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“Half a dozen. And all difficult to retrieve. She believes a kraken possesses one.”
I smirked and hung a leg out the window, letting it sway with the wind. “I should have known getting caught up with you would make me face monsters.”
Sai wrapped his arms around his knees. “If we get all twelve of our stones back together, we’d have the power to change you into a fae.”
I nearly fell out of the window and had to press my fingers against the side to remain upright. “What?”
“I already discussed it with Mother. It’s been rare, historically, for fairies to do so. There’s a balance to the world, and humans should stay human. Mother said she’d make an exception for you, though.” He gave me an awkward shrug. “She knows how important you are to me… and to Elisa.”
My heart pattered like the rain as Elisa’s gentle smile flashed across my mind. “I could become a fairy and live as long as you do?”
“Yes.”
That brought me back to the ballroom where Luz chatted with a man in front of the globe. They stood in the middle of hundreds of Seelie including the King who watched the proceedings from his elevated throne in this warded palace.
I wanted to help Sai get his brother’s zevar back.
Maybe as much, though, I wanted to retrieve these heart stones so I could have forever—or close enough to it—with Elisa. Luz took a sip of the wine they held and then scowled. The man said something to them, and they shot back a biting remark.
“Get ready, Ishir. You detain Luz.”
“Detain Luz?”
“Just follow me.”
He frowned and returned to watching the exchange between Luz and the man that grew increasingly heated. Ishir was reliable. Maybe Sai would ask him to stay on the team. Would he even want that? Luz flung wine onto the man. He gasped and stumbled into someone who slipped on the damp floor and fell.
“Let’s go,” I said.
We pushed through the crowd.
“How dare you,” the man said to Luz.
“Don’t dare me unless you want to be humiliated,” they spat.
“Why, I should…” He lifted his fist. Luz ducked and jumped up the stairs towards the globe.
Guards left their post, joining Ishir and me. Ishir nodded, understanding now as he dashed for Luz and purposely missed them. Luz climbed a tree, as lithe as a cat, and guards shouted. The entire focus was on them. Other guards circled the globe, shoulder-to-shoulder watching the crowd, and I joined them, offering a nod.
“Come down from there at once,” a guard shouted.
“Catch me, you bastard.”
The guard growled, and the crowd burst into laughter. Everyone’s focus was on the spectacle while I reached my gloved hands behind me. The entire room slowed for me as I scanned across the hundreds of eyes, the King at his throne, the guards lining the walls of the room. Despite being human, I’d always been damn perceptive. It was the only way a skinny, inexperienced kid survived the streets. Pausing for another heartbeat to take everything in, a shiver of fear skittering along my arms, I took a deep breath before snatching the globe and sliding it into a satchel at my side in one fluid motion.
Ishir climbed the tree, grasped Luz, and dragged them down. “Enough of this,” he said.
Luz jerked like they fought his grip as the crowd chuckled again, and I approached and grabbed their other arm.
We marched across the ballroom as Ishir chided Luz, and they cussed at him. The King frowned as he watched us go.
We walked out of the ballroom.
One.
I counted mentally.
Two
