He didn’t seem hurt. We were still holding hands, of course, and he just tugged me behind him out into the path. “I knew it was too soon.”
“I’ll never marry you.”
“You’llaskto marry me,” he promised with all his glimmering confidence.
Thirty-Two
“There’s our destination ahead.”
The stall looked as if it had grown here in the night market. A tangle of black limbs grew from the cobblestones, arching together to form a crooked frame. Strips of faded animal hide hung from the branches like curtains, shifting in a breeze that didn’t touch the rest of the market. The air around it smelled sharply of crushed herbs and something sickeningly sweet.
Inside, shelves buckled beneath jars of preserved things: floating hearts, shriveled flowers that bled color into their liquid prisons, bones inscribed with runes that glowed faintly. Bundles of plants dangled overhead, their shadows twitching against the lantern light, as though something small and hungry moved among the leaves.
I didn’t see the shopkeeper at first, because my gaze was drawn to the cage above us. Though the music was lost here to the buzz of voices bargaining, the mortal in the cage danced. Strands of her hair clung to the sweat beaded across her face, but she didn’t notice. Her eyes were unfocused, her movements mechanical.
The vendor sat behind a low counter carved from a single slab of stone, its surface stained by splatters that shone like they weren’t quitedry. Her fingers were long and yellowed at the nails, deft as she twisted stems together. “Well, Fieran. I knew you’d come soon.”
“Oh? How’s that?” Fear sounded casual, but he’d stepped in front of me, our hands still linked. There was something intimate about being this close. I twisted to look behind us, feeling a creeping sense up my spine, and let him shield me while I watched our backs.
“I can’t make any bargains with you, Fieran.”
“Why is that?”
“You’ve been blacklisted from the market.”
“You and I have done quite a bit of business in the past.”
“But not tonight.”
Was Fieran the one who had blacklisted himself? Was this how he proved to me that he’d tried, but he wasn’t able to help Tay—so that he could both be in my good graces and keep Tay as his hostage?
There was a shuffling sound of slippers. Fear turned as she tried to peek around to see me, her eyes glinting hungrily.
“Is this your mortal girl?” She sounded covetous, and anxious disgust shot through me, strong enough to make mewantto hide behind Fieran.
He let out a faint huff of disbelief. “Yes, mine. You find her tempting enough to consider risking disobedience, don’t you? So why not do me the favor for a different—better—prize?”
Fieran’s arm settled around my shoulders, drawing me into his side with casual possessiveness. The second when he released my hand to change our positions felt charged to me, as if the air around us changed. I leaned against his side, driven closer to him than I wanted to admit.
Her gaze sharpened, not missing any of the closeness—or tension—between us. “Oh, there could be no better prize.”
“She’s not for sale.” He pulled me back into the hallway.
“Not yet.” Her sharp laughter followed us. “But your affection never lasts longer than your ambitions!”
“I’m not your mortal girl,” I hissed at him, irritated by the way my body responded to him even as I put my palm against his hard side and pushed myself away from him—though I still intended to hold his hand.
I merely tried to put as much space as I could between me and that accusation that I washis.
A mortal girl writhed in a cage above—in the same endless pattern, as if she were obeying some series of orders unendingly—with dull eyes. Her gaze seemed to stutter for a second, staring down at us. Hatred flashed across her face.
For me.
Then she was back to dipping one hip, stroking her hands up her arms before she raised them in the air, undulating her hips, all with the same blank smile on her face.
“You are when we’re here,” he muttered back to me, his arm a steel band around my body, even though he was smiling. “You might not appreciate me, but I assure you that you should appreciate my protection.”
“You don’t seem very powerful down here.”
