Chapter 11
T he comfortable dialogue we had is gone. So, so many times I start to ask him something, the words on the tip of my tongue. But that’s as far as they make it. He walks with determination, and I struggle to keep up. It’s probably on purpose.
The light has nearly faded. I’m stumbling every minute by the time we stop for the night. My calves ache—they have all afternoon—but I refuse to complain about that. I asked for this, and the last thing I want is to slow us down.
Ironically, Elias picks a cave as our stopping point. Well, sort of. An indentation in a steep cliffside would be more accurate. There won’t be any beasties to slip out of dark tunnels in the ground and devour us in the night since the cave ends just a few feet from where it begins.
“Do we get a fire tonight?” I ask optimistically.
Elias turns, squinting at me, almost like he expected a completely different question. “I would rather we didn’t.”
He doesn’t elaborate. I don’t press it. Fine. No fire .
My mind is still buzzing too much from what I learned earlier that day, so I can’t sleep and instead lean against the curved back wall of the little cavern and watch Elias eat a nut as my eyes try to adjust to the dark.
But then, beyond him, I catch sight of something unexpected. Drawn by the sight, I creep toward the edge of our cavern. “That’s a fire.”
There’s barely a rustle of sound, and he’s at my side, staring toward the flickering light in the distance. Shadows move in front of it.
“Other Unseelie?” I ask. But it has to be.
“Yes. Looks like a small clan group.”
“Should we signal them? Or go over?” It would be a long walk in the dark, but that flame feels like hope.
“No.” He turns abruptly and walks back to the rock he was sitting on.
I stop midstride. My boots squeak on the stone as I twist toward him. “What?”
Rather than respond, he ignores me, cracking open another nut and taking a bite.
A grumble of frustration rises in my chest. “But what if they could help us?”
Another bite. A swallow. Then he sighs and looks over at me. “They can’t.”
My lips thin, and I’m about to rebuke him when he continues.
“The Unseelie King has been gathering the clans. Such a small group on their own means they’re separatists.
They chose to ignore the summons, either out of disrespect for the king or their simple will to remain independent as they have been for ages.
” He sets the rest of the food aside. “They won’t help you. ”
Ridiculous. I shake my head. “You don’t know that.”
The elegant way he rises, smooth and strong with the grace of a predator, has me taking a step back.
My heart beats against my ribs as he advances on me with determined steps.
“I know enough. They would either try to keep you and use you to strengthen themselves or, more likely, barter you. To a large clan or the king himself, who can say?” He stretches his arms out, palms up.
I take another step back, and my head hits the side of the cave where it curves down toward the ground. I wince, rubbing the spot.
When he stops, he blocks out all sight of the fire and much of the moonlight. He’s all shadow, looming over me and so close it’s hard to breathe. “Is that what you want?”
“No,” I snap. “I don’t want to be some pet in a cage or a tool to be bartered.”
“Good.” He retreats a half step.
I should just keep my mouth shut, but I’m not always good at that.
“But maybe it would be good if I met the Unseelie King.” I’m going to have to at some point if I want to complete my mission and get home. Elias has been grumpy since our conversation. If he loses patience with me, decides I’m not worth it, I don’t want to be stuck out here alone.
Elias goes rigid. “You called him a monster.”
“Yes, but he’s a king. If anyone can help me find what I need for Matt, it would be him, right?”
He looks at me sideways. “You doubt my ability?”
“No.” I raise my hands in front of me. “Not at all.” Shit.
I really should have stayed quiet. “It’s just that you’re only one man, and a king, well, he probably has a whole bunch of people who could be helping us find these ingredients and all.
He might even know about that one we couldn’t figure out.
So, it just feels like the fastest way to help Matt might be with his help. ”
“The king knows nothing about these ingredients of yours that I do not.” He turns away again.
Well, that sounds optimistic. And rather derisive about the king. Elias paces into the cave, stops abruptly, and turns back, almost like he wishes he could be anywhere else.
I cross my arms and stare back out into the night. Truly, I wouldn’t mind some privacy myself. As I stare at the distant fire, a thought strikes me so hard I blurt it out. “Are you a separatist?”
“No,” he grates out.
My brows pinch. Supposedly fae can’t lie, but… “You were alone.”
He opens his mouth, closes it. He rakes a hand through his hair in an oddly human gesture but stops halfway, a strange look on his face. “I was looking for something.”
“Did you find it?” I hug my arms closer around myself, staring him down.
I don’t think he’ll answer, but then he says, “If I had, do you think I would still be out here?”
So, once he finds what he’s looking for, he’s going to peace out. Great. Just great.
Feeling more miserable than ever, I stalk to the back of the cave and take up my spot from earlier.
It’s cold, the chill from the rock soaking into my skin through my jacket.
But the discomfort grounds me and cools some of the anger coursing through my veins.
Elias sits on a boulder near the cave opening, about as far away from me as possible.
He doesn’t look at me, not directly, but I can sense I have his attention anyway.
