Chapter 28
We’d stayed up until sometime around five in the morning.
More human contracts continued to arrive throughout the night, keeping Soren and the others busy, though they started taking shifts to get some sleep.
I tried to help where I could. But the second Gwen had taken the family with the kids and my bed opened up, I’d fallen into it.
I’d slept in the gold dress, since I didn’t want to bother them with a request as basic as pajamas, but it hadn’t mattered.
Exhaustion had dragged me under immediately.
Now Soren’s hand on my shoulder made me lurch awake.
He stepped away to grab a nearby chair, giving me a minute to pull myself out of dreamland. I turned on my phone and checked it.
Still no signal, but when I saw the time, my heart sank. Every minute here was precious. I shouldn’t have wasted so much of it sleeping.
Daylight streamed into the burrow through those tiny holes in the ceiling. I blinked bleary eyes at Soren and sat up.
Though he’d brushed his hair and dressed in fresh clothes, he looked weary as he set the chair beside the daybed. He’d slept even less than I had. Dropping into the seat with less grace than usual, he kept his gaze on his hands. “I have bad news.”
I pulled my knees up to wrap my arms around them. “How bad?”
“I’ve just returned from court, where I met with Caius about the final contracts we were unable to finish handling this morning due to signatures not being correct.
When he asked for more time, I brought up your family’s names as a bargain.
. .” Soren swallowed, still not meeting my eye. “He said no.”
I couldn’t breathe. “Did you ask to trade?” I choked out the words, knowing I was talking about three other people staying behind when they could’ve escaped.
My conscience burned. But desperation made a person do and say wild things.
I couldn’t bring myself to take it back.
My mind raced. “Or maybe I could buy their contracts somehow?” With what money, Brynn? I chewed on my lip.
Soren surprised me by nodding. “I did ask.”
A weighted silence made my nerves sing.
Leaning forward on his knees, Soren looked like he was trying to find the words. “It made him suspicious . . . He wanted to know why these humans were so important to me.”
Oh no.
“What’d you say?”
“That it was none of his business, obviously.” Soren smirked as he sat back. “Though I kept it civil. And then I asked him if I could offer a better trade.”
When he didn’t explain, I wondered what he meant by that. But more importantly—
“What did he say?”
“Unfortunately, it had the opposite results of what I intended. It made him think your family has some unknown value to me, and now he is refusing to let them go at all.”
No . . .
“Aren’t you important here?” I demanded. “Don’t you have any sway?”
“I’ll be honest, Brynn,” Soren said in an unusually vulnerable moment. “In the Hollow Court, I am no one.”
“But I thought you were the master of the south entrance, with a fancy title and everything?”
“Do you think my post at the south entrance has any real meaning when every single fae in the court can and likely does have their own entrance point?” He snorted derisively.
“They gave me this supposedly crucial role to mock and belittle me. Anyone can dig their way out, Brynn, at any time. My role is meaningless, and yet they insist that I be present to account for visitors and report weekly to the court. If anything, it’s their way of humiliating me and imprisoning me in my own home. ”
I hadn’t thought of it that way.
I flung the covers off. “Is my glamour still there? Can you freshen it up for me? I’ll go see the prince myself.”
Soren didn’t react right away.
I scooted forward on the bed impatiently.
He raised a hand, and his knuckles brushed my cheek, but he didn’t have his usual focus or close his eyes, acting almost lost in thought as he lightly traced my jaw.
I shivered.
When he pulled back, I grabbed his hand. “No, do the whole thing. I need to get his attention. My face is too plain.” Everyone said so back home, and I’d accepted it, which was how I knew that Soren’s glamour was the only reason Caius had even looked twice at me before.
“The glamour has barely faded since last night,” Soren said, glancing at my hand on his. “It doesn’t need any refreshment.” Fine lines appeared between Soren’s brows as he stared at me.
I let go, blushing. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I never changed your face, Brynn.” His eyes tracked my hand as I returned it to my lap. “You’re far from plain.”
“Oh.” That did weird things to my heart. I ignored it, lowering my gaze and climbing out of bed. I turned to make the bed as an excuse not to look at him. “Can you give me directions to court? Or . . . wherever Caius will be?”
When he didn’t answer right away, I finally looked up.
He’d stood as well, posture tense. “I’ll take you,” he said stiffly, turning to the ladder.
