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I knew that werewolves were playthings for the Lunar Court, but I’d thought that was exclusive to them. Now I wasn’t so sure. But it didn’t matter. I didn’t matter. Cosette was in danger. I had to be nice, even if I wanted to run in the other direction.
She finally looked away from me to scan the horizon, and I was thankful for the break.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“I need help, and I heard you could help me.”
The woman turned back to me with a feral grin. “Oh. Help? And what would you be giving us in return?”
I stepped back again before I could stop myself, and she laughed.
She fucking laughed at me.
Damn it. What was Eli getting me into? I couldn’t make a bargain with a fey. I’d never think of all the loopholes. And from the looks of this fey woman, she could tie me up with millions of them.
“Elilaios—”
She hissed and I stopped speaking.
“What would the archon have us do with you?” She glanced behind her. One of the others nodded, and she turned back to me. “Fine. You may come in, but if you break any of our rules, you’ll be ours.”
I swallowed the fear until it was only a small leaden stone in my stomach. “What are your rules?”
Her grin came back slowly and filled with the kind of evil that forced goose bumps to skitter across my skin. “It wouldn’t be any fun if we told you, now would it?”
I wasn’t sure I could respond to her with anything other than sarcasm, but I also wasn’t sure if that would break a rule. I didn’t know anything about the Court of Gales or what they might consider off limits. How was I supposed to not a break a rule if I didn’t know it existed?
She spun and waved the other guards to start forward.
When I stood rooted to my spot, she looked back at me. “Don’t be shy. You have everything to gain by coming inside.”
“And nothing to lose?”
She laughed. “Oh, no. You could lose everything.” She shrugged. “But what’s life without a little gamble.”
I wanted to tell her that life wasn’t all about taking risks. That it was about love and respect and giving, but she didn’t give a shit what I thought life was about.
The fey guards lined up two-by-two as they moved toward the closest dune. The fey woman waved me to follow them, and I obeyed, now sandwiched between the rest of the guards and her.
I didn’t trust this woman enough to have my back to her, but I wasn’t going to show weakness. Not right now. I stepped forward, following as instructed—unable to see where we were going—but when the guard in
front of me walked straight into the wall of light reddish-gold sand and disappeared, I stumbled.
Damned fey magic.
I’d never been inside a fey court. Never intended to. Everything I’d heard about the fey and their underhills was that they were to be avoided at all costs. But I figured if I ever did have to enter one, Cosette would be by my side.
She’d told me a couple of things. That if I ever ended up in a court, run. And if I couldn’t run, then I was to never show weakness. Ever. Yet I’d already done that twice by stepping away from the fey woman. And the masked soldiers herding me were warning that there would be no running. Not today.
So, I put on the calm, cool facade. One like I’d seen Cosette wear so many times. I’d be stupid not to be afraid of the fey. I’d be a real idiot not to be terrified to enter their land. Yet I was going to ignore that feeling.
I was here to help Cosette, and I would never, ever let her down.
I stepped into the wall of sand like it wasn’t a completely insane thing to do.
My breath was taken from me as I entered what looked like a tunnel into an underground cave. I hadn’t had much luck with anything underground. My ex-pack’s favorite form of punishment was beating the shit out of me and trapping me underground without any food or water. And after the more recent ones filled with vampires or an open pit to hell, I wasn’t much for being underground. At all.
Being under the dirt made my lungs and heart tighten until I thought I’d never breathe again because the walls were closing, crushing—
