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Quickly, she filled him in. A muscle in his jaw ticked when she’d finished her story. With a sigh, he jammed his fingers into his hair. “This isn’t good, though I’m glad you have your bond with Taveon again. What does he think about all this?”
“He doesn’t want me to kill Dagen.”
Rafe arched a brow. “Of course he doesn’t. The court would riot.”
“Well, luckily for the both of you, I’m not there, so I can’t.”
There was another thing she wanted to tell him. The answer to all their problems, at least where the demons were concerned. All they needed was sunlight. But Bree had made a promise to Taveon, and she would not break it.
Of course, it didn’t hurt to ask a few questions.
“Rafe…has Underworld always been the way it is now?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m just thinking about all these realms. There are four of them. The human realm, the light fae realm, the dark fae realm, and the demon realm.”
“That’s right,” he said with a nod.
“Tell me about the demon realm.”
“I don’t know a great deal about it, Bree,” he admitted. “It’s always been closed off to us. It’s been centuries since they were any sort of threat, and even then, they did little to bother us. The gate between our worlds has always been shut, or at least we thought it was. What I do know is that the souls of the damned live there, along with the demons who feast upon their waning life-force.”
Bree started pacing. “These demons, they feed on the human souls of the dead?”
“That’s right.” He frowned. “Where are your thoughts going, Bree? I can tell something is on your mind.”
“Dark fae have to survive by feasting on human life-force. That’s why there’s the Tithe.”
Rafferty stiffened. “We are nothing like the demons, Bree. Yes, some of us can be wicked and cruel, but that is nothing compared to the brutality of the demons.”
Bree took his hand in hers and squeezed tight. “I wasn’t suggesting you’re anything like them. But thereisa connection. Isn’t there?”
“A similarity? Yes, I suppose there is. They need human souls to survive. We need human essence.”
“But the light fae don’t have that issue,” Bree pointed out. “And humans definitely don’t.”
Rafe sighed and scratched his neck. “All right. I still don’t see how that has anything to do with any of this.”
“Think about it.” Bree’s mind began to spin. There was something there. She knew it. But it was as if she did not have all the pieces to the puzzle yet, and the edges did not fit together. “You both need humans to survive. Your lands are both stuck in endless night. The light fae don’t have that. They aren’t stuck in endless day. There’s night there. So, why are you stuck in night?”
Rafe cocked his head. “How do you know the demon realm is stuck in endless night?”
“Oh, Taveon told me,” Bree said, trying to sound nonchalant. She knew she could trust Rafferty, of course. Over everyone else, she could trust him. But she’d made a promise to Taveon. Never speak it out loud. So, she wouldn’t.
“All right,” Rafe said. “But that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Maybe it does.” Bree tapped her chin, trying to make the pieces fit. “How did this realm come to be? Who were the first dark fae? When did the Tithe truly begin?”
“I don’t know, Bree. If you want those answers, you need a library.”
“So, where do I find one of those?”
Rafe rubbed his jaw. “Are you serious about this? You want to go to a library right now?”
“What else can we do? Neither one of us can return to the castle unless we want to end up trapped. At least going in search of ancient answers is doing something.”
Through the bond, Bree felt Taveon’s displeasure. He did not want her to go far, but she could also feel that he wanted answers even more than she did.
“I’m not sure, Bree,” Rafferty said. “If we find answers about the origins of our realms, how will that help?”
“Maybe it can give us a way to defeat the demons,” Bree said. “And if we’re lucky, we can save us all.”
