Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
V oices drift from the other side of the door. I leap to my feet and grab the only item that I could find in this pitch-black room that can even be remotely classified as a weapon. Which happens to be a particularly sturdy carrot.
“—can’t believe you!” a woman’s voice snaps. “What if I hadn’t come to check up on you right this very moment? You would’ve handed her over to Draven fucking Ryat without even telling me about her!”
A jolt shoots through me. It’s followed by a tiny sprout of hope. This woman sounds like she’s very against the idea of giving me back to Draven.
“Told you already, I have,” the man from before replies. “Don’t want nothing to do with your little rebellion.”
“It’s not little , Dad. And if you actually have one of the fae from the palace in there, our resistance is going to make more progress in the coming weeks than we’ve done for the past decade.”
My heart jerks in my chest. This woman is part of the rebellion. And it sounds like she wants my help.
Quickly summoning my magic, I throw it out in search of the burgundy spark of courage. I only find one, which must belong to the woman. That grumpy man didn’t seem very courageous to me. Pouring my magic into that lone spark of courage, I increase it so that the woman will feel brave and determined.
“She’s fae, alright,” the man replies with a huff. “Got them pointy ears and everything.”
“And you just locked her in there?” his daughter replies, her voice full of exasperation. “How am I supposed to get her to trust me now?”
“Not my problem.”
She heaves a frustrated sigh. “Is she armed?”
“Don’t know. Didn’t check.”
Another deep sigh. “Father Almighty, I really hope she doesn’t stab me.”
Then a heavy click sounds from the lock and the door is pulled open.
I blink against the sudden torchlight that streams in through the doorway and hits me right in the face. When my eyes have adjusted, I come face to face with a woman dressed in a beige shirt, brown pants, and a nondescript brown cloak. Her red hair falls a little past her collarbones, and it brushes against the fabric of the cloak when she cocks her head.
“Is that…?” Her dark blue eyes are wide with surprise as she stares at my hand. “Were you planning to stab me with a carrot ?”
I start slightly and glance down at the sturdy vegetable that I had forgotten that I was still holding. Looking up from my improvised weapon, I meet her eyes again and shrug. “Well, the turnips were a bit too soft, so…”
She bursts out laughing.
The sound is so full of genuine merriment that it stuns me for a second. Her father, who is still lurking in the main room, draws his eyebrows down and scowls at both me and his daughter. But he doesn’t say anything.
“I like you already,” the woman presses out while refilling her lungs after the burst of laughter.
Before the final word has even left her lips, I lurch into action. Cutting off the flow of magic to her courage, I instead push towards the deep blue spark of trust. It’s small. But it’s there. I latch on to it and pour my magic into it with a steady stream, increasing it until it’s burning steadily.
Guilt twists in my stomach and nausea crawls up my throat. I have spent my life trying to prove to everyone that I am not this kind of person. That I am not someone who would manipulate people’s emotions without their permission. That I would never use my magic to make people like me. And yet, here I am, doing exactly that.
Swallowing, I try to force the nausea and guilt back down. Because this is too important to leave to chance. I need to get this woman to welcome me into their resistance, and I don’t have time to make her trust me the normal way. I learned my lesson during the Atonement Trials. I can’t keep playing the game the way I did before. Trying not to lose is not a strategy. I need to play to win.
“I’m Kath,” she continues, and gives me a little wave. Then she motions towards the man who is still scowling at us from behind her back. “Sorry about my dad. He’s?—”
“The only sane person in this bloody family,” he interrupts with a huff.
Kath shoots him a glare over her shoulder.
Several different plans flash through my mind. Because I overheard their conversation outside the door, I already know that she is part of the resistance. So I want to tell her straight away that Draven is hunting the Red Hand, and I want to make her take me to their resistance so that I can begin helping them plot and scheme and take down the Iceheart Dynasty. But in the end, I decide to pretend as if I didn’t hear anything through the door. If I know too much or push too hard this soon, it might trigger a flare of suspicion.
