Page 26 of What did you do?

“Why not?” I whispered back.

“Because I don’t want you to. You won’t be able to handle it,” he said sternly.

Immediately, stubborn fire poured through my veins. I knew faerie food acted differently on humans, but I was strong. I could take it. “And just how would you know what I can and cannot handle? Because I’m human? It’s tea.” I scowled back at him.

“No, Cal, it’s?—”

“Make yourselves useful and bring us tea and cold cuts. You may gawk at the poor human whilst you serve her,” Saracen snapped in the direction of a group of servants that had huddled nearby.

I may as well have been an animal at the zoo by the way they all clamored to get a better look at me as I passed by. Eli let out a loud, dramatic breath as he touched my elbow to gently guide me through the castle.

The queen had just made her way into a sitting room, leaving them free to whisper and stare at me as they liked. For the first time in a really long time, I felt weak and self-conscious.

“Leave now,” Eli commanded in a tone I had never heard him use.

A little startled at his tone, my head whipped around to look at him.

The crowd scattered in a frenzy. Eli looked down to give me a wink and smile, instantly transforming back into the charming, fun boy I used to play in the fields with. He paused at the doorframe a moment to let me enter the room before him.

His mother sat on a small, Victorian-style sofa in the center of the grand room. Intricate molding and chandeliers seemed to be in every spot my eyes landed. A tingle in my nose made me sniff abruptly. It smelled sharp and clean—the kind of clean that stings your nose.

Thump, thump, thump.

My heart pounded unusually hard. Was that because it was near itsother half?

“Caly, my dear, please sit. Chef will be here momentarily with your tea. Youmustdrink it quickly before it gets cold, that is one thing I specifically remember the apothecary saying. Sit, sit,” the queen playfully scolded as she waved a hand, indicating the spot next to her on the clean, delicate-looking sofa.

I should have changed my clothes.

I felt disgusting in my dirt-speckled sundress sitting next to her. Why could I not seem to keep my clothes clean? Ever? Even fresh, new ones? Somehow I had managed to ruin my pretty dress on the way here.

Not a pale-blond hair was out of place on Saracen’s beautiful head, and a small, modest crown of citrines caught the chandelier light, sparkling atop it. I glanced at my feet the second her eyes caught me staring.

I needed to get it together.

“I just collected Caly, Mother. She has been traveling all day and has hardly had a moment of relaxation since she was in Unseelie—” Eli began, but was quickly cut off by Saracen.

“Is he truly dead, Calypso? Is that vile blotch of a disease finally dead?” she asked, leaning her angelic face closer to mine.

Her warm, polychromatic eyes danced, alive and excited. The reflection of the fire in front of us reflected eerily as it filled her irises, adding a strangely sinister edge to her question.

The words lodged in my throat, cold and hard, but I reluctantly forced them out. “Mendax, prince of the Unseelie realm, is—is dead,” I said as confidently as was possible with a lump clogging my throat.

As soon as I spoke, a shiver trickled down my spine like phantom fingers raking over my skin.

“I had heard as much, but I wished to hear it from your lips, Calypso. It’s quite the accomplishment, even for a skilled woman such as yourself.” Saracen squeezed my forearm kindly. “You know what it would mean to the Seelie court, to me, if you had not been capable of killing him…and you were bonded to him.” She clenched her jaw, and a cold look hardened her typically warm features.

“She fought against the bonding, Mother. It was against her will. I was there.” Eli rose from his chair to defend me.

“Yes, of course. I wouldneverbetray you, Saracen…or Seelie,” I stated, quite surprised. It felt foreign and sour for her to doubt me. She had never even questioned me after other hits, other than to ask if it was completed. “I-I have done everything you have asked of me,” I said, beginning to feeldefensive. “Everymarkyou have given me in the human realm, I have killed without so much as a question. Mendax was no different,” I replied. “I have ached for this day for as far back as I can remember. The day I could be here—that we could all be together.Youare my family. I would do—I have done—anything for you!”

Careful, I warned myself.

I glanced at Eli as he hovered by the door, letting Chef carry in a small tray with a single teacup. “Though I am anxious to have my heart restored, I would have given all of it as proof of my undying allegiance, had it been so requested, Saracen.”

“QueenSaracen,” Samuel interjected harshly.

My eyes snapped to him. The older man was setting the tray on the table near my side of the sofa. He gave me a tight-lipped smile and left, pausing only to take the tray from the servants who had just arrived with a separate tea for Eli and Saracen.

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