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Aislinn understood my meaning. She nodded and we moved to leave the inn. The innkeeper seemed more relaxed as he offered us a farewell and accompanied us to the exit.
“I’m sorry,” Aislinn said as we once again found ourselves in the street.
“Don’t worry,” I replied quickly. “I don’t need money at the palace anyway. And I have the coin to pay you for the divination ball back in my room.”
“You will do no such thing,” Aislinn replied, meeting my gaze with an offended look. “It is my gift to you.”
“So you made me pick out my own gift?” I asked amusedly.
Aislinn laughed. “Yes. I’m very thoughtful aren’t I?”
“You are,” I said, seriously this time. “Now... Where are we going?”
“It’s time,” Aislinn replied. “I’m pretty sure no one is following us.”
THE STORE APPEARED ordinary in every way, except for the dusty shop window. As we entered and found ourselves in a nearly empty store, I wondered if the lack of care had been intentional to keep customers away.
A young girl with long blonde hair sat on the other side of the store. She looked up from the book she had been reading as we entered but her suspicious expression lit up with a smile as she recognized Aislinn.
“Good evening,” the girl said. She looked cautious as her gaze darted toward me. “How can I help you today?”
“We are here for the meeting,” Aislinn replied. “He is a close friend.”
“A trusted friend?” the girl asked as she dropped her book on the counter and met my eyes straight on.
“Yes,” Aislinn replied.
I felt the girl’s probing on my mind only after she was done and pulled away her touch. She smiled.
“He likes you,” she said.
I didn’t dare to look at Aislinn to see her reaction.
“And he’s not a spy as far as I can tell,” the girl continued. “You can go ahead.”
She grabbed her book again and winked at me.
I thought you needed a little push, her voice rang inside my head as Aislinn led us to the back of the room and pushed the door there. It was dark on the other side, but I saw some stairs. Aislinn kept walking.
I didn’t get a chance to respond, but then again, if the girl could see my mind, she knew exactly how I felt.
The sounds of fae talking quietly reached us before we arrived at the bottom of the stairs. The place was a little cramped, but there was another hallway before we entered what looked like a storage room on the basement level.
This room was full of fae. As Aislinn opened the door and we entered, they all looked up from the table they had been crouched over. An old man with a white beard quickly grabbed the map that was laid on the table.
“Aislinn?” he asked. “Who is this?”
There were a total of twenty fae inside the room. Some faces were covered as though they wanted to keep their identity a secret even from each other, but most looked like regular fae, except a few with ragged clothes who could be humans.
“Feremir,” Aislinn introduced me. “The boy I told you about.”
“The one working for the queen?” A short man wearing a black jacket that looked too wide for his narrow chest put his hands on the table and met my eyes defiantly.
“The one with the prophecy,” someone said from the crowd.
Even before she stepped into the light and smiled at me, I recognized her voice.
It was Igraine. The innkeeper who had saved me from myself before the queen had recruited me to become a divination student. Seeing her here suddenly made me feel safe. I was in a much worse state the day I’d met her, and her compassion had prevented me from doing something bad.
