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“You are observant,” I reply, my words measured.
Keeping my breaths shallow, I hold my features into a stoic mask. He cannot know I am desperate to reach Alienor.
“Was your trip to the human world a success?” he asks.
“No.” I step toward him.
He shrinks into the shadows, to my surprise. As I pass him, the green light within his bones fades as though he finds something about me repellent.
If Alienor wasn’t dying, I would pause to consider this, perhaps even ask him a question, but I don’t care why the monster recoils.
Ignoring him, I continue through the rubble, out into the palace’s overgrown gardens. Every one of the mushrooms that make up the circle has either lost its cap or stands at an angle with its stalk snapped in half.
Sabotage.
My only means of reaching the human world is destroyed.
I whirl around and glower into the light glowing from his eye sockets. The Barghest stands within the confines of my palace, looking as though he wants to keep his distance.
“This is your doing,” I snarl.
He sniffs. “I am weary of this bargain. It is time for me to reap.”
My shoulders stiffen.
Not now.
Without these mushrooms, I cannot return to Alienor. Without the Barghest’s immortality, my body will crumble into ash and bone.
“The word of a faerie is its bond,” I say.
He raises his front paw to the bones of his snout and examines his claws.
I clench my jaw. “Our bargain is not complete.”
“True,” he replies. “But there is always a loophole. For example, if you find your wife and decide not to kill her—”
“It is a pity then, that I still cannot locate my wife after all these centuries.” I grind my teeth and wait for him to make his move, but he continues to keep his distance.
When I step toward the Barghest, he flinches backward.
Interesting.
“Will you repair the mushroom circle?” I ask.
“No.”
The answer strikes like lightning. I resist the urge to react.
“How can I fulfill my bargain if you don’t allow me to leave?” I ask.
His magic flares, filling the hallway with light. “The agreement was to keep you alive until you could avenge your murder. If you change your mind, then it becomes null and void.”
And then he can take back his magic.
Not just the power he lent me but the interest on that loan will be my soul.
Eight hundred years ago, when I lay on my deathbed, betrayed by my wife, my children, and my court, I gladly traded my soul for the chance of revenge.
