Page 105 of What did you do?

“Caly, outside?—”

“Mendax,” I breathed, pulling back to look into his eyes. “It’s not true? He’s not dead?”

Walter’s throat bobbed with a rough swallow as his forehead creased.

“I’m afraid it’s true.” He lifted my tooth necklace from where it now hung around his neck. “I was able to get his necklace from the queen’s quarters. Unseelie are still fighting, but the castle has been destroyed. Mendax was gone before it came down,” he said softly.

“That can’t be, Walter. He’s just hiding!” I bit out, looking at my tooth. It looked wrong hanging from Walter’s neck. It belonged on Mendax.

Walter pulled me into his chest.

“We both know he wouldn’t hide while his home was being destroyed. He’s gone, Caly.” Walter’s voice cracked with emotion.

“You need to leave Seelie.” I squeezed Walter tightly and inhaled the clean smell of his shirt. “Saracen is going to make Tarani queen. She’s been grooming her. No wonder Tarani is so awful. It’s a wonder Eli turned out as sweet as he is. I haveto find a way to get to Moirai before my time runs out with my heart,” I said, feeling tears run down my face.

“If by sweet, you mean extremely tough and manly in a roguish sort of warrior way, then I agree.”

I froze.

The Seelie prince stood outside of my cell door. Blazing yellow light swirled from his fingertips and into the door’s keyhole. He pushed open the cell door and stepped in, pausing to look at me with sad eyes.

I ran to Eli and threw my arms around his neck. It felt so good to see familiar faces.

“Puddle? You still okay over there?” Sid called with a hint of concern in his tone.

“Yeah, Sid,” I replied.

Eli stirred. “Puddle?Is he insulting you? Why is he calling you a puddle?” he asked, tensing under my arms.

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly.

“Caly, you need to see what’s outside.” Eli’s voice cracked as his eyes filled with emotion.

“We need to leave now. I need to find a way to Morai,” I responded flatly.

Eli laughed for a second before stopping when he realized I was serious. “Moirai? The land of the Ascended and the Fates? Why? You can’t get in without an invitation, Cal. There’s never been a way to get there unless they send for you,” he said gently.

My shoulders fell. “Then how do I get them to send for me?”

“What are you talking about?” The golden prince brushed my hair away from my face tenderly.

“I’m going to die, Eli, and you’re going to die too now because of the tie. I’m so sorry.” I bit the inside of my lip to stop from crying more. “You should have tied yourself to someone worth dying over. You?—”

My argument was cut short when Eli’s lips crashed down on mine.

Ripples of emotion surged through my body as I felt everything possible. Anger, happiness, sadness, love, hate—everything.

It was like a blanket cocooning me, every possible feeling contradicting one another as I kissed him back, until true realization slammed into my head.

I pulled away abruptly. “Mendax is gone.”

Eli held me tighter. “Yes, and I’m only sorry about it because it hurts you. It was for the best. You cannot be tied to me and bonded to him. One of us had to die. It went against the Fates for you to be connected to us both. I’m so sorry for what my mother has done, but we found it.” Eli smiled, glancing at Walter. “We finally found your heart. Turns out it wasn’t at all where I had been told it was. I was going to steal it for you before Mendax stormed the castle.”

He slowly leaned back down and kissed me with so much feeling and tenderness that my eyes began to water.

“You move quick. I guess with one dead, why not, right? Has she seen all her fans?” came a familiar voice from the open cell doorway. Tarani stepped into the crowded cell.

“No,” I whispered as I looked at the small princess.

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