But not you,I think. Instead, I say, “I would not risk my head for a lie.”
“Shifty thing.” She glares at me, but her grasp on my arm gentles.
Then she is gone.
I rub the crescent moons imprinted on my arm. Will my gamble work, or will it backfire?
As the sun climbs higher, the High Fae drink and laugh, and we sweat and shuffle around the board. Only one match-up occurs, between Briar and the other Healing faerie, where Briar wins again, eliminating Healing from the game altogether.
There are no gold squares in the final spiral. After an hour, I stand just two turns over from the Pith. Before me is Lila, and several squares behind me is Briar. Benji and the other Unluckie are behind her, on the previous leg of the board.
The High Fae use only one die now. Dominik rolls, and the Unluckie takes the lead. Benji remains where he is. Dominik has chosen the other faerie to be his winner.
Before the next round, Kassandra darts straight to me. “It would pass the rules. I asked Death. But the consequences will be great.”
Lila takes the lead back, turning a corner. Her eyes gleam as she lands on a silver square. Maxian orders House of Death to move backward next round. Briar moves up onto a red. I stay on mine.
Benji moves backward—on a black square.
The child lets out a sob. A groan ripples through the lawn.
He shields his face as he trudges back to the starting line. Flopping down, he weeps the uncontrollable shudders of a child.
Again, Kassandra returns to me first. “I’ll do it. I will win with the child. But you’ll have to force Dominik’s hand to get Benji back on the board again.”
“How?”
“You’ll know,” she says.
Lila has to move backward this turn, a previous request.
Kassandra rolls. I take two spaces forward—and bump right into the Unluckie. The phantom hand from Kassandra drops.
No,I think.Not this.
As the Unluckie turns, he startles—and so do I. It is the Unluckie I gave High Fae food to, only weeks ago.
“You,” he breathes.
The blood drains from my face. “I—”
“Where have you been?” he gasps.
“Please,” I whisper. “Not here.”
The executioner declares a match between us. The Unluckie just stares, limbs long and collarbone jagged under inked skin.
“Why wouldn’t you meet me? Rats had gotten into the sack you left two weeks ago. And then last week, there was nothing at all.” His voice cracks. “Do you know how hard it is to stomach the food now that we know it’s rotten? Do you know what it’s like to see rats eat better than you?”
Kassandra declares the use of magic in this fight.
“I can explain,” I say, but really, I can’t.
Do less alone,Jeremee had begged, and I thought at the time it was selfish to pull others into my thieving. I have done what the High Fae do; I centered myself instead of the people in need, and now my work of the past few years disintegrated on a whim.
The executioner begins the countdown.
“I’m not ready,” I say.
