Page 105 of A Bargain with the Fae King

“I suppose you’re going to tell me?” I had to be human, that much Riven had said.

“One.” He curls in one finger. “The human must bear the mark of a fae of the forest.”

Check. My cheeks burn.

“Two.” Sigurd’s words draw me back as he lowers a second finger. “The human must come to Faery of their own free will.”

The words slide through me, slick as an oil spill and just as messy. Riven had asked me to come to Faery with him. The night we met. Later in my dreams. Even after, once we met again in the forest. I swallow a lump in my throat. I’d refused. He could have taken me through, but he didn’t. He asked. Over and over he asked.

And eventually, I came.

“Three.” Sigurd makes a fist, and he might as well be grinding my bones in his palm for how I ache. “The human must love a fae.”

“But I don’t love…” The denial tumbles out, but I taste it for the lie it is. I do love Riven. Deep within, I know that, even if I haven’t told him yet, even if I haven’t fully come to grips with it myself.

“Do you not?” He raises his eyebrows, his smirk growing as they arch high. “Perhaps you lie to even yourself.”

I open my mouth to yell at him. Close it so hard my teeth grind.

It’s all I can do to force myself to look at Sigurd. His dark hair blows onto his face in the gentle breeze, but he doesn’t even move to push it away, pleased with himself as he is.

“Thank you for telling me all this, really.” False honey coats my words, and I lay it on thick, giving all I can muster. “I appreciate the honesty.” Okay maybe, that’s not entirely true, but I can lie. “But how do you know these things? Why tell me all this?”

His countenance darkens. “Such a legend, what fool king wouldn’t know it? And you, you’ll just use that key to open the doors for him?” He leans forward, an eerie glow leaking from his eyes. “Or do you plan to trade it to the Unseelie?”

I barely hold back my flinch. Close, too close.

“If you reopen the doors, more humans will inevitably come here. You may not be the only young human in the Court of the Forest then. Do you still think Riven will want you? When he has other humans to choose from whose human spark has not started to fade?”

The words cut deep, slicing at the insecurity I’d managed to push aside. Riven made it clear he wants me and me alone. Broken bits and all. But when Sigurd throws the future out there like that...

My stomach turns. If more humans mean more power, why would he want only me? But then—

“Fade?” The word jumps out at me like a flashing sign, clanging a warning bell in my head. “Wait, what do you mean?” Riven said the fae would fade and die in my world but humans in theirs… My hands clasp over my mouth, holding in the scream threatening to break free.

No.

Sigurd leans closer, his arm curling around my side of the bench. “You see, Faery has this effect on humans.” His conspiratorial whisper wraps around me like his arm. “Spending time here, giving your human light to help the fae, it eats away at your humanity, lessens your effect on us, even”—he drops his voice to a whisper—“makes it harder to remember.” He taps a finger on the side of his head. “I wonder how much you’ll remember by the time you’re free of that pesky bargain?”

His words are knives, cutting deep, bleeding me out, flowing with the tears that blur my vision. Have I forgotten anything? Would I even know if I have?

“Does Riven know about this?”

He’d said he was unfamiliar with humans. Maybe he truly didn’t know. I hold that hope as tightly as I can. I can’t even bear to look Sigurd in the face. The bench. The cobbled stone walkway. Anything else.

“Yes.” The word is a hiss, a victory.

I choke back another sob. He knew. He knew, and he never mentioned it.

“Why?” I croak out.

Sigurd shrugs. “Who can say what Riven plans?”

“Could I really forget everything in just a few months?”

He looks me over, one finger tapping on the side of his cheek. “Every human is different.”

Not really an answer.

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