Chapter 23 #2
Those burning eyes meet mine without flinching.
"Exactly what I said, shadow prince." Her voice remains honey-smooth, but there's steel beneath it now.
"I would take your capacity to feel love.
All of it. Not just romantic love—all forms. Familial.
Platonic. The bonds that make you care whether another being lives or dies. "
She gestures elegantly, as if describing something mundane.
"You would remember caring for each other.
Remember every beautiful moment, every sacrifice, every tender word spoken in darkness.
The memories would remain, perfect and clear.
" Her smile turns knife-sharp. "But feel nothing.
The emotions would become... academic. Historical facts without weight.
You would look at the person you once loved and feel only emptiness where devotion once lived. "
A cold fist closes around my heart. She's not talking about severing a binding—she's talking about destroying our ability to love entirely. To turn us into shells who remember being human but can't feel it anymore.
"No," I say flatly. "That price is unacceptable. We'll find another way to break the binding."
Peri Ayse shrugs one elegant shoulder, utterly unbothered by my refusal. "As you wish. The offer remains, should you change your mind." Her gaze slides back to Nesilhan's leg, where the dark veins continue their inexorable crawl upward. "But we haven't finished discussing your wife's... condition."
"You said the Veil poison was manageable," I remind her, my shadows coiling with renewed tension.
"Manageable is not the same as harmless, shadow prince.
" She circles Nesilhan slowly, studying the wound with clinical interest. "The venom is spreading.
Slowly, yes—but it's attacking her magic at the source.
Left untreated, she'll lose the ability to wield twilight entirely within a fortnight.
Within a month, the poison will reach her heart.
" That knowing smile returns. "She won't die immediately. But she'll wish she had."
Nesilhan's face goes pale, but her jaw sets with stubborn determination. "Banu first. We already agreed."
"Of course." Peri Ayse waves a dismissive hand.
"The fairy's healing, then your wife's leg, then transportation.
Three requests. Three prices." She pauses, letting the words settle like stones in still water.
"We've established the first two—fifty years for the fairy, and I've named what breaking the binding would cost. But purging Veil blight from twilight magic.
.." Her burning eyes fix on Nesilhan with unsettling intensity.
"That requires something more personal."
"Name it," Nesilhan says before I can speak, her voice steady despite the exhaustion dragging at her features.
Peri Ayse's grin spreads, and I feel a chill run down my spine. She wanted Nesilhan to be the one to ask. This was calculated.
"Your lies," the Peri says softly, each word precise as a surgeon's blade.
"Every deception you might speak. Every half-truth.
Every polite fiction that smooths the rough edges of existence.
" She moves closer to Nesilhan, close enough that her golden glow reflects off my wife's pale skin.
"I would take your capacity for falsehood entirely.
From the moment I heal you, you will be capable only of absolute truth. "
The chamber goes very still.
"You can't be serious," Elcin breathes, her warrior's composure cracking. "In the Fae realm? Where words are weapons and truth is vulnerability? You'd send her into that world unable to lie?"
"I'm quite serious." Peri Ayse doesn't take her eyes off Nesilhan.
"No more protecting yourself with careful words.
No more softening blows with gentle untruths.
No more hiding behind polite deceptions.
" Her smile turns knife-sharp. "Every thought that demands expression will pour out of you, raw and unfiltered.
Every feeling you'd rather keep hidden will be laid bare for all to see. "
"Nesilhan, no." The words tear out of me before I can stop them. My shadows surge toward her protectively, wrapping around her shoulders like a shroud. "This is a death sentence. The Fae courts will eat her alive."
"Perhaps." Peri Ayse's voice is almost gentle.
"Or perhaps she'll learn that truth has its own power.
That honesty, wielded correctly, can be more devastating than any lie.
" She tilts her head, studying Nesilhan with something that might almost be respect.
"The choice is hers, shadow prince. Not yours. "
Nesilhan is quiet for a long moment, her golden eyes distant.
I can feel her thinking—weighing the cost, calculating the risks, trying to find another way.
But we both know there isn't one. The Veil poison is killing her slowly, and we're about to walk into the most dangerous court in all the realms.
