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“Who do we need to see?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to see anyone but the pixie about the bargain.
“Rayvien. She said they keep a record of all the bargains, and that she would help me if I needed anything. Apparently, if we get what we want, then there will be a ripple through all of the courts, and will lead to whatever it is that Rayvien wants.”
A ripple? Just like what my mother was doing? Maybe it was a coincidence, but…
That just figured. There was absolutely no way that Rayvien would want to help me. Not in a million years. But if it got her something she wanted, then maybe it was a possibility.
This was about to get very, very tricky. If I could trust an oracle, then I would rather go to one of them rather than talk to Rayvien. But oracles liked to speak in riddles and give out half-truths.
Even knowing that, it might be better to ask one of them where the bargain was. At least the oracles didn’t hate me.
Chapter Thirteen
CHRIS
There were way too many people waiting for us outside Cosette’s guest room. Not just the three guards. Ten. Maybe more. I wasn’t counting, but it was enough to set me on edge.
It’d taken me a while to get used to all the people at St. Ailbe’s, but once I had a routine, I was fine. During the last few months, that routine had gone to shit. I tried to go with the flow as much as possible, but fighting demons for the last month and a half had been exhausting. And now these fey were staring at me with glowing red rings around their pupils and smoke flowing across the whites of their eyes?
No. Fuck that.
I was really starting to wonder what was going on with this court. Were these really fey? Because they looked nothing like Cosette or Van or her other guards. I’d never, ever seen rings of red in her eyes and I doubted I ever would. There was something evil brewing under the surface of Gales, and maybe Cosette couldn’t tell me anything about it, but I wasn’t a complete idiot.
Everything in me said it was time to fight, but these guards hadn’t made a move yet. So, I’d wait, but my wolf rose to the surface and I let him. He hovered there, just beneath my skin, ready to jump in if I needed. I knew my eyes were glowing and my beard was probably thicker than it had been a second before, but I didn’t really care if the fey noticed. I didn’t care if they saw it as a threat or even just impolite. I had a feeling showing them a little of my wolf was okay since they were doing the same thing with their creepy demon eyes.
Van motioned with one hand through the air, and I stopped. “What?”
“I’m going to talk to the guards. I’ll catch up.”
“Of course.” Cosette gave him a regal nod. Not a hint of how much affection she felt for him on her face. The facade was there, and even if it was a necessary evil, I hated it.
Soon. We’d be away from here soon.
Cosette and I continued down the hallway with Ziriel’s guards trailing behind us. Their footsteps were so silent that I wondered if they were hovering above the floor in their smoky way, but when I glanced behind me, their feet were touching the floor, and their hands held short, curving swords.
They’d armed themselves? My wolf started to growl as he broke free, but Cosette grabbed my arm, gave it a tight squeeze, and instantly shut off the shift before it could grab hold.
Christ. I needed to hold on, but my wolf had a taste of a good fight and that gave him some release. He wanted more. More bloodshed. More fighting. More killing to defend Cosette. As much as I wanted to ignore him, I was starting to wonder if maybe he was right. Fighting might be the only thing the fey truly understood.
Cosette’s hand drifted down my arm to hold my hand. She gave it a squeeze—telling me that she was here for me, just like I was here for her—before dropping it.
I was still pissed, though. Not at her—at every other fey here.
Three times. They’d tried to kill Cosette three times. I knew that her life was difficult, but I didn’t expect it to be so fucking violent. Even when she’d told me. Even though I’d seen her kill before. Even when she said that our childhoods weren’t that different, I was still expecting it to not be that bad. I’d assumed she’d exaggerated to make me feel better about the pack I grew up in, but now I knew—more than ever before—that she needed me. She had saved me from my pack, but she’d never been able to free herself from hers.
She needed to laugh, and I could help with that. I could ease the weight she carried. Even if she didn’t truly believe me, getting rid of my wolf—if it even came to that—was a small price to pay for her safety and happiness.
We went back into the main dining room that seemed to serve as an all-around gathering place. I wondered if they had private places to eat or if this was just a Gales thing, or maybe even just a fey thing. But it was just as packed and noisy and full of way too many scents as it had been every other time I’d come here.
A few shouts seemed to be about us, and I grabbed Cosette. “What are they saying?”
She shook her head. “They speak another form of fey here, and I speak very little of it. But I caught something about us being back.” She motioned with her chin to a nearby table. “I think they’re betting about us.”
“Seems accurate, especially with what Rayvien told me.”
“What did she tell you?” she asked as we stepped around the tables. The betting seemed to hit a fever pitch and they were getting louder and louder with every table we passed.
I spotted Rayvien seated at a table across the room and headed toward her. “Not a lot.” I glanced quickly at Cosette, and there was something about the squinting look in her eyes that made me smile. “Wait. Are you jealous?”
