Page 70 of What did you do?

Then he vanished in a puff of black smoke.

Oh no. What had I just done?

19

PRESENT DAY

Caly

Several days had passed since Mendax had reappeared.

And I had been jumping out of my skin at everything since. Every time I smelled a fire or a candle being extinguished, I became a lunatic, trying to protect whoever was around me at the time. Chef Samuel, unfortunately, thought I was unbalanced, but I certainly didn’t blame him. Twice during breakfast in the kitchen, I tried to coerce him and Eli to break through the window and climb down the exterior of the castle to get to safety—induced by the smell of mulled cider burning in a cauldron on the fire.

Walter, though, had apparently been given strict instructions to stick by me. Luckily everyone believed him to be my new rat companion.

It was one of the best feelings I could think of, to have Walter around. Besides just being an unbelievable friend, he also knew Mendax better than anyone, and there was a chance he could be the only thing capable of helping me keep Eli alive. On morethan one occasion, he had helped calm my mind about what was happening between Mendax and me.

Even with basically being a brother to Mendax andhating the Seelie fae, Walter was there for me. From the moment I had met him as Brown Rat in the Unseelie dungeons, I had felt a deep friendship with him. I’d never had someone I could lean on so fully and openly and know they were going to still be there. Even Eli now felt like a stranger to me sometimes. He’d changed so much since I’d last seen him, and though once an innocent crush, it now felt like we were opposing poles of neodymium magnets, being attracted to each other. It just felt so…permanent now. Of all the things I thought I would do once I became a part of Seelie, marrying and ruling wasn’t one of them.

My worries only continued to grow. In a house full of fox shifters, I still couldn’t understand how they didn’t pick up on another shifter right under their noses. Walter reassured me several times that he was such a pure-blooded shifter, it would be impossible for anyone to tell, shifter or not. He also guessed that could be another reason he and I were so close. Walter said that even though the broken heart inside of my chest had only a crumb of powers, it was still there and drawn to his pure blood.

I still hadn’t spoken to Queen Saracen yet. I was planning what to say. I needed to tell her that the game was over—a part of me was avoiding her for fear she would somehow find out about Mendax being alive, and the other part of me was avoiding her because I needed to figure out my next move before I went to her. Another part of me was avoiding her because I knew she would want to discuss the ceremony in which I’d get my heart put back together again, and then she was going to test me to see if I still possessed some of Mendax’s power. Well, with him still alive, I knew how that was going to go. She’d make me marry Eli in front of everyone, and together, we would leave the ceremonyas king and queen of Seelie—if that was even possible when you were bonded to an Unseelie.

I wasn’t ready for any part of it.

What would happen if they restored my heart and nothing happened? What if it killed me? I heaved out a breath at the thought. At least I would be with my sister.

I would talk to Saracen only once I had figured out what to do.

I swallowed, and it felt like cut glass sliding down my throat. I knew she would kill me, which would kill Eli, and then she’d probably figure out a way to actuallykill Mendax. I needed a plan that would keep Mendax, Eli, and myself all alive. I also had to get my heart back before she found out about everything and it was too late to get it back.

This would all be over soon—it had to be. I was so, so tired of this.

“You better snap out of it before we get to the hills,” Princess Tarani barked as we continued walking up the path and through the forest.

I glanced to my right, shaking my head free of all of the thoughts running through it that I couldn’t seem to sort out.

When I had tried to tell Eli that Mendax was back again, he had refused to listen, claiming it was Queen Tenebris who had attacked the guard at the portal. I knew he wanted to protect me, but it wouldn’t do us any good if Mendax was traipsing around the castle, just waiting to be found out—or worse, waiting to kill them all. I hadn’t seen him, but that didn’t mean anything. One rarely sees the ghost in their attic, but they know he’s there. Mendax still didn’t know about my tie to Eli.

I had told Walter everything last night but swore him to secrecy. It felt like I’d been wearing a thousand pounds of armor and finally got to remove it for a few minutes.

Something pressed against my arm, and I jumped nearly a foot in the air.

“Wow, you’ve really been on edge the last few days, Cal. I promise the threat is taken care of. I wouldn’t be taking my two favorite girls riding if I thought it was dangerous,” Eli said as he let go of my arm.

“I’m still certain the threat is closer than ever,” I said, glaring at him.

Tarani looked between the two of us, doing her best to figure out what was going on.

The sun beating down on my bare arms burned my skin as the three of us continued along the path. Eli had been determined to get me out of the castle, claiming that my anxiety was from being cooped up too long. He knew I was an outdoorsy type and found something in nature I couldn’t find anywhere else.

“How much farther are we going?” I wished I had brought a light jacket to protect my arms from the sun. When Eli had told me we were going to the pits to collect horses, I had no idea we would have to walk so far.

“What’s the matter? Tired already? Boy, if the Ancestors could see their prized secret Artemi now,” she said with a smirk.

“Knock it off, Tarani. I brought you along so the two of you could get to know each other, become friends,” Eli said, wisely moving between us.

“Thanks, but I don’t need friends like her.”

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