"If I refuse," she says finally, her voice carefully controlled, "what happens?"
"Then I heal only the fairy, and you keep your precious lies.
" Peri Ayse shrugs. "The poison continues spreading.
Your magic withers. Eventually, the poison reaches your heart and you die in agony, but at least you'll die with your deceptions intact.
" That terrible smile again. "Some people find comfort in such things. "
Nesilhan closes her eyes. I watch her shoulders rise and fall with a single, steadying breath. When she opens them again, there's steel in her gaze that makes my heart ache with pride and terror in equal measure.
"Agreed," she says quietly. "My lies for my life. I accept."
"Nesilhan—" I start, but she cuts me off with a look.
"It's my choice, Kaan. My price to pay." Her hand finds mine, squeezing tight. "I'd rather face the Fae courts unable to lie than leave you to face them without me at all."
Peri Ayse claps her hands together once, the sound echoing through the chamber like a thunderclap. "Wonderful. Two prices agreed. Now..." Her attention swings back to me with stalking focus. "Let's discuss transportation."
"And transportation?" Elcin asks quietly, her voice carefully controlled. "Safe passage to the Grove, where Banu's grandmother's people might still have healers who understand essence-draining poison."
"The Forgotten Grove, I assume?" Peri Ayse nods with something like approval, though her attention remains fixed on me. "Wise destination. Even gods hesitate to violate those borders."
She pauses, and I see her recalculating, adjusting her approach based on what she's learned of us.
"But passage between realms for five immortals—after I heal your fairy, naturally—breaking through dimensional barriers while concealing your traces from both Veil creatures and divine attention.
.." She trails off deliberately. "First I save her life.
Then I transport you all to the Grove where their healers can complete what I begin.
The sequence matters, shadow prince. Transport her in her current state and she dies enroute. "
"And the transportation?" Elcin presses, not letting the Peri evade. "What's the cost there beyond logistics?"
Peri Ayse's attention shifts fully to Elcin, and I see her recalculating her assessment of who to watch in this room.
"Ah." The Peri's smile turns knowing. "The Grove's borders are.
.. particular. They permit entry, but departure requires permission from the Seelie Queen herself.
You might find yourselves permanent guests.
Honored guests, certainly. But guests nonetheless.
As for the price..." Her gaze locks onto mine with an intensity that makes the air between us thicken.
She moves closer, each step measured, and I catch the scent of night-blooming jasmine again, stronger now, intoxicating.
"A night with you, shadow prince." Her voice drops to something intimate, almost a whisper, but it carries perfectly in the stone chamber.
"Just one night. You and I, alone, to... discuss terms more thoroughly."
She's close enough now that I can see the gold flecks in those burning eyes, see the way her form seems to shimmer slightly at the edges.
"I've been bound in this lamp for millennia.
Do you know what that means?" She doesn't wait for an answer.
"Centuries of silence. Of isolation. Of consciousness trapped in copper, feeling time pass like a knife scraping bone. "
Her hand rises, not quite touching my chest, but close enough that I feel the heat radiating from her palm.
"I'm quite eager for... companionship. Especially from someone as magnificent as you.
Someone who understands power." That expression again, promising paradise and delivering damnation.
"One night. Your company, freely given. I promise you'll find the experience. .. unforgettable."
Beside me, Yasar finally speaks. "Interesting bargain," he observes, his eyes tracking between the Peri and me with clinical assessment. "Though I wonder—why him specifically? You could ask for a night with any of us. Why fixate on the shadow prince?"
Peri Ayse's smile sharpens. "Because he touched my prison, clever cousin.
Because his darkness called to mine across centuries of silence.
And because..." Her gaze slides to Yasar with something like amusement.
"You're beautiful, yes. But you're not interesting.
And I have waited millennia—I will not waste my freedom on mere beauty. "
"Absolutely not," Nesilhan snarls, trying to struggle to her feet despite her exhaustion, jealous fury blazing in her golden eyes brighter than any magic she's wielded.
Her face has gone pale except for two spots of color high on her cheeks.
"I won't let you touch him. I don't care if we die here, you're not—"