Page 45 of What did you do?

“They’ll kill you for this.” She smiled. “Mother will send you back to the humans as soon as she hears of this!” she barked triumphantly, sounding surprisingly unafraid when I pressed the blade harder against her throat.

I wasn’t stupid. I held it flat against her skin, so I wasn’t actuallyabout to hurt her, but she couldn’t feel the difference with her adrenaline spiking.

If the need arose though, it would take me half a second to do it. Some part of my instincts begged me to swipe the blade across her throat and make my life a lot easier here.

“Knock it off, both of you!” Eli shouted, stepping in close to tower above us.

“This is exactly what I mean, Aurelius! Do you see what you’ve done? You will both be killed before the week is through!” Tarani shouted, starting to fight back against my hold.

What was she talking about?

I didn’t want to hurt her yet, and I wasn’t stupid. Whatever a SunTamer could do would be far worse than anything I could. The energy in the room was explosive, each of us waiting to see what the other would do.

“Remove the knife from my sister’s throat. Suns, Calypso! Sometimes I wonder if Unseelie wouldn’t suit you better with the way you turn so dark,” Eli grumbled.

His words shouldn’t have hurt, but they did. I’d even wondered the same thing myself several times. I had foolishlythought Mendax was the only one to see my darkness, but apparently that wasn’t so.

“Before you accuse me of being full of Unseelie-like darkness, remember who trained my hands.” I shoved Tarani to her knees, maintaining my grip on her.

“You’re nothing but a fool,” Tarani said quietly from below me. “You act like you have a craving for death, and now, because of my idiot brother thinking with his dick and saving you, your lives are tied together. Forever. Now fuck off and get out of my way.” Tarani burst into a glowing orb of yellow light that sent such intense heat to my fingers, I was forced to drop my hold on her.

I needed to find out more about her powers.

She stood up as the bright light faded and moved to stand next to Eli with her arms crossed.

“What do you mean our lives are tied together? I don’t understand anything you just said.”

My friend began to pace, running his hands through his thick, blond hair. “I couldn’t help it! The pull—we were in our fox forms when I found you. I-I couldn’t let you die. I was the reason you were there in the first place!”

“I don’t understand. Isn’t that something all fae can do? Why is that so dangerous?” I asked, gripping the warm metal of my karambit for comfort.

“No one can know what I did, Caly. Mother doesn’t know.No onecan know. It’s incredibly dangerous for anyone to know what I did for you,” Eli said seriously.

“And what exactly did you do?” I asked, feeling suddenly unsteady.

“Just before your heart stopped beating, Eli infused you with his power. HisSeelie royalpowers. It is forbidden in all realms of faerie to disrupt what the Fates have decided, and what’s worse”—Tarani struggled to get the words out—“is now Eli’s lifeis tied to yours and vice versa. Should one of you be killed, the other will also die.” Her voice cracked on the last words.

Me? I was going to pass out. “That…can’t be. Fae are immortal. I’m basically human! I’ll be lucky to live another fifty years. Then will Eli die as well?” I asked, beginning to panic.

No wonder Tarani had been so upset with me.

“Fae are immortal, but that just means we aren’t affected by illness and death in the same way that humans are. We can still be killed,” Tarani said as she sat on the edge of my bed, her demeanor now thoughtful.

“I know, a wound through the head or decapitation. Sometimes between their wings or their belly button, depending on their kind,” I responded.

“Uh…gross,” replied the princess.

“I can only tie to Artemi powers, Caly.” Eli stepped in front of me and gently squeezed my shoulders. His normally lively face had fallen, the smile lines by his eyes pulling down.

I stared at the small points of his ears.

“That’s how I really knew you weren’t human.”

I took in a breath and prepared for everything to slip through my fingers before my eyes.

“I knew you weren’t human as soon as Mother started telling people she blessed you with animal powers, and I hadn’t even met you. She couldn’t bless you with anything—she doesn’t have powers beyond that of the lowliest Seelie,” Tarani bit out.

I could tell her patience was waning. “Eli, I’m not—” I started.

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