Page 37 of Magic Betrayed

I scowled at him as fiercely as I could manage. “You’d better disappear before we have a lot more explaining to do.”

With one final growl, the dragon lifted off, his powerful wingbeats generating a sudden wind that nearly knocked me off my feet. A few moments later, he vanished into the night sky, leaving me with his coat, his keys, and a darkly amused fae prince, who sheathed his weapons and came to stand beside me.

“I confess, I am a little surprised you ended up choosing to risk your life at my hands,” he murmured. “Or perhaps I’m simply shocked to discover that Kestryl has not warned you more sternly against trusting me.”

“Should she have?” I shot him a wary glance as I pulled the key fob from my pocket, allowing it to lie in my palm as I regarded him. “Kes doesn’t actually talk about her past very much. All I’ve heard from her is that the two of you used to be friends, and that you were the only member of the Fae Court who didn’t make her life a misery. And yet, she still doesn’t want to see you.”

Rath nodded, but said nothing.

“So, how about you talk while you drive me to the bookstore? You have about ten minutes to explain why Kes wants nothing to do with you and then give me a convincing reason to let you help.”

His nod was sharp and decisive. “Agreed.”

* * *

With the dragon gone,traffic gradually began to flow normally once more, so we had only a short wait before we were able to pull out onto Northwest Expressway heading southeast. Thankfully, the streets were only lightly congested at this time on a weeknight, so I was confident we would make good time on our way to the bookstore.

“All right, talk,” I demanded. “I need to know if I’m betraying Kes just by being in the same car with you.”

“What makes you think I would answer you truthfully?” His question held no sarcasm, only curiosity.

“Magic,” I said flatly, drawing a humorless laugh from the enigmatic fae.

“Fair enough. As to what Kestryl would think”—I saw his fingers tighten on the steering wheel—“I cannot promise an accurate answer. She was not very forthcoming the last time we spoke, and the best I was able to determine was that she experiences a sense of guilt whenever she sees me.”

He was looking straight ahead, so it was difficult to gauge his mood, but what I could see of his expression looked bleak.

“If anything, it should be the opposite,” he went on. “I failed to protect her from my predatory mother. Failed to keep her safe from the more vicious members of the Fae Court. So I do not blame her for not trusting me, nor for refusing to see me. My face is a part of a million painful memories, and that is not something I can change by insisting I am guiltless, or by working to earn her favor. No matter how much of my life I commit to righting those wrongs, there are some sins I can never atone for.”

It was such a forthright and self-deprecating statement that I was forced to reassess my initial impression of the heir to the fae throne.

On each of our previous encounters, Vinrath Elduvar had struck me as observant and insightful, but with a bitter edge that made him unpredictable, sharply self-mocking, and wildly dangerous. With a heart, perhaps, but a deeply buried one. Now I began to wonder how much of that was true, and how much a carefully fabricated image.

This Rath was still observant, still insightful, still very, very dangerous. The anger and pain I’d glimpsed before was there, true, but tempered. Softened. Balanced by wisdom and possibly even… empathy?

Not something I’d ever thought to find in a fae.

“The embittered, overlooked heir is just a feint, isn’t it?” The words came out before I considered the wisdom of saying them aloud. If I was wrong, or if that was a closely held secret…

But the fae prince only glanced my way with a faint hint of surprise. “What did Callum tell you?”

“Nothing.” Though he’d hinted at it when the two of them had met right before the Symposium.

“You have siren magic, don’t you?”

It was his turn to shock me with a question, and for a moment, I was left gaping as I tried to determine the wisest answer. But a hunch finally prodded me and I went with the truth. Chose to trust. Maybe I would end up regretting it, but my magic didn’t think so.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“Before the Symposium, when you asked me whether I had anything to do with Logan’s disappearance. Your magic was trying to convince me to tell you the truth. I could feel the push. It was small enough I could have ignored it, but chose not to, because I wanted you to trust me then.”

Great. Just great. Of all the people I would have wanted knowing that I had siren magic, Vinrath Elduvar would not have been on the list. Him, or any fae, really. Even with my growing intuition that he was likely a decent and honorable person, I still needed to be careful. There was no knowing what someone with his connections would do with that information, or how he might be able to use it against me.

But there was one card I could still play that might give me a bit of leverage against him.

“Since we’re bringing up personal information, how about you tell me what you were doing in Oklahoma City two weeks before the Symposium?”

His face showed no reaction.

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