Her mouth twisted into a grim little smile. “Precisely. I could returnto feeding on mortals but…it took me decades of careful feeding, careful restraint, to bring my Hunger into a state of balance. If I fed on them now, after what my demon has tasted, I would not be able to control it. It would seek that peace again. Take and take and take. And it would kill, seek the same satisfaction. Satisfaction that a mortal could not provide—and I would be unable to prevent it from doing so.”
“Which would affect you,” I said.
“It would likely strip me of reason entirely, either slowly or in a meltdown. It hardly matters. I would be unable to defend my position in the Court, and thus be useless to Mab, who would then either discard me or enslave me completely.” She shuddered. “Or worse. I’d just be an animal. Feeding and feeding. This is a very thorough trap. I am reliant upon you not merely for my demon’s sustenance, but for my position, power, identity, and life. Which makes me both resent and admire you.”
“Oh,” I said quietly.
“I am infuriated at the circumstance. At you, for being ignorant, and for meaning well, and for putting a chain about my throat.” She shivered. “I considered killing you today.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” I said, “Mab wanted you to hook me right back. Then she’d have us both wrapped up entirely.”
Lara exhaled and nodded. “Yes. She’d have us both, body, mind, and soul.”
“But she doesn’t,” I said. “At least, not yet. And maybe not ever, if I’ve got anything to say about it. Which I damned well do.”
Lara tilted her head, skeptical. “I would very much like to believe that,” she said quietly. “Now. I have given you a little knowledge. What do you have to give in return?”
“Thomas,” I said firmly.
She frowned. “Meaning what, exactly?”
“I’m getting him out of the mess he’s in,” I said. “I’m fixing his problem with his demon. And I’m dealing with Etri and the svartalves, too.”
“How?”
I inhaled and exhaled deeply. “Mab offered me a boon. I mean to collect.”
Lara’s eyes widened. “She…Oh. For what you did to me.”
“Yeah.” I sighed. “Mab’s…Look, she’s weird. She deceives, she manipulates, she’ll do anything she needs to in order to accomplish her goals. But she also pays her debts. Her obligations go both ways. It’s part of what she is. I don’t think she has a choice about it.”
“You think it can be used against her,” Lara said, eyes widening.
“I don’t think. I know.”
“If you’re right,” Lara said quietly, “she isn’t going to be happy about it.”
“Lot of that going around,” I said, my voice hard. “She’s tough. She’ll get over it.”
“She’s unlikely to simply accept it,” Lara said.
“I’m pretty tough, too. I’ve paid some prices. You know that better than most.”
Lara frowned, searching my face.
“May I ask you something?” she said after a moment.
“I guess.”
She nodded. “What are you going to do with me?”
I blinked. I opened my mouth. Closed it again.
“We have established that I am at your mercy in a very complete sense,” she said, her words only a little clipped with tension. “You could do a great many things with this circumstance. I wish to know what you intend to do with me now that you have me.”
Something slipped, in her mask. I didn’t think it was intentional.
Lara was afraid.