“So you’re not planning to give me back to Draven Ryat?” I ask instead. And I make my voice tremble slightly, as if I’m as terrified of Draven as everyone here appears to be.
She snaps her head back to me, looking aghast. “God no!”
I let out a calculated breath of relief. And I keep feeding the deep blue spark of trust in her chest until it’s burning so strong that I know it will remain even when I pull back my magic.
“In fact,” Kath continues. “There are some people I would love for you to meet.” I open my mouth to respond, but before any words can make it out, Kath hurriedly adds, “Look, I know that you have no reason to trust me.” She winces apologetically. “Especially after my dad locked you in here. But I promise you, we’re on the same side. We hate the Icehearts and Draven Ryat just as much as you do, and I promise, if you just hear us out, you’ll see that you can trust us.”
Goddess above, I have used magic to manipulate her into trusting me. And she is worried that I am not going to trust them . That cold slimy guilt twists in my gut again. I try to block it out.
While furrowing my brows a little, I pretend to think it over for a few seconds, the way a normal person would. Then I straighten, set the carrot down on the crate next to me, and give her a nod. “Alright.”
Relief washes over her features. I once more have to swallow down a flash of guilt.
“Great!” A beaming smile spreads across her face as she jerks her chin. “Come with me.”
Since I’m reasonably certain that I have gotten her to trust me now, I release the grip on my magic at the same time as I step out of the darkened storage room. That way, they might just think that my eyes were glowing because of the darkness and the torches reflecting against them.
“Bad decision, this is,” the grumpy man mutters from where he’s now sorting through a shelf in the corner. “I’ll tell ya. Very bad. Don’t come crying to me when this blows up in your face.”
“Yeah, yeah, I love you too, Dad,” Kath replies, and she does give him a soft smile before she strides towards the steps on the other side of the room.
After flipping my hood up to hide my ears, I follow her as we walk back up them and out through the trapdoor. Kath waves me forward, and we start back out of the dead end.
Sunlight streams down from the blue sky and warms my cheeks as we make our way through the city. Murmuring voices mingle with clinking and clattering sounds coming from inside various shops, and the scent of baking bread and cooking food drifts out of several windows. My stomach rumbles in response since I threw up most of the food I ate after I fell down the castle wall. Thankfully, the grumbling of my discontented abdominal organ is drowned out by the sounds of the city.
“Your eyes are really cool,” Kath says as we turn a corner and continue down another road. While still keeping one eye on the people around us, she motions at my eyes. “The two colors and the glowing… They always do that?”
“The two colors, yes. The glowing, only sometimes.”
“Cool. Yeah, I suppose that’s great when it’s dark.”
My mind churns. So, she does think that my eyes were glowing because of the darkness. They must not know as much about fae as the dragon shifters do. And I decide not to correct her about the reason for my glowing eyes. The less they know about my true powers, the better. For now, at least.
“Well, here we are,” Kath announces as she stops outside a three-story building made of dark wood.
Tilting my head back, I look up at the rather impressive building. “You live here?”
“God no!” She laughs. “Wouldn’t be able to afford it even if I saved up for it my whole life. This is The Black Emerald. It’s a… thief bar.”
Surprise pulses through me, and I turn to stare at her in surprise.
She scratches the back of her neck a little sheepishly while a mischievous smile blows across her lips. “I’ll explain inside.”
After jerking her chin at me, she simply walks up to the door and opens it. I cast a glance over my shoulder to check for dragon shifters before I follow her across the threshold.
The inside of the tavern is also made of dark wood. Tables and chairs occupy the front of the room while wooden booths with cushions in emerald green fabric line the walls. There is a long counter to my right, and what looks like a door to the kitchen. I sweep my gaze over the people who are eating and drinking and chatting around us while Kath and I weave our way through the spacious tavern and towards the wooden staircase at the back of the room.
People watch me with suspicious eyes at first, but as soon as they notice Kath, the suspicion evaporates and they go back to eating and drinking.
The soft murmur of voices disappears as we make our way up the stairs and then through a corridor on the second floor. My heart patters in my chest as Kath stops in front of a plain wooden door and knocks.
