Chapter 25 #2
My throat ached as I told him Dad’s, Rissa’s, and Olive’s full names. I wanted to tell him about Mom too, but word vomit rose up each time I even considered it.
Guilt grew along with gratitude.
But hope slowly overpowered both, because if Soren truly wanted to rescue all the humans here, maybe I eventually would find Mom.
Distracted and blurry eyed, I bumped into a big rock sticking out and swayed slightly.
Soren tucked my hand under his elbow. “The sooner we get back, the sooner we can put things into motion,” he said, as if to justify helping me.
“Sure.” I held on, even when a brighter tunnel began after a few minutes. “Can I ask . . . Why didn’t we just add their contracts from the start?”
His shadowy form hesitated briefly in the dim light. “It’s . . . risky.”
“Why?”
“Caius is unpredictable. He might agree without issue, or he might choose to withhold their contracts, simply because he can. Or because I ask.”
“Ah.” Now the frog in my throat was ten times larger.
“Don’t let it worry you, Brynn.” He covered my fingers where I held his arm with his hand and squeezed lightly. “I’ll do my best to make it a casual request and not give him any reason to decline.”
I nodded, unable to answer. I wished I could convey how much I’d misjudged him, but I didn’t know how.
Instead, I let him lead me through the maze of creepy tunnels in silence.
Better not to have the conversation now, when we may or may not run into a boggart or one of those other fae Soren had warned me about.
One staircase led to another, then to a third, which made sense considering how far underground we’d been in Cosmo’s home. Once in the higher tunnels, bright lights illuminated the way, almost like daylight. No longer needing to guide me, Soren let go and kept his distance.
Which was all my fault.
I should at least attempt to fix it.
To be fair, though, I argued with myself, the only reason I was even here was because his kind had stolen my family.
The storm of thoughts raged so strong that I didn’t even realize we’d reached his burrow until we stopped.
Soren must’ve asked me a question. He waited with slightly pinched brows, eyes on mine.
“Sorry, did you say something?”
“You should get some rest.” He glanced at his door. “It’s going to be a long night. If it’s hard to sleep with the noise, you can use my bed.”
I blushed. Awkward. What should I say to a handsome man—or male—offering up his bed? “Um . . . Okay . . .”
Apologize now.
The longer I waited, the harder it’d be.
But I changed the subject instead. “How long do you think it’ll take for you to get them and .
. . the other humans who were taken?” That was close enough to asking about Mom that I choked a bit on the sense of word vomit coming up.
I coughed and cleared my throat to hide the strange behavior, though Soren still gave me an odd look.
“I’m hopeful Caius will send most of them our way.” He hesitated. “That said, there’s a possibility we may need to track them down.”
“Okay,” I whispered again, because I didn’t have the energy to string words together into full sentences anymore.
With his face a foot away from mine, knowing that after I found my family I’d be getting the heck out of here, I decided to at least try to get to know the real him, without judgment.
Starting with one last loose end that Caius had mentioned, which I still couldn’t quite explain away. “What happened to your wings?”
His entire body tensed.
“I’m sorry,” I said immediately. “You don’t have to tell me. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s . . . all right,” Soren murmured.
We stood there, and Soren’s hand lifted toward the door, making me think the subject was closed, but he rested it on the wall instead. “They were magically removed as part of my contract when I came to live here in the Hollow Court.”
I inhaled sharply. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish.”
“Caius painted you as a criminal. Made it sound like you did something to deserve losing them.”
At the mention of the prince, his hand on the wall tightened into a fist. “My only crime when I came here was being Unseelie.”
I bit my lip. Though each question I asked dug me into a deeper hole, my rabid curiosity demanded I ask one more. “What about your sister?”
He frowned. “My sister?”
“Caius said he wanted to marry her, but you told her some rumor that made her turn him down.”
“Is that what he made you believe?” Soren’s tone turned cold.
He huffed. “I suppose it is technically true, or he couldn’t have said it.
However, the tale I shared with Karina about him was also entirely true.
She made her decision based on learning his true character, not by any falsehoods from me. ”
I gaped at him, processing.
Caius had done exactly what Soren had warned me about: he’d used half-truths and misdirection to make me believe false stories. Meanwhile, Soren had only ever helped me.
“Why did you let me think he might be a good guy, then?” I scowled. “I asked you if he knew about the humans, and you didn’t answer.”
