Page 91 of Given to the Fae
‘Withme?’ She stands up, excitement lighting her countenance. ‘As a fae?’
‘Yes, but you must stay with us,’ he warns, ‘and keep the bracelet on.’
‘I will!’ she says.
I roll my eyes as she follows Morgan, bounding down the stairs with a laugh. I can’t help but smile a little, though thoughts of the next few days weigh heavily on me. Are we really going to let her be sold to the pits? Now that she’s not in the room and can’t see my face, I consider what she’s told me. I wasn’t beingcompletely truthful before. There is another reason she might have carnal needs. Could it be that she’s not as human as she appears?
I shake my head. That’s impossible. She wouldn’t have been able to hide it for so long. Someone would have noticed before now.
Deep in thought, I follow the others down the stairs to the main room, and when we leave the inn, the streets are already alive with free folk, though I notice it’s mostly witches.
We explore the market first, and I watch as Bryn starts out not touching anything and barely looking up from the ground. However, she soon realizes that no one can tell what she is, and when the second seller invites her to touch the baubles on his stall, she does. She grins at no one in particular as she traces the metal filigree of a necklace and then moves on to the weapons of the next stall, and then to the glittering ribbons and cloths of the third where she fingers the soft textiles.
For once she’s not hiding her thoughts and feelings, and I can see a glimmer of who she’d be as a free human, what she should have been.
‘She’s...different like this,’ Locke murmurs to no one in particular.
I glance over at him and I let him see my anger.
‘You should never have made that deal with her when you never had any intention of upholding it,’ I say quietly, making sure no one’s listening.
He turns to me in surprise and then snorts. ‘You fuck her once and think it means forever?’
‘That’s not what this is about, Locke. Letting her have a taste of freedom only to snatch it away, it’s cruel and you know it.’
‘Is it?’ he sneers. ‘Or will she thank us for giving her some memories to cling to when she’s in the cells beneath the arenas, waiting for her end?’
‘Is the mission really worth this?’
‘Worth what?’ he scoffs.
‘You. Her. Us.’ I lower my voice. ‘I know that you’d give your life to end the kidnappings from the Light Realm and I know why.’
‘You know nothing!’ he seethes quietly, but I ignore him.
‘But would you give your soul as well? She’s worth saving. You know it as well as I. She’s shown us who she is, and she isn’t what we thought when we first set eyes on her all those days ago, my friend.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘I want to take her with us as we promised her we would. To the Light Realm. It’s where she belongs.’
‘You’d put our mission in jeopardy for her? Bere is the link we’ve been looking for and I almost have his full trust. He’ll tell me everything I need to know given time. How she works. Where she’s based. The information we are tasked with finding, Jak. But you want to cut that time short before we have what we came here for? Now when we’ve come this far? For one human when we could save all the free folk who are being stolen from the Light Realm as we speak?’
I grit my teeth. ‘I can’t leave her here.’ I grind out.
He sighs and puts a hand on my shoulder. ‘I’m the leader for a reason,’ he says and looks away from me. ‘You won’t have to.’
CHAPTER 9
BRYN
The festival they bring me to is full of bright colors and orbs of conjured light that float about. The entire main street is lined with stalls filled with textiles and foods, beautiful trinkets and artisan creations. My eyes widen with each new sight, and the casual use of magick has me in awe.
I’ve never seen anything like this, and now that I don’t look like a slave, merchants are polite, even kind to me. With a small smile, I look over my shoulder at Locke, Morgan, and Jak. All three glower at anyone who gets too close to me, and their presence at my back makes me feel protected though no one even frowns in my direction. Is this what it’s like to be free? Is this what I have to look forward to in the Light Realm? The thought makes me giddy, even though the tiny, insidious voice in my head tells me that not even these three fae can be trusted. However much I want to believe everything they say, the years have taught me better and I’d be a fool to ignore my experiences.
I see Jak watching me and my cheeks heat. Sleeping so close to him on the bed made it much more comfortable, and I must have slept for a while. I consider him carefully. He didn’t make me do anything I didn’t want, didn’t force his touch upon me.He just laid with me and I felt warm and secure, reminding me of when I was first brought to The Barrack and the older women kept us in the middle of them all to keep the youngest a bit safer.
That protection didn’t last very long for me, of course, because when they realized I wasother, I was made to stay on the outside, but I’ll always remember that those first nights of warmth and safety, and that’s how Jak made me feel.
