Page 63 of Given to the Fae
He drops her back in the chair as if she’s burned him and she hisses in pain at the hard contact on her backside.
Jak rises and so do I, and we advance on her. How the fuck does she know where we come from?
‘You’re a foolish slave,’ Locke chuckles, holding his nerve, and not looking anywhere as shocked as Jak and I do.
‘Yes,’ she says, a shadow passing over her eyes that I don’t understand, ‘but I’m right. I know I am.’
She stares at Locke, daring him to act.
‘Use some conjure to take my memory if you must,’ she challenges, ‘but I’ll just figure it out again. You’re not masters. It took me but three days to realize. You don’t act like them. Perhaps the masters themselves can’t see it, but anyslavecan. Despite your words, you aren’t like them.’
She looks away. ‘Even when you...were forced to release me, you made me calm for it. You didn’t strip me and put me in the block for all to see. You made it so that I couldn’t hear or see anyone or anything but you.’
She stares up at him, something akin to thankfulness in her eyes that looks genuine. ‘It was the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.’
His brow furrows as he stares at her, and I see something in his countenance that I don’t understand. It’s more than pity, more than anger.
‘Gods,’ he whispers, the raw emotion in his voice surprising me. ‘To say what I did wasnice. It wasn’t, Bryn. I did it because I had to.’
His hand drops and he moves away from her, giving her some space, and she lets out a small sigh of relief.
‘What say you, then?’ she asks.
Locke hesitates, and she presses the advantage she thinks she has.
‘I can tell Bere your version of how Warrior died, or I can tell him that you ordered Morgan to snap his neck. That, and what I know of you, will be enough for Bere to kill you. Even if he doesn’t, you’ll no longer have his trust. I may not know why you’re in the Dark Realms, but it seems to me that the slaver’s faith that you’re loyal is important to you.’
I feel my brows rising and I wonder how Locke is going to react, if I’m going to need to intervene.
‘I take it back,’ Locke mutters with a snort. ‘You’re much more intelligent than I gave you credit for. We can make a deal, you and I.’
I watch him. Could it be as easy as that? Of course not. Locke will never bring her with us. But she doesn’t know that.
‘You tell Bere our version of events and we’ll deliver you to the Light Realm as soon as we can.’
She nods. ‘Deal.’
‘Good,’ Locke murmurs, looking down his nose at her. ‘You understand that if you don’t hold up your end,’ he leans down, his eyes searching hers, ‘we can still make your life a misery.While we may not be masters, you’ll find that hardly matters, and I’ll personally find the worst of the worst to sell you to next.’
‘I understand,’ she says.
She believes Locke, believes in the bargain he’s made with her.
I don’t.
My heart lurches in my chest as I silently hope she’ll make him say a vow, a binding one. Any fae would know this, but she, in her ignorance of our kind, does not. My stomach sinks as she visibly relaxes. She thinks she’s going to be free.
But she won’t be. I close my eyes for a moment, so she doesn’t see the pity in them if she looks at me.
But she doesn’t look anywhere but at Locke, and when my eyes find her a moment later, tears are flooding her eyes and she’s sobbing into her hands.
Mortification has her trying desperately to stop, but, whether from the horrors of her morning, or the relief she’s feeling, she can’t seem to make the tears cease their flow.
She lurches from the chair blindly, but I stop her. I put my large hand lightly on her shoulder and knead it gently, not caring that the others are watching me.
I draw her close to me. ‘It’s all right,’ I murmur. ‘No one will harm you.’
She cries harder, wanting so badly to believe and my heart breaks because my words are hollow.
