“Ichoseto stay. I want to help.”
“Help?” She laughs, a short, ugly sound. “What couldyoupossibly help with?” She takes another step closer. “You’re nothing more than a liability. A human princess who knows our location, our faces, and our plans. The only reason you’re still breathing is because he wants you alive.”
“Then let me?—”
“Let youwhat?” Her voice drops. “You walked past our cages, Princess. You saw us rotting in our own filth, and you did nothing. You came to the Dell to hunt us for sport. Andnowyou want to help?”
“I can’t change what I did. But I can?—”
“Don’t tell me you want to make up for it.” Her eyes are bright with something that goes beyond anger. Centuries of fury, compressed into this one moment. “Do you know what they did to us in those cages? Do you have any idea what?—"
“No.” I force myself to meet her gaze. “I don’t. But standing here telling me I’m worthless doesn’t change that either.”
Her weight shifts, and for a heartbeat I’m certain she’s going to hit me. My body braces for the blow.
“Vel.” Therin’s voice comes from behind her. He’s standing in the doorway, one shoulder propped against the frame, his expression easy, almost amused.
Vel’s head snaps around to him.
“Cairn wants you back inside.”
She doesn’t move.
“Now.”
I hold my breath, my heartbeat pounding in my ears, waiting for her to lash out. But she doesn’t. She shoves past Therin and goes back into the room. The door swings wider as she goes, and for a moment I see inside. There’s a table covered with maps, thethree fae who came running out of the village at one side. Cairn is on the opposite, one hand braced on the table. He looks up, and our eyes meet.
One second.
Two seconds.
Then Therin pulls the door closed, his eyes moving over me. There’s amusement in their silvery depths.
“You all right?”
“Fine.” My hands are shaking. I curl my fingers into fists so he won’t see.
“She’s not wrong, you know.” He leans back against the door. “About any of it. Youarea liability. You can’t fight. You can’t give us any useful information.”
“I know.”
“But you’re still here.”
I sigh. “I’m still here.”
He studies me for a moment longer, then his lips curve. “You should go downstairs and eat. There’s nothing you can do here right now.”
He disappears back into the room before I can respond, and I’m left standing in the hallway, with nothing to do but what he suggested.
The common room is a little busier than it was. Fae and humans scattered across tables, eating and talking in low voices. Sharla glances up from behind the counter when I come down the stairs, but she doesn’t say anything.
I find a table in the corner where I can put my back to the wall and watch the room. A few minutes later, a human girl sets a bowl of stew and a pitcher of tea down in front of me without a word.
You walked past our cages. You saw us rotting in our own filth and you did nothing.
She’s right. I did nothing. I was horrified, I felt sick, but I went back to the palace and tried to forget what I’d seen. I told myself there was nothing I could do. That I was just a princess, I had no power, and when I did speak up it just made things worse for me.
None of it matters.
