“Sir!” The word escaped my mouth louder than I’d thought. “Any idea what Sir Lucas was talking to your friends about?” I cringed a little at my candor. It was too late to backtrack now.
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” he replied without looking directly at me.
Aha! So this man did know Lucas! I was trying to formulate a reply when Nix stepped forward, indignant. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she said. I held my arm out in front of her so shewouldn’t get any closer to him. He scoffed at her advance. True, she could hardly threaten a fly, but I was more worried about what he might do to her than vice versa.
“Look,” he said, putting his hands up, as if to say he wanted nothing to do with this. “Like I told him, I don’t run in certain circles anymore.”
“Maybe not,” I challenged him. “But you must know what they were talking about.”
“I wish I could help you,” he said. “However, I’m afraid I cannot.”
As if I believed that. “Maybe you could,” I blurted out. I hesitated, unsure I should say what I was thinking, because it could backfire. He could use it against me in multiple ways. But I decided there was no better way to figure out if he was telling the truth.
His face was blank. I was hoping for some type of clue—like maybe he’d seem really interested in what I was about to say, or even totally bored. But he was neither. He just stared at me. Somehow that was more unnerving than either of the other options. “I was wondering if you could help me get back home. You know,outsideof Biringan.” Maybe I was missing home. But I thought if anyone would be able to travel through realms undercover, it would be a sketchy guy like him.
He shook his head. “I already told your noble friend. He’s got the wrong guy. I don’t deal in human trafficking anymore. My hands are clean. He has no reason to come after me.”
“Huh?”
“Listen, I don’t want to end up bloodied on the side of the road, okay?” he growled.
I thought about how I’d seen Lucas beating up some men the other day—human men. Hold on. Maybe theyweren’thuman? Maybe they were encanto? What if he was beating uptraffickers? Was that what he’d been doing?
“Sir Lucas is after human traffickers?”
The man blinked at me. “I don’t know why he cares so much about what happens to humans. Stupid, if you ask me. I told him I don’t know who’s bringing them in and keeping them here, but it’s not me. I don’t trade in torture and kidnapping.”
I tried to keep my face as neutral as his was, though I felt like I was failing. Nix definitely was not keeping a poker face. She looked outraged and terrified at the same time.
“Right, I’ll make sure he knows—” I began. Nix grabbed my arm and started pulling me away. I resisted, and she let up. But she was super antsy. She looked at me, raised her eyebrows, and glanced back toward the palace, as if saying,Let’s go.
“Of course, Your Highness,” he said, bowing with a flourish. He rose with a smirk on his face.
I froze. It took me a few seconds to think up a reply. “What did you call me?” I feigned ignorance.
He raised his cap, bowed again, then turned and walked away.
“I knew it, I knew it,” Nix said.
“You knew that he knew who I am?”
“No,” she admitted. “I knew something was wrong.”
“No matter,” I said, thinking of what he’d told me about how Lucas cared about the humans trapped in Biringan and how he’d been beating up people responsible for their misery.
16
“I think we’regoing to make it in time—don’t worry,” Nix assured me when we were back on the road. I nodded, breathing heavily. We were nearly to the grounds. The sun was going orange already. But as long as we could get back into the palace the way we got out, we’d be fine. We’d sneak up into my chambers, and no one would ever know, just like the other day.
Because if the sun set and the princess wasn’t around, they’d send out the entire royal army. My ruse would be over. I’d never be left unsupervised again, that was for sure. No more secret outings. No more tiny tastes of freedom.
We walked briskly down the road, nearly running at times, constantly looking around to make sure no one witnessed us, should it be an issue later. At one point, we heard a horse approaching, so we ducked into some wildflower bushes and waited for the rider to pass. It was a good thing, too, because I recognized him as one of the page boys in the palace.
The outer gardens beyond the gates looked gorgeous at night, as if the rising moon was enhancing all the colors somehow. Or even like the flowers were glowing from deep inside. I wanted to stop and explore, but Nix was rushing ahead. She turned and sawme standing, out of breath. “Come on,” she urged. “You can rest later.”
I hurried to catch up. “The gardens are so strange at night,” I said to her. “The flowers should be harder to see, but they’re almost brighter?” The little discoveries about the differences between the human world and the fairy one were never-ending.
The lampposts blinked to life, their faint light illuminating our path. Nightfall was nearly upon us now. The world was quieting, a hush falling over everything. All I could hear was my own breathing, labored from so much running, our feet on the gravelly path, and water streaming over the falls into the outer garden lake.
