow my tears, then croak out a warning. “Don’t call me that.”
“Riley. Listen to me. Sometimes this happens. The girl made her choice when she made her bargain. No one eats faerie food by accident.”
“I did.”
“No. You didn’t,” Nine argues. “You were tricked. You’d been to the garden where that peach grew, your fae side recognized it for what it was, and you ate it. If you were human, you never would’ve been so tempted—and I never would’ve been able to reverse the curse. I’m sorry. This human was as good as dead from the minute she took her first bite. It’s why my kind risk coming to the world of iron. Humans are susceptible to magic because it doesn’t exist in this world. Not really. A touch, a bite… the rush of power is worth every risk. Unfortunately, the fae think of humans as playthings. Nothing more. And, sometimes, some of us can be a little… rough.”
Rough. Right.
