Chapter 20
THE SHADOW OF Soren’s wings along the dirt walls seemed to almost vibrate with some kind of held-back energy as we strode back to court. Caught up in his thoughts, he didn’t slow down, forcing me to jog every few steps if I wanted to keep up. He didn’t look at me once.
Which was fine, because I didn’t really want to look at him either.
The shift in his demeanor now that he’d gotten what he wanted felt like another confirmation.
So did his words when he waved down his friends in court and said, “We’ve obtained two hundred contracts.” As they cheered, he added, “Caius is sending them to us instead of directly to the Shadow Court, so I’ll brief you on how to handle the influx as soon as we get back to the burrow.”
My stomach sank like a fiery ball.
I didn’t need to ask him if it was true anymore.
The words had come from his own mouth.
Though I still didn’t want to believe it, he’d clearly bargained with the lives of two hundred people—and involved me on top of it.
Maybe their entire story earlier about rescuing humans had been an elaborate deception as well.
I hadn’t paid close-enough attention to their exact words.
For all I knew, they could’ve manipulated me into believing that too.
I shouldn’t have let my guard down around him.
He was a means to an end.
A way to find my family.
Just another fae.
I shouldn’t feel so devastated right now.
Lost in the feelings of betrayal, I barely registered the silent way everyone scurried back to the burrow.
Once there, he immediately sent me away with Lore.
Even she seemed different. While she wasn’t upset about the torn shirt, she was distant, distracted, more serious than usual. Maybe this was her real personality and the rest had been a lie. Soren had basically said that was how the fae operated, hadn’t he?
Rushing me up to her room, she grabbed a new dress for the party out of a pile, pressing it into my hands in a hurry. “I hope it fits!” she hollered over her shoulder as she ran back downstairs.
As I changed, I pictured Soren’s face as he’d begun their little meeting. Seeing his face lost in thought over the hundreds of humans he’d obtained made me more angry the longer I thought about it.
He’d used me.
Despite knowing what had happened to my own family, he’d involved me in doing the same to others.
My conscience stung.
I couldn’t stop thinking how I’d trusted him.
I did it for my family, I reminded myself. And those people would be under horrible contracts either way. But that didn’t make me feel any better.
The fabric of Lore’s gold dress flowed over my skin like cool water, with long sleeves that draped open when I held my arms up. It had a flirty wide neckline that showed off my shoulders and collarbones, and Lore had lent me some dainty gold jewelry to match.
Whether I liked it or not, my job was over. Now it was time to think about finding the few people I could save.
I’d never been so overdressed or so underprepared in my life. If Soren’s information was accurate, I was finally about to find my family. Whatever my conflicted feelings were for him and the others, I needed to focus on that.
When I returned to the library, Soren paced alone by the front door.
He glanced up and froze.
His eyes trailed down my dress, then back up, lingering on my hair, which I’d pulled out of the braids, leaving soft waves in their place.
Gwen coughed from the couch, which made him blink, then turn away to open the door. “Ready?”
Was he blushing? The light in here was weird.
“Is her glamour fading?” Gwen spoke up as I moved to follow.
Both of us stopped, tense, staring at each other.
Soren cleared his throat. “I suppose, I should—if you’ll allow—” He stepped closer, waiting for permission.
I gritted my teeth and swallowed until I could speak civilly, though my voice was tight. “Go ahead.”
Ignoring the frustrating tingle his fingers left across my skin, I stared stubbornly at the wall of books, forcing my attention to them until he finished, refusing to let stupid hormones get in the way of my intelligence again.
“Shall we go?” he murmured, stepping back.
I nodded without looking at him and swept out the door when he held it open for me.
We left the others behind, moving quickly through the brightly lit tunnels, traveling deep underground, away from court this time, if my sense of direction could be trusted.
The tunnels descended deep enough to put a chill in the air. I shivered.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could feel Soren’s gaze on me when he thought I wasn’t looking. Judging me probably. Or maybe wondering how he could get me into another contract.
Part of me cringed at the thought, feeling guilty for even thinking it. But the other more cynical side reminded me that being too trusting and buying into his nice-guy act was the whole reason I was in this situation.
We traveled in uncomfortable silence until we came upon a line of fae. An actual line. It felt like we were at the world’s strangest theme park, waiting to ride a roller coaster, or maybe more like a late-night movie premiere for some fae movie that everyone was cosplaying.
I spotted creatures I couldn’t name that had flora growing out of different parts of their bodies, others with blue or green skin, a skinny half-naked one with hooves for feet, and so many others, including a bunch of those cute little toadstools that wiggled and danced.
They made me smile slightly despite what Soren had told me about them.
Up ahead, I even spotted the bright red hair of a toddy wobble.
Soren remained quiet beside me, almost uneasy.
I leaned against the dirt wall, wishing I could disappear into it, then remembered the stunning gold dress I wore and jerked away.
