He pulled me around her without stopping. “Are you hungry?”
“Am I hungry?” I repeated, dumbfounded. “In a place where you’ve claimed that if I’m not in physical contact with you, I could die?”
“It seems like you’re always hungry,” he responded. “And as we already established, you’re safe when you’re with me. There’s no reason you can’t snack.”
“You’re not cocky at all.”
“I’m pretty sure everyone in this kingdom is afraid of me except for the Fae Queen.” He gave me another one of those sunny, untouchable smiles. Was this a new mask I hadn’t seen before?
“So unless she appears, I’m safe?” I asked.
He stopped at a stall that smelled of sugar and honey and cream. The cart gleamed like a jewel box spilled open, piled high with sugaredblossoms and glassy candied fruits that shimmered. Some of the cakes seemed to glimmer like starlight trapped in sugar. Some of them pulsed faintly, as if they had a heartbeat. “Two honey cakes, please.”
The vendor smiled at him broadly, a bit too broadly in my opinion, as he plated them, then held out two glistening golden cakes, topped with a bit of honeycomb. My mouth watered at the scent despite my best intentions. Since Fieran held my hand, he could only take one plate.
“I don’t need a honey cake in a place where it might be enchanted to…what? Turn me into a mushroom? Enslave me as a servant?”
He handed me his honey cake with an unapologetic look. I surrendered and took it to get us moving. “If you don’t want yours, I’ll eat it too.” He took his own and thanked the vendor before moving on.
He paused in a doorway—stairs led up from here, though this entrance was bight—and took a bite. His evident pleasure seemed dramatized to tease me, but my mouth still watered.
I’d never eaten honey cake. It was sold in the bakery around Solstice, and it had never been in my budget. “You promise this won’t have any terrible effects on me?”
“Don’t worry, it won’t sweeten that collection of sharp edges you claim is a personality.” He nudged my plate up with the edge of his own. “You know you can trust me when it comes to your physical safety. Even if that’s the only thing you trust me with.”
That was true. So I took a small nibble, as if a tiny bite would keep me from becoming enchanted. The cake melted on my tongue, bursting with addictive sweetness.
I reminded myself that I was never going to forgive him, even as I ate the rest of the cake far too quickly.
But as its sweetness clung to my tongue, I felt a sudden lurch of guilt for enjoying anything while surrounded by cages. I clung to what he’d said about changing this place in a way that would matter. “Tell me why you want to save us all, Fieran.”
“Mortals don’t want to know the truth,” he said.
“Probably not,” I said impatiently. “But we also never get the opportunity to hear the truth.”
“There are mortals who know Fae secrets.” He dropped his plate, his carelessness surprising me, but it vanished in mid-air. “Not every one ofthem is a victim. Some are complicit—and they reap the rewards of serving immortals.”
“Talking about secrets, aren’t I shocked that you all aren’t just so caring for mortals and desperate to help us.”
“What’s been done to the shifters is more of a secret than the shifters themselves would choose, if we had a choice.”
There was a crumb at the corner of his lip. It made him look more approachable, less intimidating than usual. “You want to change things for the shifters. You think somehow I can play a part in that?”
He clicked his tongue. “I can’t tell you that until I can trust you not to tell my secrets, Cara.”
“And when will that be?”
He gave me another one of those wide grins. It was alarming, the way he seemed so different depending on whether it was his setting and his audience. “Maybe after we’ve married?”
I stared up at him in shock.
“Too soon for the subject, probably,” he said, unrepentant. “After our bargaining is done, when we don’t have to be quite so clear-headed, I’ll get you some wine, and we can discuss.”
“I know you’re playing some game, but it’s an especially ridiculous one. I would never marry you.”I hate you. Despise you.I didn’t say the words out loud, but I felt them—and he seemed to know, and not even care.
“I’m not talking about a love match. A wedding would guarantee your safety. It would protect you from being compelled by Fae. I have powerful enemies, and there are enchantments that can protect you…if we’re married.”
“Then spare me those enchantments.”