“Yeah?” someone calls from inside.
“It’s me,” Kath replies.
And before the other person can say anything else, she simply opens the door and strolls inside. I follow her.
The room we enter is a lot smaller than the tavern area downstairs. One large table takes up the floorspace in the middle of the room. There are twelve chairs around it, but only three of them are occupied. Burning candles stand in a cluster in the middle of the table, even though bright daylight falls in through the window. I quickly study the three people seated at the table.
Two men and one woman. All three of them look to be around the same age as Kath. Since humans age differently, it’s hard to tell, but my best guess is that they’re somewhere in their twenties.
“Where’s Hector?” Kath asks as she strolls up to the table and pulls out a chair.
One of the men, a guy with red hair the same shade as Kath’s and blue eyes of a very similar color too, is the one who replies.
“He’s…” the guy begins, but then he trails off when his gaze slides to me. After a second’s pause, he ends his sentence with a vague, “Out.” Clearing his throat, he shifts his gaze back to Kath. “Who’s this?”
“It’s, uhm…” Surprise flits across Kath’s face as she stops with her hand on the back of the empty chair and turns back to face me. “Father Almighty, I never even asked your name, did I?”
“Selena,” I reply while carefully eyeing the empty chair. “My name is Selena.”
“Selena,” Kath echoes, and sweeps a hand towards me as if she is introducing me to the others. “This is Selena.” Then she points towards the blond man seated at the table, who has been silent this whole time. “And this is Peter.” She moves her hand to the woman with chin-length black hair and brown eyes seated next to him. “And Ami.” Then she finally nods to the redhead. “And the suspicious one over there is my little brother Kyler.”
“Hello,” I say. It comes out sounding so awkward that I have to stifle a cringe.
Kyler just turns to his sister. “I’m still waiting for the part where you explain why you have brought a stranger here.”
“Right.” Kath shifts her gaze to me and then motions at the hood of my cloak. “Selena, would you mind…?”
I push my hood down.
Peter gasps. Ami jerks back and blinks in shock. And Kyler’s mouth drops open.
“Yep,” Kath says cheerfully, and then finally plops down on the empty chair she pulled out earlier. “That’s why.”
While I claim another empty seat at the table, Kath explains who I am.
“How do you even know that we can trust her?” Kyler says once she’s finished. He cuts me an unapologetic look. “No offense.”
“Dad said she saved Jerry from a shifter patrol,” Kath replies.
The moment she begins that sentence, I pretend that my cloak has gotten caught under the leg of the chair and bend down while twisting to the side as if to fix it. So once the final word has left her mouth, I have already summoned my magic while they can’t see my eyes. I shove it at the small sparks of trust that have appeared in their chests following Kath’s declaration. With a firm push, I blow those sparks into large steady flames. Then, I release my magic and straighten again.
It did the trick. No distrust shines on their faces when they look at me now.
“Do you realize what an excellent opportunity this is?” Kath says to her friends before turning to me. “Okay, I know that I have been really cryptic and stuff. So, here’s the thing…”
I pretend to be surprised while she explains what I already knew. That they are members of the human rebellion and that they are trying to take down the Iceheart Dynasty. Then the surprise becomes genuine when she explains what their current plan is.
“A heist?” I echo. “You’re planning a heist?”
Wicked mischief glints in Kath’s eyes. “Yes. We’re going to hit their treasury and wipe out their financial leverage. It’s going to cripple their entire rule.”
Ami, the dark-haired woman, slides intelligent brown eyes to me. “But we haven’t yet been able to figure out how we’re supposed to actually get all of us into the treasury, and then out again with all the loot.”
Another beaming grin spreads across Kath’s face. “Which is where you come in.”
Confusion ripples through me, and I frown at her. “What do you mean?”
“You can be our eyes and ears.”
Silence falls over the room as the four humans turn to me with hopeful eyes. Light streams in through the window, making their eyes practically glitter. A few dust particles that drift through the air catch the light. They swirl in the draft when Peter leans forward in his chair and braces his arms on the dark wooden table. The silence is so loud that I can practically hear it ringing in my ears.