Soren sighed, leaning against the wall. The silhouette of his wings drooped a bit. “I shouldn’t have done that. But I confess, I couldn’t bear the thought of lowering your opinion of the fae when you lumped me in with him.”
I winced.
Another reminder of how far I’d shoved my foot into my mouth. At this point, could I even get it out?
I stared at the shadow of his wings to avoid his eyes. “You can’t . . . get them back somehow? I mean, are they gone for good?”
At first, I thought he’d brush it off, the way he tended to when he didn’t like my questions. But he hesitated.
“If the contract ended, I could get them back.” His chin dipped down as he fiddled with the cuff links on his shirt, hiding his face from me as his deep voice quietly said, “But that won’t happen anytime soon.”
There was a rasping bitterness in his voice that told me he couldn’t quite laugh this one off.
I inexplicably wanted to cheer him up somehow. “You know, it’s probably for the best,” I quipped. “You’re already scary and intense—if you had wings, you’d never be able to make friends.”
Like I’d hoped, it startled him enough to lighten the mood and coax a small smile out of him. “You think I’m scary and intense?”
“Did I say that?” I joked, pressing a hand dramatically to my heart. “That doesn’t sound like something I’d say.”
He laughed.
Genuinely laughed, eyes crinkling at the corners, shoulders softening slightly as some of the tension left him.
I wanted to make him laugh all the time.
Then, with a long sigh, his gaze turned back to his door as he murmured, “As nice as this is, we should probably go inside and check on everyone.”
He opened the door before I could stop him, leaving me with another missed opportunity.
This shouldn’t be so hard. I just needed to say, “Sorry that I thought you were pure evil. I realize now you’re one of the good ones.”
I blushed just thinking the words. It wouldn’t be easy at all. In the end, it didn’t matter, though, because the moment had passed.
Chaos poured out from Soren’s burrow.
I didn’t know where to look first. Like Cosmo’s party, bodies were packed in as far as I could see, except these were all human.
Despite overhearing earlier that they’d be sent here, it hadn’t really sunk in until just now that there was a chance that Mom could be included in those two hundred contracts.
As Soren moved to shut the door behind us, my eyes scanned the room wildly, searching each face for a familiar one.
Then a second time.
And a third.
Soren passed me as I did, turning to look back over his shoulder with a concerned frown.
But I didn’t get a chance to explain, even if I could’ve found the words.
Wading through the masses, Lore waved a hand in the air, yelling for Soren’s attention.
He turned to her. We wove through a mix of crying, angry rants, and, scariest of all, the people who stood totally silent, like they were too numb to react anymore. I could relate.
“We’re going to get you home.” Lore stroked the back of a young woman as we approached, soothing her.
Soren stepped in, kneeling down next to them.
He glanced at Lore, who nodded. “You were taken by the fae,” he told the woman, “held captive for an unknown amount of time, but we’ve written a contract here that will set you free.
If you want to live, you need to sign it and then never make another deal again. Do you understand?”
She nodded, sniffing a bit but calming enough to accept the pen from Lore and sign where he pointed.
He stood and let Lore shuffle her toward the kitchen. I overheard her telling the woman that she’d find her a place to sleep until it was time to leave.
Soren had already moved on to an older couple who stood clutching each other next to Gwen.
“Please take over,” Gwen muttered to him, looking frustrated.
The two gave Soren wide-eyed stares full of visible terror, but he gave them a gentle smile as he repeated the same thing he’d told the girl.
As he got them to sign and then moved on to a third person that Julian had lined up, I realized he’d said this many, many times before.
One by one, the light slowly returned to their eyes.
Memories surfaced at the same time, though, which seemed generally upsetting to most of them.
Gwen was the organizer, keeping things moving, while Lore calmed them, Peregrin fed them, and Julian surprisingly cheered some of them up—especially the young ones.
He’d gathered them up in a corner, telling them stories to distract them from reality.
The cozy flames in the fireplace, soft furniture, and warm cinnamon apple slices from Peregrin definitely went a long way in soothing their distress.
I should find a way to help, but I felt like my butt was glued to the nearest chair I’d fallen into. Though I kept an eye out for Mom, I didn’t really expect to be that lucky anymore.
Soren hadn’t lied. He really was saving all of them.
I’d kind of known for a while now, but seeing it with my own eyes was different.
He’s one of the good ones.