Page 22 of Straw and Gold
“And the mushrooms,” he added, suppressing his chuckle.
“This isn’t fucking funny, Killian!”
He caught my shoulders, shaking me. “I’ll pity you when you tell me why you stayed. I negotiated this marriage for moss, yes, but I also gave you the opportunity to get out of it.” His hands shifted down my arms. “Trivially.”
“Fine,” I started, stepping out of his reach and raising my chin. “I need you.”
“How so?”
“Your power to change things.”
“There it is.” He folded his arms. “Go on. What exactly do you need to change?”
“I’d heard of you. I knew you could…could manipulate things and make them different from what they once were.”
He listened in silence, his face still as stone.
“At first I accepted because I thought you could help my mother with her curse…but Korven taught me she’d have to break that herself—if she ever does.”
He nodded once.
“Then,” I continued, “I considered breaking the contract. That was until I met Seraphine.”
“Who is Seraphine?”
Annoyed he didn’t already know, I explained. “She is my brother’s wife.” I gulped, meeting his eyes. “And she is human.”
“Ah,” he breathed. “You need me to change Seraphine into faekind.”
I stepped forward, my heart racing.Please, please, please.“I need you to change Seraphine into faekind.”
He rubbed his chin, his eyes staring over my head for a few moments. “I’d like to offer you a bargain, Goldling.”
Pretending I didn’t just shiver at this new nickname, I forced my face into something altogether unfazed. “I’m listening.”
“Discover my true name and I will change your Seraphine. She will live long with your brother and dying well before him will cease to be anyone’s fear. Including yours.”
My face contorted in confusion. “Discover your…what? What does that even mean?”
“I cannot help you further.”
“Well, fuck, Killian! What kind of bargain is that?”
“The only one that will save your brother’s wife from an early grave.”
I shoved him. Hard. Built like a marble statue, he barely moved and now I was in his space where he caught my hands at his chest, pressing my wrists together.
“You will receive no other explanation from me. And just for that,”—he squeezed my hands at his chest—“I’m adding on to the deal. You will also spin three spools of golden thread each day for the last three months left in this marriage.”
“Last three…”
“And,”—he squeezed again—“You will take lessons in Céaduah, the language of the Changelingfae.”
Oh,Goddess fucking damn him.
I wrestled my wrists from his grasp and stumbled, almost tripping on the spinning wheel. He caught me at the small of my back, lifting me upright as if he’d dipped me in a dance.
I pressed myself to his chest with my whole body. “If you get to add onto our deal, so do I.” I gripped his jacket. “Youwill be teaching me Céaduah.”
