His answering look was distinctly skeptical. But he decided to move on. “Whatever the dragon prince plans for you, I doubt very much that you’ll like being his pawn. Well, you might enjoy it for a while, but in the end, he will make you suffer for his plots.”
Fieran did seem to fancy himself a prince. Or more likely, a king.
“Wait here,” he told me, swinging open the door.
Clearly, he expected to be obeyed. I wasn’t sure just how different he and Fieran truly were in the end. Ander seemed to wear command and power with just as much deceptive ease.
Ander returned a moment later with a bracelet of amber beads, which he held out toward me. “Break a bead if you need to talk to me. If you need help with your brother. If you’re in trouble. Anything.”
I took it from him reluctantly, feeling as if I were making a mistake, but also that it would be a mistake to reject him. I needed allies. “Thank you.”
The beaded bracelet was heavier in my fingers than I’d expected. I rolled the beads between my thumb and forefinger, feeling faint patterning. They were etched with some kind of spell. “It doesn’t matter that I don’t have magic? It’ll still work?”
The relics the Fae handed to mortals for their use worked one way, but I’d heard the Fae and the shifters had different relics to suit their magic.
“Who says you don’t have magic, Cara? None of us know what you are. Least of all you.”
Well, that was a comforting speech. I felt more off balance than I did when I walked in, and I tucked the amber bracelet into my pocket, not daring to wear it openly.
He moved past me to the doorway. “Tell Fieran I pulled you in here to talk and you felt like you had no choice. Tell him I called him an untrustworthy bastard. I’d say it to his face too.”
I stumbled over that imagined confrontation. “If Fieran finds out…”
“It’s Fieran. He’ll find out.” He opened the door, leaned against the side of it. “Be careful. Fieran will keep you safe until he’s used you, so I’m not worried about your life. But your heart is another story.”
“I’m not going to fall in love with the man who has ruined my life, tore my sister’s magic away, and held my brother hostage.” I wanted to ask him if he thought mortals were that stupid, but given how most of us groveled before the Fae, we clearly were. “Goodnight, Ander.”
He tilted his head slightly, his lips pursing as if he were holding back his amusement at my denial. “Good luck, Cara.”
I climbed that last damned set of stairs, my thighs burning. Just a few more steps, just make it through two doorways, and I could have some peace and quiet to try to unravel my complicated thoughts.
In the common room, Fieran leaned back comfortably in one of the chairs, one booted foot crossed over his knee. I stuttered to a stop. He looked relaxed, but I had the feeling Fieran always had a carefully maintained countenance.
As his golden eyes met mine, my pulse skittered like prey that just locked eyes with a predator. He offered me a faint smile that was utterly unsoothing. “Glad you made it. I worried you were lost on your way back from dinner.”
“Maybe someone was confused and forced me to clean up after them,” I said lightly, hoping to distract him.
“You don’t need to be stubborn. If you sit at our table, everyone will assume you are a mortal servant, but no one will toy with you. Thatsubterfuge would keep you from drawing attention as a mortal recruit or…” His lips tightened. “Irritating me as I watch people treat you like a servant.”
“I’m not a member of your clan. I don’t have any right to sit by your side. And servants don’t dine at your tables.”
His frown deepened, and I knew I’d hit true. There were rules that governed this place, and Fieran might try to bend them, but he wasn’t king. I’d be protected…by everyone’s assumption that I was his little fuck-pet.
I’d rather play the servant.
“It’s my table. No one will say a word about my choice to have you present.”
“Maybe I don’t want you to be my only friend,” I shot back, and then immediately regretted the use of the wordfriend. I headed across the room, Ander’s bracelet feeling as if it weighed down my pocket. “I’m going to myservants’ quarters. So stop pretending everyoneelsetreats me as beneath them, but you’re the exception.”
He scoffed. “I’ve never treated you as less-than. I see your potential.”
I stopped in the doorway to my room. “Is that so? Then why did you force me here, Fieran? Shouldn’t mypotentialhave brought me here?”
He rubbed his hand across his jaw, covered in dark stubble. “I couldn’t risk you choosing wrong.”
I knew he wouldn’t tell me, I knew I shouldn’t ask, but I still burst out, “Why?”
“Shifters have to present themselves for the Trials. Or burn. That’s the curse.”
