His eyes widen. Only a fraction, only for a second.
But it’s enough.
“Itwasyou.” My voice is low. Even.
Full of terrible rage.
“You were the one to kidnap me from Bryol and take me into Orea. It didn’t matter that the bridge of Lemuria had been destroyed for hundreds of years. Because you…you can make a fairy ring capable of transporting betweenrealms.”
His face stays absolutely still, but I hear it. The quickening of his heartbeat. Behind him, Slade seems to swell with chilling fury.
“Tell me. Whose side were you on when you took me?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he spits.
I ignore him as my head cocks in thought. “That’s what I can’t quite work out. Why take me to Orea? If you were working for the king, then surely he would’ve wanted me either as his prisoner or executed with my parents. But if you were working with the rebels…you could’ve given me to them. I must’ve been far more valuable in Annwyn. So why Orea? Who were you working for?”
Silence spreads, but this time, the balance has tipped.
Slade takes a step forward.
Just one step. A colossal threat.
“Answer her,” he says, his voice cold and terrifying.
From the edge of my vision, his spikes seem to lengthen. Anger pushes through him, filling the room and making it snap against my skin as his gaze stays locked onto the back of Brennur’s head.
Brennur stiffens, but he shakes his head. “You should be thanking me.”
“Thankingyou?” I say incredulously. “For kidnapping me and taking me to Orea?”
“Yes,” he snarls. “The king wanted the entire family wiped out. You would’ve been captured and killed right alongside your parents if I hadn’t done what I did. I practically saved you.”
“Practically saved me?” I lash out, studying the red tinge of his suddenly skittish gaze. “I think we both know that if you had any good intentions rooted in what you did, you’d have taken me to the Vulmin. But you didn’t, did you?”
He stays silent.
“The other children with me that night. What happened to them?”
He looks at me blankly, but there’s an undercurrent of apprehension. His thin lips flatten even more as he presses them together, silently showing that he has no intention of answering me.
Magic tingles at my fingertips, demanding to be let out, and I give in. Power grips me, and all the gold piled up on the table in front of him liquifies in an instant.
Before he can even jolt back, the molten metal encapsulates his hands and arms, pinning his limbs to the table. It hardens over them like a shell, trapping them in place.
He struggles, and I watch his face grow blotchy, teeth gritted as he tries to get out from within its grip.
“Uncomfortable, isn’t it?” I ask. “To be helpless. At the mercy of someone else who wishes you harm.”
“You can’t kill me!” he screeches in panic.
My brows lift. “Who said anything about killing? I’m not killing you, Brennur. I’m not even injuring you. But for every lie you tell or every question you choose to ignore, more of that gold will spread. If you refuse to tell me everything I want to know,you’ll be stuck inside a gilded statue. Alive. Breathing. Unable to move.”
Fury and fear seem to war within him, making his jaw jump, his arms straining.
“But…” I go on. “For every truth, I’ll drag the gold away. Simple as that.” I glance up at Slade. “Humane, even.”
“Very,” he agrees with dark menace. “I would’ve just started rotting him alive.”
