Shadow Faerie

Chapter 5

Five

I run all the way back to my bedroom, tug the door open, and slam it shut. I take a few unsteady steps into the room, barely seeing my surroundings. All I see is a man’s neck flipping to the side, and blood squirting from—

I turn, blinking, as if I can somehow look away from the memory. Still breathing heavily from the run, I push my fingers through my hair. What the hell was I thinking coming to this place? That I’d actually be able to get away with the answers I need because I have a powerful Griffin Ability I can use against people? A Griffin Ability I can’t call upon at will, and which can be used to fulfill someone else’s purposes due to a potion I didn’t know existed. What a miserable joke. I should have guessed, though, that something like this would happen. There’s so much I don’t know about this world and its magic, but what I should have known was what an i***t idea it was to put myself in the midst of a bunch of powerful, dark magic-wielding faeries.

From somewhere behind me, a soft thump reaches my ears. I freeze. I know I should run. I should pull the door open and keep running until this palace is far behind me. But fear sticks my feet to the floor. Ever so slowly, I twist around and look over my shoulder. Across the room on the round table, sitting beside the tray of tea and macarons Clarina must have left here not long ago, is a small owl. As I watch, the owl seems to collapse in on itself. An instant later, a black kitten sits in its place.

“Bandit?” I whisper in disbelief. I turn fully to face the shapeshifting creature. It flicks its right ear in response. Without a moment’s pause, I race across the room and scoop him into my arms, tears burning my eyes. “I don’t know how you got here or where you’ve been hiding or if you’re the one who’s been making strange noises in my suite,” I whisper, “but I’m so, so, so glad to see you.” I thought I left him sleeping in my room when I snuck away from the oasis, but he must have shifted into something smaller and climbed into one of my pockets. Wouldn’t be the first time. “Please don’t leave me,” I mumble into his fur, my words running together. “Please don’t leave me here alone. I’m sorry about the things I said when you first showed up. That I don’t like pets and that maybe I could sell you. I swear I didn’t mean any of that. I had a puppy once, but it ran away and never came back, and Mom and I searched, but we couldn’t find it and I cried for days.” I suck in a long breath and lower my arms enough to look down at him sitting in them. He looks back up with perfectly adorable kitten eyes. “I know you’re magical, but you probably don’t understand a word I’m saying, do you?” He tilts his head to the side, looking for all the world as if he’s trying to figure out what I’m saying. “Yeah,” I whisper, pulling him to my chest again. “So just don’t disappear, okay? This place is not safe. Not for either of us. If you’d seen what I just—”

“Emerson?” Roarke’s voice on the other side of the door sends a jolt through me. I have no idea how he’ll feel about the idea of a shapeshifting pet showing up here, so I hurry into the bedroom and place Bandit on the bed. “Stay here,” I whisper to him before pulling the bedroom door closed. With limbs that are still shaking, I cross the sitting room and open the main door just wide enough to peek through the gap at Roarke.

“Are you all right?” he asks.

Another brief flash of spraying blood and ripping flesh crosses my mind. I swallow, flattening one hand on the doorframe and the other on the back of the door. Pull yourself together, I silently instruct. You chose to come here. You chose this option to help Mom. Now make it work. “Yes, thank you. I’ll be fine. It was just a little bit of a shock, that’s all. Seeing … that.” I doubt it’s necessary to elaborate on exactly what I’m referring to.

“Can I come in?” he asks.

“Uh … okay.”

We sit side by side on the divan with a respectable amount of space between us. I risk a glance at the closed door separating us from the bedroom. Hopefully Bandit’s intelligent enough to know he needs to remain hidden. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” Roarke says. “I know it must have seemed brutal and cruel, but it didn’t happen for no reason. That man disobeyed the king, and the consequence was death.”

I breathe out slowly. Since Roarke seems to be waiting for a response, I say, “Okay.”

“I just wanted to explain because I don’t want you to be afraid to live here. That man was a criminal. He and several others stole from my father. He deserved death. But for those of us who play by the rules, life here is good.”

For those of us who play by the rules. Roarke’s reassurances only increase my fear. I’m not planning to play by the rules. I’m planning to steal knowledge and then run for my life. “I know,” I say quietly. “I understand. Like I said, it was just a shock. I’ve only been here a few days, and everything is very … different. I’m still getting used to it.” I swallow. “I think it might help to put me at ease if I knew for certain that I could trust you. If you could tell me a few things—about Mom—then I’d know you can truly help me.”

He leans back on one hand and surveys me as his serious expression turns to amusement. “You’re actually not as bad at this as Aurora made out. Still fairly transparent, but I’m impressed you’re trying.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Trying what?”

“To twist this situation to your advantage.” He c***s his head to the side. “I’m curious. Did that scene with my father actually upset you, or is your entire reaction a ruse so you can try to manipulate some information out of me?”

My mouth drops open of its own accord. I close it quickly and grit my teeth together as I respond. “Of course I was upset by it. It was horrible.” I lean away from him. “Were you motivated by any genuine concern when you decided to come to my room, or is this part of whatever game you’re playing?”

