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“I wouldn’t,” Enlo said mildly in Common. “If you antagonize him further, your only choice will be the latter. If you’ll but give me a moment, gentlemen.” He pitched his voice lower and switched back to Elyri. “Cousin, a word.”
Enlo stepped a few paces away from the group. Revi followed, careful to keep at an angle where he could still see the humans. His tail lashed angrily behind him. “Why is that human still holding my frostrose?”
“Because this seems like a perfect opportunity.” Enlo tilted his head toward the humans, who had regrouped. Several of them had drawn their swords, but not the leader. The leader still clutched the frostrose, his face pale but otherwise set in an unreadable expression.
“A life for a life, you said,” Enlo continued. “Could it not be a life given instead of one taken?” Revi started to growl, but Enlo hurried on, his words rushing together. “No, hear me out, cousin. You know what the curse says. This could be the key to breaking it. Our people can’t take much more. They were made for ice and cold, not for this blistering heat. We’ve discussed this. It’s too hot for our crops. The sun leeches more strength from our bones every day. We’re running out of time to rid ourselves of this curse.”
Revi shook his head, a snarl building in his chest.
“Revi!” Enlo snapped. “You must at least try.”
Something in his cousin’s tone stopped him. He tore his gaze away from the humans and looked at Enlo.
“Please, cousin,” Enlo said softly.
Revi pushed back the growl that grew up in his chest. His cousin held on to fragile hope far better than Revi did. Revi had caused the curse through his own actions. And he had tried—he had tried so many things to break the curse gripping his Court. Swearing himself to his people, having them swear devotion to him. Nothing had worked. He hated that he had to stoop to the aid of humans, but of course that was probably by intentional design on the Summer Queen’s part.
If he could break it through his own actions, fulfill the conditions without relying on anyone else, he would have done so long ago. The fact that he couldn’t had rankled since the curse had begun. A part of him still hoped he would figure out something on his own—
But until he did, he could at least go through the motions for Enlo, even if he hated the thought of a human wandering around his castle.
“Very well.” Revi stalked back to the soldiers and began pacing in front of the leader, gaze drawn to his frostrose. “There’s a third alternative to pay for your crime.”
“Anything that will save the life of my men,” the leader said, his words clipped.
Revi bared his teeth. “Anything, human?”
The wariness in the man’s mien increased tenfold, but he nodded. “I do not seek to spill blood this day.”
“Then you will return to your lands, and you will send back a woman. One unmarried, most beautiful among your people.” The man’s eyes widened as Revi spoke, but Revi continued, ignoring the play of emotions across the man’s face, “You will give her that rose, and she will return by the next full moon, or I will come and hunt down every last one of you.”
Silence descended on the garden as full and still as a midwinter night.
“Then what will you do with her?” the leader asked. He stood tall, kept his voice steady, but he could not hide the fear in his scent. It made Revi’s predator instincts sharpen. “I won’t offer a woman for you to murder in our place.”
“She will be unharmed. She must only stay for a year and a day, according to Elyri custom, and during that time, she will be cared for, given anything she asks, protected like one of our own.” The man’s expression still held disbelief, so Revi growled and added, “So I swear it on my name as the Heart of the Winter Court.” Magic threaded out of him as he crafted the bargain—thinner than if he had used his true name, but he wouldn’t give that to humans, not even for this. A nameless bargain would have to suffice.
The man’s eyes widened yet again; perhaps he too felt the magic as it wound around Revi and him and the rose in his hand, anchoring there.
“And it’s that or my prince will ensure that none of you leave—ever,” Enlo added, his voice pleasant and entirely at odds with his words.
The humans behind the leader shifted, sharing glances, adjusting their grips on their swords as if they actually thought those would do anything against Revi.
Revi bared his fangs. He hoped the man would opt to fight. He’d rather fresh blood on his claws than the care of a human woman.
The man drooped and sighed heavily. “It’ll be as you say. I will escort her back here myself—or I will return alone and offer myself up to die.”
Maybe the humans had no great beauties to offer. Maybe the man still doubted Revi’s word. He chose to ignore that possibility before it tempted him to kill the man here and now to be done with it.
“Escort her back,” he said, “but do not enter my castle grounds again. Humans, save for her, are not welcome here.”
The man’s jaw clenched, but Revi turned toward the castle. He took a few steps and then paused and looked back over his shoulder. “And if any of you touch my frostroses again, I will know, and you will have lost your last chance at freedom. Now get out of my Court.”
With that, he left, his hide still prickling with anger.
Enlo had gotten what he wanted; a human woman was coming to the Winter Court.
Revi only hoped this bargain did not fail as spectacularly as the last one he’d made had.
