The desire to kill this human soldier ran through me, but we needed him alive to answer the questions that burned through my gut. Only after that could we decide what to do with him.
“Where is your wife now?” I asked.
The man struggled on his feet, trying to regain his balance. He wiped his hands over his thighs before shoving them in the pockets of his pants.
“A compound not too far from here.” His teeth chattered, and he licked his chapped lips. “I’ll tell you everything. Everything”—he emphasized—“but you have to agree to my terms.”
“You want to bargain with a fae?” My canines lengthened as a snarl ripped through my throat.
Alastor inched closer to him, his lirio following his lead. The man’s heart raced faster while the stench of his fear grew stronger. Yet he kept his eyes on me. Unwavering and either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish.
“An unbreakable bargain,” the man said, the words quaking as he spoke them.
An unbreakable bargain would bind us to death if either of us broke our deal. Either brave or foolish indeed.
The wording my parents had used when they’d agreed to the Elders’ terms was purposefully different. They’d formed a pact rather than an unbreakable bargain. A small slight that shouldn’t have mattered, that should’ve killed my parents the moment they broke away from the agreement. Somehow it hadn’t, and I still wondered about it.
“I’ll hear your terms and decide then,” I said. “First, tell me your name.”
“Sebastian,” he answered. “And you’re Elias, the king of your realm.”
I wondered if he saw the way I balked at his words. At the pain that slashed through my heart. At the exhaustion I carried in my bones.
Not trusting my voice, I gave him a small nod to continue.
“I helped relocate the people and fae to compounds?—”
“Relocate?” The word came out gritty. “Did the fae agree to this relocation?”
I heard his hard swallow and saw the way his throat bobbed. “No, they were chained by the time I got there.”
“Chained?” Fury pumped through my blood, and I had to fight myself so I wouldn’t kill this worthless male before he gave us any useful information.
The muscles on my shoulder quivered when Alastor gripped me, and I let the weight of his hand steady me.
“They. ..someone knew iron weakens your kind,” he said with another visible swallow.
The memory of Brenton almost dying after being shot with an iron bullet flashed through my mind. He would’ve died, should’ve died all because of the humans’ hate for our kind.
I was coming to understand that hate as my own loathing for their species grew inside me.
At my side, I clenched my fists. “My people are chained with iron?” I spoke each word with slow precision.
The man, Sebastian, took a retreating step back, right into the trunk-like legs of the lirio towering behind him. He looked over his shoulder and nearly stumbled to his knees when he shot forward.
“Look”—he held up his hands, his words falling frantically from his lips—“I know where every compound is and where the military is keeping the fae at each compound.” He drew in a shaky breath.
I ran a hand over my chin, careful to keep it from trembling. “Why are you suddenly feeling so helpful?”
Again, his pulse escalated, but he maintained the same eye contact. “My unbreakable bargain. I’ll tell you where they are if you agree to take my wife and kids back to your realm and keep them safe.”
“Safe.” I bit out the word.
I’d learned with Teddy how impossible it was to protect even the person who meant everything to you. But her heart, her soul, those I could keep safe.
“Safe,” Sebastian repeated, his expression open so that I saw the fear that lived beneath his skin. “They’re all I have, Elias. All I love. Every person I’ve met from your region said that you treated them well. That you were fair. My familycan’t stay here, so I have to trust that you are good and fair.”
“Why can’t they stay here?”