He smiles again, but it’s softer this time. “I’m sorry. It seems the two of us are still figuring each other out. And yes, my concern for you was genuine. I’m not so cruel that it means nothing to me to see you upset. We might be about to form one of the least romantic unions in history, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to at least try to care for you.”

I fold my arms over my chest, hugging myself tighter than usual. “Well, in the unlikely event that you’re telling the truth, thank you for trying.”

He examines me for another few moments. “What can I say to convince you I’m being truthful?”

“You could start with—”

“Shall I tell you about the little house you grew up in? Number twenty-nine Phipton Way. Shall I tell you about the wild roses your mother loved to tend in the garden? Or about the friend who used to visit sometimes? The one who always ended up arguing with your mother. The one you never actually met, because you were always told to go to your room. Or what about the time your mom showed up to fetch you from school an hour early and stood outside the fence speaking to things that weren’t there? Would telling you about these things be enough to prove to you that I know more about your mother than anyone who’s tried to help you so far?”

A shiver slithers up my spine. “How do you know these things?”

His eyebrows pinch together slightly. “You still don’t get it, do you. You don’t understand how valuable you are. When I heard about your Griffin Ability, I made it my priority to learn everything I could about you. I tracked down your aunt, then your mother, and then the one person who connected Daniela and Emerson Clarke to this world.”

“What person?”

“The person who knows who you are. The person who made your mother the way she is.”

My heart thunders dangerously fast. “Tell me.”

He simply shakes his head. “All will be revealed after our union.”

I shake my head, grinding the words out between my teeth. “And you want me to believe you’re not cruel.”

“I’m not,” he says quietly. “It’s just that you’re not the only person who wants something. I want something too, and I don’t trust that you’ll give it to me unless I withhold information from you.”

“I will go through with this union.”

“Really? That’s honestly what you’re planning to do?”

Dammit. Is there some kind of magic going on here that tells him I’m lying? Is that compulsion potion still at work? But he hasn’t specifically compelled me to tell the truth. “Yes,” I say to him, willing myself to believe it’s the truth. “That’s what I’m planning to do.”

“And yet you haven’t asked for any details of how I’m going to fulfill my side of the agreement once the union’s taken place. How exactly will your mother be woken and healed? Will I teach you the spells and let you go to her? Will I insist on doing it myself? What will happen to your mother once she’s well?”

Crap. He’s got me there. “I have plenty of questions for you, Roarke, but you haven’t exactly been around for me to ask them. You’ve only been back a few hours, and we didn’t have much time to talk before your father wanted to see me.”

“True. Well then, do you want to ask how things will work after the union?”

I tilt my chin up. “How are things going to work after the union?”

He sighs. “Why are you so resistant? I understand that it’s not ideal marrying someone you only just met, but it’s not as though you’re getting a disappointingly average life out of this deal. I’m offering you everything. A beautiful home, a powerful family, wealth beyond all imagining. And don’t tell me you don’t want any of that because everyone wants that. And there isn’t anything wrong with wanting it. You’ll be one of the lucky few who gets to have it all.”

“You’re right,” I say quietly, unfolding my arms and placing my hands in my lap. “I’m very lucky.”

“So once we’re married, I’ll go to your mother and—”

“No,” I interrupt. “You—I’ll go. I’ll get her and bring her back here.” I pause. “You wouldn’t keep me from doing that, would you? From going to get her? I mean, obviously I’d come back.”

“Obviously,” he repeats. “But that doesn’t mean my father would be happy with you leaving. If you don’t want me to fetch your mother, and you’re not allowed to fetch her either, then you can contact whoever it is that’s keeping her safe and arrange a meeting. At a neutral location, one that your ‘friends’ don’t need to worry about me discovering. I’ll send some people to fetch your mother. My most trusted men.”

I consider his suggestion. “Fine. If that’s the only way.”

“Once she’s here, I’ll wake her. I’ll heal her mind. Then she can tell you the truth about everything. You can finally have all your questions answered. She can stay here too, and you can finally stop worrying about her. Stop fighting, stop struggling. Life will be good for you, Emerson.”

“Sounds perfect.”

“Does it? I know you’re fond of sarcasm, so forgive me for doubting you.”

I roll my eyes. “Obviously it isn’t perfect, but it’s as close to perfect as life could ever possibly be, so if marrying you is the only way to get there, then I’ll do it.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

He leans forward and takes hold of one of my hands. He stares intently into my eyes, and though I don’t feel any different, I can’t help wondering if he’s trying to use some kind of magical discernment spell I know nothing about. “Are you lying to me, Emerson?”

I shake my head, willing myself not to look away from him. “I am not lying. My mother is the most important person in the world to me. I would do anything to make her better.” And I realize as I finish speaking that I’m telling the truth. I would do anything for her—and that includes marrying a prince I barely know. So if there’s no way out of this, if it proves impossible to get the information I need from Roarke before the wedding, then I’ll do this. I’ll marry him. And Mom will finally be the happy, healthy mother I remember.

And then …

One day, no matter how far in the future, no matter how long it takes me to figure out exactly how to do it, I’ll get the two of us out of here.