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They stood there smiling at each other for a few seconds, and his tiny warm smile broadened. “Do you happen to know why my sister sent an assassin to kill Pete?” the Fae colonel asked her.
“Yes, I know.” Liliana wasn’t sure if she should tell him. Aurore wanted Pete’s enchanted sword enough to send an assassin to kill him for it. She didn’t want Pete’s powerful protector to feel the same desire.
The prince sighed, his smile vanishing. Another Fae would bargain with him for the information.
She hated the way the idea of bargaining for information sucked every trace of joy out of his face, making it hard and cold again. As he opened his mouth, no doubt to ask her what she wanted in exchange for the answer to his question, she blurted out, “He has a sword.” So much for deciding if he should know or not. “Aurore Principessa wants it. The Wolfhound was meant to kill him and his human beloved and steal it.”
Colonel Bennet’s face of living stone shifted smoothly like oily black liquid, first to a flash of startled pleasure, then to a puzzled expression. “Why would she send an assassin to this continent to kill Pete and steal his sword?”
Liliana shrugged. “The assassin didn’t know. Neither do I.”
He nodded, the silver crown that was part of his head making the motion more pronounced and regal like the movements of a noble stag. Then he shifted.
His body shrank to a size that was merely tall rather than giant. A face of soft, deep brown flesh replaced hard black stone. The silver horn crown shrank into his skull and vanished, replaced by a buzz of coarse black hair with a streak of white on one side.
He took a deep breath and stood straight, dropping the hand from the tree trunk that had been holding a lot of his weight. His hands still trembled a little, but he was beginning to recover.
She understood the rules of Fae bargaining and had done her best to sidestep them, but she also needed information. Since she had given him valuable information for free, maybe he would do the same. “The Wolfhounds serve your family, and their main purpose is as a defense against Celtic wolves. Why would you kill one to protect a red wolf?”
Colonel Bennet’s human face went blank, looking more like a statue than his mobile demi-stone face had. “I did mention that I like Pete.”
Liliana smiled wistfully at the smoke snake of power coiled around his right knee. It was truth, but not an answer to her question.
It was a lot to ask of a Fae prince to not act like a Fae prince.
She sighed, disappointed, and turned away from him. She had given away her only bargaining chips. If he wasn’t willing to give her the information, she had nothing left to use to pay for it.
She walked down the concrete sidewalk back toward her house, holding up the elbow of her bad arm to ease the pain in her shoulder.
His voice behind her wasn’t loud, but it carried to her clearly, vibrating with the depth of earth magic and the ring of a very precise oath. “I will not be bound by the factions and blood feuds of the Old World.”
She turned to look behind her with a delighted smile, but the handsome Fae colonel was gone, a swirl of dark Green settled back into the lush grass where he had been.