“I just want to help my brother,” I say after a few minutes of tense silence.
Elias stares at me from his boulder, elbows propped on his knees as he hunches forward. He’s little more than a shadow, but less frustration radiates from him now.
“He’s important to me. Maybe the most important person in my life,” I add.
He hangs his head then raises it, and I’d swear I catch a hint of that violet glow again.
“I know. I could tell from your stories about him.”
I nod. Matt’s been a central topic to many of our conversations about my life and what led me to Faery.
“This is my last hope. My last chance to save him.” My voice cracks at the end, and I take a minute to pull myself together. “So, I’ll do whatever it takes. If I have to search for the ingredients alone, if I have to track down the Unseelie King and beg for his help, I’ll do it.”
“You think he would help you?” His tone isn’t skeptical, more curious.
For the right price, I have a feeling he would. But instead, I say, “You said earlier that he needs to regain his power. What did you mean by that?”
A soft grumble leaves him, and he looks away.
Ugh, fine .
“Well, anyway,” I go on, “humans aid fae magic, right? You said just being close to me would help you. So, it would help him too, I imagine. And I know there are ways that bond can be even stronger.” I can’t bear to say what I’m really thinking.
He sits up straight. “You would offer yourself to him?”
“I don’t mean to take away from you,” I say quickly. Good God, why can’t I keep my mouth shut? “But if we do all we can and it’s not enough and granting him power could help me save my brother and help you and the Unseelie too,” I add, trying to win him over again, “then yes, I would do it.”
He scoffs. “You’re desperate.”
My cheeks flame. “Yes, I am desperate. He’s dying, and nothing has helped. This…” My voice grows thin.
“You love him so much,” he says, voice wistful, and his posture eases.
It’s not a question, but I answer anyway. “Yes. I do.” When he doesn’t respond, I push. “Do you have any siblings? Anyone you love.”
He pauses, as if in thought. “A sister.”
“And what would you do to help her if she were dying?”
“Anything it took,” he says immediately.
The love in his voice, the utter desperate sincerity, is so pure it almost hurts. “Then you understand.”
His head bobs in a nod. “Your Seelie friends would not be pleased to hear that you would help their enemy.”
“The Seelie are not my friends.” Maybe to most humans they are but not to me. “They’ve never helped me. Only you have.”
The violet glow that emanates from his eyes is unmistakable this time. It’s strange yet comforting too. Almost hypnotic.
Elias stands, that glow unfading. “And I will continue to. I won’t let you search alone, nor will I ask more than you want to give.”
The words are a soothing balm to my worries, spreading through my chest like a warm blanket. “Thank you. I mean it. If I can repay you—”
“You already do.” He blinks, and the glow diminishes. Thick silence lingers between us before he turns toward the entrance of the little cave. “Rest now. I will ward the entrance against danger.”
Tucked deep in my sleeping bag, I try to sleep.
I really do. The uneven ground isn’t the problem.
If I’m tired enough—and I am—I can sleep anywhere.
It’s the cold. It’s managed to seep through the layers surrounding me, and even curling up in a ball and hugging my knees to my chest hasn’t helped.
Funny, I always enjoyed the scent of crisp night air, rare as it is where I lived, but this experience is making me dread it.
What I couldn’t give for a fire, but I suppose I understand the risk of that.
I turn over, pulling the sleeping bag tighter around me.
“Can’t sleep?” comes a deep voice from the dark. Turned toward the back wall of the cave, I don’t see him, but I can almost feel his eyes on me.
“I’m trying,” I protest, wiggling tighter into a ball. “I just can’t get comfortable.”
There’s a rustle of fabric. The crunch of stone.
I roll over, a gasp catching in my throat at the wide shadow rippling before me, ready to swallow me whole. But then Elias’s cloak settles atop me, filling my senses with the scent of leather and wood.
“I—” I start to protest.
“You’re probably cold. Take it.”
Damn it. How does he know that? “But what about you?”
One shoulder lifts in a shrug. “I’ve suffered worse than a little chill and still been able to rest.”
I frown. Way to make me feel like a pansy. The cloak is warm though, and his scent lingering on it sparks a new pleasant burn in my chest, too.
He retreats back toward the entrance to the cave.
“Wait.” I sit up, the sleeping bag rustles, falling away and taking the cloak with it, sending a fresh wave of shivers across my skin.
Elias pauses, head half turned back in my direction.
A deep breath fills my lungs. What are you thinking, Aimee? It must be guilt that I feel balled up against my spine because I say, “You can—” Another deep breath. “We can share. We’ll be warmer that way, and I would feel bad if you were cold because of me.”
He’s quiet for a moment, a dark shadow against the dim moonlight outside. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I swallow the tightness in my throat. It’s just warmth, right?
A soft violet glow pulses from him, there and gone again, but it eases some of the tension. And when Elias lies down beside me, sharing his cloak, and wraps his arms around me, I fall asleep almost immediately.