“You won with Benji today. So it’s time to hold up my end of the promise,” I say.
“A way around the oaths.”
“I’ll collect the secrets, and you use them as bargaining chips for blackmail.”
“Tell me how.”
“Riddles,” I say. “You speak in riddles, but you must picture those riddles, too, so that your tongue and mind seem nonsensical.”
“Show me.”
“The wolf breaks two limbs of the silver cat at night.”
A quiet intake of breath. “Another one.”
“The golden eagle and the silver cat may share a nest.”
Silence, save for our breathing and the light drumming of spring rain.
“Who else knows?” she asks.
“Just me.” I will not give Briar up in this, even if Kassandra is protective of the faerie.
“How’d you figure it out?”
“My friend is dead. I have time to talk to the walls in my room.”
“So you bring me secrets, and I’ll use them to barter our freedom,” she says. “Do we have a deal?”
I don’t trust Kassandra, but I trust the motivation of escaping her brother. Despite our differing statuses, we have a similar goal: to be free. If it were just my fate at play, I would risk it. So I think of a suggestion as rare as a fae and faerie working together, one I only heard once in the first year working for Kassandra, and when I asked a cook about it, she told me to never speak of it ever again.
“What of a blood bargain to enforce our pact?” I ask.
Kassandra coughs. “Do you even know what a blood bargain is? How it differs from an oath?”
I bite my lip. “An oath is when one party swears fealty to an institution. It uses blood to bolster the magic that enforces the loyalty. A blood bargain is sworn between two individuals. Both parties must deliver on the agreed-upon terms.”
“And if they fail to do so, one or both parties will lose their geniuses,” Kassandra hisses. “Do you want to be without magic?”
I suck in a breath. “Like a Molder? But High Fae can’t be Molders.”
“No,” she agrees. “But they can be losers.”
Scoffing, I roll my eyes. “How would it work? Losing your magic in a blood bargain?”
“The fuck if I know! I’ve only ever entered one, and that was a century ago. I refuse to join in another.”
Another time, I will pull on that thread, unravel the tapestry that is Kassandra. But not tonight. So if a blood oath is devotion, a blood bargain is damnation.
“How will I know you won’t just use me?” I ask. “How can I ensure my own freedom?”
And that of my friends,I think but do not say.
“How do I know you won’t tell the king I find no interest for the thing between his legs, or between any lord’s legs?” she counters. “How do I know you won’t turn to Dominik, as the House and staff always do? He is the more powerful one, the stronger ally. I may be your mistress, but both these males are our masters.”
My mouth drops open. “I would never reveal another creature like us.”
“And how can I know that?”
