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And now, sitting across the massive dining table from her father hours later, having showered and changed into a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a skintight navy blue athletic jacket that he’d given her—she really fucking hoped they weren’t left over from a booty call—Bryce asked, “So is this the plan? Lock me up here until I get so bored that I tell you everything? Or is it to deprive me of information so that I’ll tell you anything in exchange for a snippet of news about Hunt?”
Her father sliced into his chicken with a precision that told her exactly how he dealt with his enemies. But he sighed through his nose. “Your hosts in the other world must have had a high tolerance for irreverent nonsense, if you’re still alive.”
“Most people call it charm.”
He sipped from his wine. “How long were you there?”
“Tell me about Ruhn and Hunt.”
He sipped again. “That wasn’t even a good attempt to surprise me into answering.”
“You know, only a real piece of shit would withhold that information.”
He set down his wine. “Here is how this shall work. For every question of mine that you answer, you shall receive an answer to one of your questions. If I sense that you are lying, you shall not get a reply from me.”
“You know, I just played this game with someone even more horrible than you—shocking, I know—and it didn’t end well for her. So I suggest we skip the Q and A and you tell me what I want to know.”
He only stared. He’d sit here all fucking night.
Bryce tapped her foot on the marble floor, weighing it out. “Fine.”
“Did you truly go to the home world of the Fae?”
“Yes.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Athalar and Ruhn are still alive.”
Bryce tried not to sag with relief. “How long—”
He held up a finger. “My turn.”
Fucker.
“What was their world like?”
“I don’t know—I only saw a holding cell and some tunnels and caverns. But … it seemed free. Of the Asteri, at least.” And then, because she knew it would upset him, she said, “The Fae there are stronger than we are. The Asteri take a chunk of our power through the Drop—it feeds them, sustains them. In that other world, the Fae retain their full, pure power.”
She could have sworn his face had paled, even under the flattering golden glow of the twin iron chandeliers dangling above. It made her more smug than she’d expected.
“How long was I gone?” she asked.
“Five days.”
The timelines between their worlds were similar, then. “And—”
“What did you learn while you were there?”
How to reply? To give him the truth … “I’m still processing.”
“That’s not an acceptable answer.”
“I learned,” she snapped, “that most of the Fae, no matter what world they’re on, are a bunch of selfish assholes.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Oh?”
She crossed her arms. “Let’s just say that I know a female who could wipe your sorry ass from existence and not break a sweat.”
And yet Nesta hadn’t done that to Bryce. She’d thought it luck, but was it possible the female had pulled her punches? Nesta hadn’t been anything like Silene or Theia.
