Two young selkies. I saw them while I was standing at the bar. I look at Sparrow, and they shake their head again. “I’m supposed to keep an eye on you.”
“No.You were supposed to lead me here and help me find someone to talk to. You did that. Now go. Fuck knows what Spectra will do to me if you get hurt, too.”
They glare at me ineffectually for a few moments before they stand quickly, their chair scraping against the stone of the floor. It has gone eerily quiet. They’re allowing Sparrow to leave, I realise, and my heart thumps against my ribs.
Sparrow leans in. “Don’t be a fool,” they hiss. “We’ll find you.”
They won’t, but I nod all the same, not looking as they stride away and out the door.
It swings shut, and as I knock back the rest of my whiskey, the selkies sidle up on either side of me. They’re hardly wearing glamours at all, and the lack of my magic might come back to bite me as I feel light-headed simply looking at them.
“You should come with us,” one says, and I recognise the sound of enchantment in their voice, but I’ve got no defences left to fight it.
“Yes, come with us,” says the other. Their fingers trip down my arm and fasten around my wrist.
Sparrow will get back. Sparrow will tell them what happened, and the Hunt will come and clear this place.
I can only focus on following the selkies now.
I can only focus on them leading me straight to Njáll.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Njáll
Idon’tknowwhattimeit is when the door opens again. Night still because I can’t feel the pull of the sun, but I don’t get to my feet. Next to me, Reijo was dozing, but now his body tenses, just like all the other fae around the room.
“Down you get,” someone says, and Reijo tenses further, his breaths going fast and shallow. He knows whoever that voice belongs to. He fears them.
That is forgotten, though, in the next instant. BecauseIknow the figure making their way down the stairs, hands bound before them, every booted step slow and deliberate.
Maurice.
At first, I cannot bring myself to move. I cannot believe he is here.
What is he doing here?
He stands at the bottom of the stairs, casting his face upwards, and his expression stays even as the door closes, plunging us into darkness. The fae all stare at him, but they do not look scared in the same way they did upon my arrival.
“You’ve lost your blessing,” Reijo breathes, and my heart breaks, just a little.
“Yes,” Maurice says. He’s looking at me now, and I surge clumsily to my feet. I almost trip as I walk over to him and wrap my hands around the cuffs on his wrists.
“What are you doing here?”
“You were missing,” he says as thoughthatserves as a suitable explanation.
“Did you come here on purpose?”
He fixes me with a look, and even if he’s harder to see with the lack of light, I can still read him.Yes, of course, he doesn’t say, and my cheeks burn, and I don’t know why.
“Why have they…?” I tug on one of the cuffs and he shrugs.
“Don’t know. I don’t have my magic, and they took everything. They took my knife. Carefully.”
I don’t think I can pull them off without injuring him, so instead I draw him over to where I’ve been sitting next to Reijo. Maurice frowns at the sight of him but sits down when I do, cross-legged on the ground.
I wince when I sit—everything still hurts, though it’s been hours since I was thrown back down here, and Maurice makes a questioning sound.