“If you come with me, he’s just going to say no again,” I protested, even though everything in me wanted to agree.
“I’ll guide you to court and then leave you in peace,” he promised, and when I opened my mouth to argue, he added, “I have business there.”
Okay, then. I guess that works in my favor. I’d say thank you, except I didn’t want to owe him, and honestly, I already felt like I did.
We traveled silently down to the main level of his burrow, where we found the others passed out on the couches. I swallowed the lump in my throat. Had they given the remaining humans their beds?
Kneeling next to Lore, Soren quietly woke her and whispered something I couldn’t quite hear.
She glanced at me, then nodded.
***
After a quick change of clothes from Lore—she finally gave me some pants, thank goodness, which were made out of a soft flowy fabric and a long embroidered tunic to wear over it—we left in a hurry.
Once we entered court, we wove through the bottom of the S shape, past a troupe of musicians filling the open-air space with sweet melodies, through the gardens, around trees, and toward the opposite end of court.
Far fewer fae—or humans—were here this time of day. That is, until we reached the thrones.
The three short sets of stairs drew my gaze upward like magnets.
I startled.
All three thrones were claimed by the king, queen, and prince. Not only that, but the artful structure of the stained glass created bright spotlights over each of them, making them appear almost angelic.
In front of them stood a creature with long black hair and even blacker skin covered in a web of glowing golden fissures, as if a molten substance lingered just below the surface. They studied her as if she was speaking, but the stairs went too far back and I couldn’t hear a thing.
King Mordeus shook his head in dismissal.
An attendant scurried up the steps to shoo her away. When she hesitated, two guards stepped out of formation, ready to physically escort her away, if necessary.
From below, as she descended, another attendant called out, “Greedle Hearst of the Sun Court.”
An elderly fae barely wider than a pole with hunched shoulders slowly climbed the stairs, slumping to his knees at the top.
King Mordeus gazed over his head, barely listening.
Soren and I approached the goat-horned attendant at the base of the steps. “Please add Brynn Donovan to the list,” he told the fae, who side-eyed both of us as he leaned over his podium to write.
I gulped. Did I want to talk to Caius in front of his royal parents? No way. Did I have a choice? It didn’t look like it.
The goat man sniffed as he finished. “I estimate you’ll be called in the next four hours to four days.”
What?
Gesturing to the banquet tables behind us, the attendant continued reciting in a monotone, “Please help yourself to a meal or find comfortable seating in one of the adjoining rooms. But if you miss your name being called, you forfeit your right to appeal to the crown for a month and a day.”
That was ridiculous, but the first time frame was even worse. “Four days?” I whispered to Soren.
The attendant stiffened. “We cannot put our king on a timeline,” he snapped before Soren could answer, clutching his pen. “If he chooses to take his time with a petitioner or postpone to another day, that’s his sovereign right.”
Swallowing under his sharp gaze, I nodded, following Soren when he turned away. He led us a short distance from the stairs, stopping beneath a tall tree with white flowers. It was close enough to still hear the attendant but was blocked by the tree in case the prince glanced in our direction.
Soren studied the court with narrowed eyes before reluctantly turning to me. “I suppose I’d better attend to my business.”
This time my mouth was too dry to swallow. If Caius saw me with Soren, there was a good chance he’d refuse to give my family to me either, so I couldn’t ask him to stay. But I desperately wanted to. “I’ll . . . find my way back after.”
With a sharp nod, Soren turned on his heel and disappeared.
I struggled not to visibly shrink.
Wandering across the room to the tables full of food, I tried to focus on the soft sunlight shining down through that strange open ceiling, warming my skin, instead of the idea of being on my own for “four hours to four days.” My nerves didn’t cooperate.
A pale-blue-skinned girl with webbing along her face and hands turned wide eyes on me, blinking one clear lid, then a second regular one, before showing her teeth in a predatory smile.
Nope.
I switched directions, heading for one of those private rooms along the side that the attendant had mentioned. Who needed food? Not me.
My shoulders lowered slightly when I stepped through a pretty flowering arch. It held a cozy space with sofas, chairs, and coffee tables. From here I could still hear if my name was called, but I could take that corner seat on the couch and put my back to the wall—
“I’m sitting there,” a cranky male voice grumbled.