Page 10 of What did you do?

I turned around and slammed into Eli’s chest.

How had he gotten behind me so quietly?

“Fuck!” I shouted. “I didn’t even hear you.”

“Sly as a fox,” he said with a grin.

I snorted and moved to his side, where he tucked me against him and returned to the open front door.

Three luna moths were on the screen door.

“They must be attracted to you,” Eli said as he shooed me inside and closed the door behind us.

After Saracen and I had made our deal, I knew I had to go to Unseelie and kill whoever the son of the queen was, but I had known nothing other than they had been hated by my family. And I didn’t care about anything other than finishing the job. I hadn’t even been certain how to get there. Saracen would only tell me to follow the luna moths and that she would send word when it was time.

I took the old leather book from my desk and threw it in the fireplace to burn with the next stack of wood.

“You’re throwing out the opus?” Eli asked.

“I don’t need it any longer. You and Saracen won’t have to send me letters through a magical book. I’ll be right down the hallway,” I said with a smile.

“I’ll kind of miss writing you letters,” he replied with a frown. “What else am I to do in the evenings now? How am I ever going to gossip with you about Chef Samuel’s crush on the new stable master? Or the horrid perfume Tarani insists on wearing? Honestly, you think I’m kidding, but it smells like seahorses.”

I turned from the fireplace, wishing more than anything I could laugh about perfume and gossip.

“She sent me to die in Unseelie, Eli,” I said as I walked back into the bedroom.

“You’re her assassin. Isn’t that what you signed up for, technically? She knew you could handle it,” he replied as he took a stance at the window.

“Assassin or not, she knows I’m human,” I said as I watched him like a hawk.

“You know how she is. This was the only way. Believe me—I tried to think of any other possible way. But Seelie rules are different, and you don’t understand them. She loves you, whether you believe it or not. Mother knew you were theonly one out of all of us who could outsmart those particular monsters. She knows how strong and clever you are. Tartarus, why do you think she trained you the way she did? You were being trained to kill him since the beginning.”

Interesting.

As far as she was concerned, I was a weapon indebted to her, and she used me to extinguish her enemies while they were in the human realm. Only the most powerful fae could even get in here. She couldn’t kill them in Seelie without breaking rules and appearing just as dark and evil as her enemy, the Unseelie queen. I didn’t know much about the fae realms, but I did know the Seelie were supposed to be good and wholesome.

And I also knew that wasn’t true.

They were the “good side” so to speak. But that didn’t mean Saracen didn’t have enemies, or that people weren’t after her crown. And if they were sent to the human realm and a human took them out, the queen’s hands were free of blood.

They all hated humans, so it was easy to blame us.

I rubbed my temples, trying to stop the headache that had taken residence. God, this hurt. All of this was taking a toll on my body that I hadn’t suspected.

I had known our deal. I had suggested it. I owed Saracen a lot for taking me in when my mom and sister died, and as soon as I got to Seelie, I would repay her.

I was a part of the Seelie royal family now.

I turned and walked back to the main room of the house, taking one last heavy breath before picking up my most prized possession. The thing that embodied me. The prize of all my hard studies as a scientist searching for those sherbet-green moths.

I hurled the microscope against the tile floor. My eyes couldn’t stop the tight squeeze shut when I heard the delicate pieces shatter.

How often had I driven to my biology courses, crying because I missed Eli?

I turned around and scanned the mess I had created. Strong arms pulled me in against a hard chest that smelled like mandarin oranges and sunshine.

“She loves you so much—we all do. We are your family, Cal. I don’t pretend to understand half of what or why she does what she does, but I promise you, we want you to be with us as much or more than you can imagine. You are my best friend, and I can’t wait for you to come to Seelie. I’m sorry I haven’t been a part of your life these last several years. I hate it, but it’s over now. We will go first thing tomorrow morning, and Mother will explain everything.”

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