Somehow, not a speck of dirt stuck to it.
Distracted from my nerves and disgust with Soren for a brief moment, I enjoyed the way the dress shimmered and moved like liquid gold.
I slipped my hand into the pocket, wanting to turn the phone on for the hundredth time. It was a long shot this deep underground. Basically impossible. But I still had to try. Keeping it in my pocket to hide the dimly lit phone screen, I peeked at it when no one was looking.
No signal.
With a sigh, I powered the device off again. Of course.
Our place in line slowly progressed down the entire length of one tunnel, then another, close enough to Cosmo’s Winter Solstice Ball now to hear violins warring with drums in a uniquely fae style of music that poured out of the burrow ahead, teasing us.
This particular burrow’s large double doors stood propped open with two fae as tall as the doors standing outside, checking names against a list. With their size, no one could try to force their way in.
Someone strode past us, and Soren reached out to catch his sleeve.
The fae turned. His catlike eyes took in the two of us with unblinking disinterest.
When Soren whispered in his ear, though, he nodded and held out a hand. Soren pressed something into it, and then the feline fae stalked on down the line, moving right past the pseudo bouncers with feral grace, disappearing into the burrow.
We reached the door a few moments later. The bouncers didn’t even bother to check their list. The larger one gave Soren a wicked smile. “Guest list just changed to high fae only.”
“I am high fae,” he snapped back, quick enough to make me wonder if he’d gone through this before.
The other bouncer snorted. “Seelie high fae.”
I started to panic. He’d promised to get us in, had sworn on that stupid contract of his that my family was inside and that we’d find them and that he’d help me get them out of here, or at least get me inside the burrow anyway, and now he wasn’t even doing that, and—
“Let them in,” a deep voice purred from the shadows of the doorway. “On Prince Caius’s orders.”
The bouncer’s smirk faded.
Reluctantly, he waved us inside.
Soren’s mask slipped for a split second, and I caught satisfaction before his face returned to neutral.
As we entered Cosmo’s burrow, I blinked at the sudden darkness, waiting for my eyes to adjust. We dodged stone arches and wove around fae, slipping through one dimly lit room into the next, or maybe it was all one big room with a lot of load-bearing beams to hold up the ceiling.
Either way, these dark underground pockets of connected rooms created a honeycomb effect.
Everywhere we went, fae twirled and sometimes flailed beneath colorful stalactites that gave off a soft otherworldly glow in different shades of vibrant red, deep orange, and golden yellow.
Glowing liquid dripped from them to the floor, and sometimes onto the fae as well, though none seemed to care.
It created a weird pattern of colorfully lit goo across the floor and crowd.
In each room, I scanned the crowd for Dad or Rissa or Olive.
At first glance, there were only pointed ears and unearthly good looks.
But as we moved through the dark, I bumped into a shadow that turned out to be a human serving drinks.
He wore all black. In the dim lighting, I had to look closely to rule out Dad.
After that, I peered into the shadows for any movement at all.
Despite the dark, I still caught Soren sliding a small bag into a nearby fae’s hand. Craning my neck to glimpse the face, the same cat-eyed fae met my eyes. He blinked and turned away.
“What was that?”
“Payment for our way in,” he said in my ear, voice low.
My brows rose. “You’re taking credit for the prince telling them to let us inside?”
“I made sure he got a message. How do you think he knew we were here?”
“You summoned him? How did you know he’d come for you?”
We crossed through a short hall that led to a larger, more well-lit space.
Here, instead of dancing and wild music, the fae admired lifelike statues painted gold or silver and placed on pedestals while a human softly stroked a harp in the corner.
A painting stretched across one wall, with elements that shifted unexpectedly.
Soren finally looked at me. And once he did, his gaze was magnetic, like he couldn’t look away. “No. I made sure he knew that you were here. The rest took care of itself.” He scowled as he said it, growing more irritated when Caius appeared in front of us, forcing us to stop walking.
“I was unaware my invitation to Brynn included you.” He frowned at Soren. “You said you had a prior obligation tonight.”
Soren spread his hands wide, gesturing to the room. “You’re witnessing it now.”
Caius sniffed, but he seemed to decide it wasn’t worth it, turning to smile at me and hold out a hand. “It’s been too long since we danced.”
Now that I didn’t have to talk to him for the contract, I had zero interest. I was here for my family and nothing else. “Soren actually just asked me,” I lied with a sweet smile.
My audacity shocked me as much as Soren, but to his credit, he played along, taking my hand and turning us back the way we’d come. Though I didn’t want to dance with him either, at least he knew why I was here and wouldn’t get in my way.
“I would say not to take it personally,” Soren told the prince over his shoulder with a smirk, “but that might not be the case.”
Wide-eyed at an actual barb from mild-mannered Soren, I didn’t dare risk looking back to see how Caius took it.