I gestured to the back of the shop, where a curtain separated the front room from a narrow storage space. “Not here.”
He glanced once at the door, as if reassuring himself no one had followed him, then moved past me. His shoulder brushed mine as he went by, and I couldn’t help but flinch.
He stilled. “I’m not going to compel you.”
“I know,” I said even though I wasn’t sure I believed it.
We ducked behind the curtain into a cramped room that smelled of metal polish and old wood. Shelves lined the walls, cluttered with small boxes and trays. A single high window let in a sliver of moonlight.
Thorne would be just beyond the rear door. Slade, a shadow near the front. We were as safe as we were going to get.
Callan turned to face me, back to the shelves, arms folding loosely across his chest. “You have my undivided attention.”
I stared at him, at the dark circles ringing his eyes and the fine lines around his mouth that hadn’t been there before. For all his bravado, he looked tired.
“You know why she wants you,” I said.
“I assume you don’t mean my devastating charm.”
“The Harvest Throne.”
His gaze intensified. “Go on.”
“The power inside it. The gods’ power left here after the Great War. She drained Concordia’s throne to keep herself alive after she cursed my people. She wants yours next.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “How do you know this?”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Lesha.”
“Your Aine friend.”
I nodded. “She learned the information while she was Heliconia’s prisoner.”
His expression was grim, thegaunt look in his eyes like death.
“The last time we spoke,” I added, “You knew Heliconia’s interest in Autumn wasn’t just about territory.”
He huffed out a breath. “I suspected something. Since then, I’ve confirmed it.Sheconfirmed it.”
“She’s not going to stop,” I said. “Once she takes Autumn, she’ll move on to the others. Midnight. Lightshore. The Coral Throne Beneath. If she drains them all…” I swallowed hard. “She won’t need armies anymore.”
“She’ll be a god,” Callan finished quietly.
We let that hang between us.
He broke the silence first. “So that’s your grand plan? Come to Grey Oak, scare me with worst-case scenarios, and hope I’ll call the whole thing off?”
“If you do,” I said tightly, “she’ll kill you and take it anyway.”
“I was wondering when we’d get to the comforting part.”
I bit back the instinctive retort. “I didn’t come here to fight with you.”
“Then why did you come, Aurelia?” The question had an edge to it. I couldn’t blame him for it, but I refused to take the bait.
I lifted my chin. “I came to stop her.”
“From where I’m standing,” he said, “she’s the one with five thousand soldiers and a kingdom of ice at her back. You brought…” His gaze flicked to the door, to the fae I knew he sensed there. “Two soldiers. And whatever wretched plan has you breaking into jewelry shops in the middle of the night.”
