I blink. He may not be a monster, but I’m not sure he’s one hundred percent sane. “Right.”
“So, the way I see things playing out is as follows, assuming we reach my bike where I have the tools to separate us. You then try to kill me, I either fight back and risk hurting you, or I let you kill me. Then I don’t have to worry about anything else and you get to ride out of here.”
I remember to shut my mouth and take a breath. That was my original plan, it failed. “Sounds like a shit plan. Why wouldn’t you hurt me?”
“I’m not going to kill a fae woman.”
“Why?”
“There’s not many of you.”
Great, I’m rare and wanted by fae hunters…except him. Somehow, I manage to feel slighted even though he doesn’t want to go to faery, and I don’t want to either.
I tilt my chin. “So who did you kill?”
“My brother.”
I’m bound to a killer of men and monsters. Sure, he says he won’t kill me now, but in a few days if it looks like it’s his only chance to leave, I’m sure he wouldn’t hesitate.
“He’d returned from here with a woman, but she didn’t want him.”
“She wanted you?”
“No, she wanted to go home. When it became clear, that wasn’t an option, she vowed to have nothing to do with my brother. He didn’t take that well; most riders pick a woman who likes them, or who at least is happy with the deal. He failed. And then he tried to force her to stay with him. I intervened before he could hurt her, and when he turned on me, I killed him.” He sighs. “I should probably regret that, but I don’t.”
Right…that was…I guess he thought it was honorable. Maybe it was. He saved the woman and damned himself.
“And if your brother had lived?”
“He’d have been banished to the outer realms.”
“Why didn’t they thank you? Did she thank you?”
“She did. And she spoke at my trial. But there is no leniency, and I knew what I was doing and the danger of getting involved, even though it was the right thing to do. I accepted my fate.”
“And you accept it now?” I kick the rope with my foot.
Cillian smiles, his teeth gleaming white in the moonlight. “Not yet.” He extends his hand. “Do we fight together, Flick?”
I can’t fight him and our captor. For the moment, I make the deal. I clasp his hand. His skin is warm, and his palm is rough. He feels real, human even, except for the slight static that runs over my skin at his touch.
I am touching a fairy. I expect wings or a wand or something. Magic dust? “Don’t suppose you can grant wishes?”
“No.” He releases my hand.
“Damn.”
“If I had my necklace, we could be out of here and in faery.”
“Then I’d be trading one cell for another.”
“Ah, but faery is very pretty. And it’s an easy life.”
“It’s not my life.” My life is here hunting monsters. Why am I teaming up with one? Once I’m free, our truce is over.
“Nor mine anymore. But since our captor took my way home, we have to assume they know what it does.”
“What if they’ve gone to faery and left us in here?” We both glance around the desert. I stare at the rocks and shadows, their shapes taking a familiar form. They’re bones.
