Nereus’s eyes burned with wrath. “Is the baby mine?”
“Are you insane? Ilayda would never even look at me. She’s foolishly in love with you, even though you treat her as if she is invisible half the time.”
Evie winced at that. Kyla looked like she was wishing she had some popcorn.
Hefeydd opened his mouth, then immediately closed it. Nereus glowered at him. “Did you know about this?”
“No,” he said carefully. “Like you, I assumed Favir did not like Ilayda.”
Nereus looked like he’d been gutted. “Get out,” he said to Favir.
“Gladly. In case you were wondering, thisisyour fault. You should have kept her safe.”
“Enough,” Finvarra said, and the temperature slowly began to drop. Favir turned and walked out of the house without another word.
If the unseelie king was invested in the drama, it was impossible to tell by the look on his face. He turned his attention to us. “You will go to the seelie realm, and you will find Ilayda.”
Evie nodded. “We’d planned on it.”
My mouth fell open. We had? Kyla sent me a grin. “Don’t worry, Mere. you can cheer us on again.”
“Oh no,” Finvarra said softly. “You’re not going, wolf.”
Kyla froze. Her eyes turned several shades lighter. Finvarra glanced at Nereus and back at Kyla, then jerked his head, gesturing for Kyla to follow him outside. Her claws popped out of human fingers, and she followed him, her gaze glued to the back of his head as if she were on the hunt. She hadn’t appreciated Nelson making that gesture, and something told me she appreciated it from Finvarra even less.
Curiosity pricked at me. I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that little conversation.
“We need to figure out exactly where in the light fae realm Ilayda is,” Evie said into the silence. “As soon as we know where she’s being kept, we’ll go in.”
No one mentioned the fact that Ilayda hadn’t been able to tell us herself. That someone had likely caught her with her phone while she was talking to us.
Stay alive just a little longer, Ilayda. We’re coming for you.
Nereus nodded. “Please keep me updated. Let me know if there’s anything you need…any way I can help.”
“We will.”
Finvarra was gone when we walked outside. Meanwhile, Kyla lookedpissed.
“I’ll drop you home after I drop Kyla,” Evie told me.
“Thanks.” I watched Kyla. Thankfully, she’d tucked her claws away. “What’s going on?” I asked.
We all got into the car, and Kyla let out a low, vicious growl. “When Samael was dying, Danica and I ended up in Finvarra’s realm. He was furious because we were doing business with Taraghlan so we could get our hands on the cure to the Spell of Three. It turns out, the sword we were finding for the seelie king is the one sword with the power to kill Finvarra.”
I winced. “Yikes.”
“Yeah. He made us bargain with him. But since Danica is mated to Samael, and Samael is crucial to Finvarra winning his war against Taraghlan, Finvarra decided I was the only one he would bargain with.”
I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. “What was the bargain?”
“I have to steal the sword from Taraghlan and give it to Finvarra. But…Selina kindly informed me that I then need to steal it from Finvarra and give it to ‘its rightful owner.’ Whoever the fuck that is.”
I shook my head. “Let me get this straight. You want to steal the sword from the seelie king and give it to Finvarra. And then steal it from him and give it to some other person?”
“Yeah. I’m still figuring that last part out.”
“Well, I guess it’s good to have goals.”