Ice seeps through my veins when I finally realize what their words mean.
“You…” I begin, but I have to swallow down the dread and panic rising like bile in my throat before I can continue. “You want me to… go back.”
Sympathy floods Kath’s face, but she still says, “Yes.”
My hand drifts up to my throat. “Do you know what they do to me in there?”
“No.” Her voice is as soft as her eyes. “But I can imagine that it’s not pretty.”
I draw in short shallow breaths while desperately shaking my head. “I can’t go back. I have literally just escaped. I can’t…” I shake my head again.
“Look,” Kyler interjects. There is sympathy on his face as well, but it’s almost hidden behind blazing determination as he squeezes his hand into a fist. “I know that we’re asking a lot. But the truth is that we will never be able to pull off a heist without someone on the inside. We need you.”
I can barely hear him over the ringing in my head.
Go back? I can’t go back. If I do, there is no guarantee that I will be able to escape again after the heist. Then I will be stuck there with a collar around my neck. Forever.
“You might be free, but the rest of us aren’t,” Kyler continues. “And those other fae in the palace, are you really willing to leave them there?”
Guilt explodes inside me. Isera. And Alistair. They’re still trapped in there.
“Kyler,” Kath admonishes.
“What?” he replies. “We need her.”
“Yes, but…”
They continue to argue about his cutthroat persuasion tactics, but I can barely hear them, because my own mind is so loud. And the worst part is that Kyler might be right.
I thought I would just help the human resistance from the outside. Maybe even get them in contact with our own resistance back in the Seelie Court. But Kyler is right. Having a spy inside the Ice Palace is invaluable. Haven’t I always said that I wanted to be more important? That I want to play a bigger part in the resistance? That I want to do something that actually makes a difference instead of just working as a lookout? This is it. This is my chance to actually do something of value. To actually prove that I am worthy. And besides, I can’t leave Isera in there. Even Alistair. He might be a bully but he’s still one of us. I can’t just abandon them to torture and despair while I go free.
“I’ll do it.”
All voices cut off abruptly.
And before I can change my mind, I repeat, “I’ll do it.”
Relief washes over them all.
“Thank you,” Kath whispers.
“But I’m going to need…”
I trail off as a jolt spikes through me. Draven. Mabona’s tits, if I’m going to do this, I have to get back before Draven realizes that I’m missing.
Peter sucks in a gasp as I jump to my feet so fast that the chair topples backwards and clatters down on the floor.
“I need to hurry,” I press out, flicking frantic eyes between them. “I need to make it back before they realize that I’m missing. Do you have any climbing gear?”
All four of them scramble to their feet as well.
“Climbing gear?” Kath asks, staring at me in confusion.
“I had to climb down the side of the castle to get out. I will have to climb back up it again.”
“Oh.” She blinks, and then whips her head to Peter. “Get a set of gloves and shoe covers for her.”
He lurches into motion and sprints out of the room while Ami hurries around the table. Paper flutters as she yanks out a sheet and begins explaining how I can pass along information. Apparently, they have a drop-off location on the grounds of the castle. While Ami is still drawing a map and explaining procedures, Peter returns and shoves a pair of gloves and something else into my hands. I just grab them and the paper without looking at them before hurrying to the door.
I’m just about to throw it open when someone opens it from the outside instead. A tall and muscular man with brown hair and brown eyes steps through the door, and then stops when he almost slams right into me.
“Hector,” Kath blurts out from behind me.
All four of them straighten and lower their chins slightly the way that people do when faced with authority. My gaze shifts back to the man before me. Based on the way the others are acting, this Hector guy must be the leader of this resistance.
His eyes widen when he sees my pointed ears.
But I don’t have time to stop, so I just meet his eyes and deliver the warning that I set out to deliver from the beginning.
“Be careful. Draven Ryat is coming for the Red Hand.”
Hector starts in surprise, but I just slip around him and dart out the door.
I need to make it back to my room before Draven gets back.