Garrick’s mother brought him to Balar Shan when he was a child. The king gave him a title that enmeshed him in court politics. Decades later, Garrick betrayed me. Now I stood in this bedroom, still a captive in actuality if not in name.
Explanations. I deserved them, and Garrick was going to give them to me. Or I would have Isanara start taking bites.
“None of that explains why your mother is here now,” I said between gritted teeth. “Or why the king should trust you, or me.”
Garrick’s jaw ticked. “You are not the only one who has made bargains.”Or mistakes.
I hated that I could hear his unspoken words. I should not have allowed myself to know him so well.Damn it, I don’t know him.Everything between us had been a lie. He did not deserve the charitable implications of my addled brain.
Garrick’s eyes lifted over my shoulder. I was not certain if he looked at something specific in the room or simply into the past as he spoke. “When I was born, my mother struck a deal with the king. She would be allowed to raise me on her own, away from Balar Shan. But should the king ever summon her, she must return.”
My stomach twisted. “Why would she make such a bargain?”
“Because it was the only chance she had to save me,” he said.From the king, my mind supplied, ignoring my earlier demands. “She gave me twelve years of peace and safety.”
It wasn’t fair. Even if the king had not physically forced Garrick’s mother, it was still rape. The imbalance of power between them was too stark for it to be anything else. Maybe she’d been in love with him. My brief interactions told me that the king was not capable of reciprocating the emotion. Lucky him.
Garrick’s eyes slowly tracked back to me, but I could tell from their sheen that the past still held him captive.
“My mother raised me to be a good and honorable man,” he said quietly.
“You are a bounty hunter,” I said—and regretted it. The shift was subtle, but I was too familiar with his body to miss it. His shoulder blades contracted, his jaw stiffened. Restrained, private movements, laid bare before me. He could have closed himself off, but he let me hurt him instead.
And why shouldn’t I? Garrick the Red had left a trail of bodies across the entire continent of Velora in his pursuit of money and fame. He had betrayed me and my familiar. He deserved the things that had happened to him.
He stood under my scrutiny, unflinching.
“I am a disappointment to her as well as you,” he said.
My stomach turned. I was going to be sick. Garrick kept talking.
“Your head witch offered me a bargain on behalf of the king. If I entered the Seven Gates and shepherded you through them, then the king would release my mother from all obligations to Balar Shan. She would finally be free.”
I could almost see it. In my mind, it was the same desolate tavern in Canmar where I’d first caught sight of Garrick. I knew from the Memory Gate that his presence there had been noaccident; he’d already been a player in Maura and the king’s ploys.
Maura would use her mastery of fire and flame to intimidate and impress. Plenty of fae had the power of flame. But only witches could use spells. Only someone like Maura, who’d been burned alive, could use her power in death to manipulate the flame of the candle on the table so that it took the shape of those you loved, or whisper a spell so that its smoke made your thoughts turn dark.
Garrick had his own magic. No doubt he’d tried to use his compulsion to understand Maura’s motivations. But Maura was hundreds of years his senior. She knew just how to press upon an old wound, and the fae king had surely told her where all of Garrick’s were.
“She is mortal, Koryn,” Garrick said quietly.
I knew what her humanity meant. But in a world of immortals, it was easy to forget how precious the years were to some.
I could see it. I could almost feel the pain of that moment he’d agreed, before ever setting eyes on me, before Isanara had chosen me.
Close. Your. Eyes.
“You fulfilled your deal. She can leave,” I said. My voice shook. Damn, damn, damn. I had to keep going. “And so can you.”
Garrick’s eyes flared. Around the black pupils, a thin circle of glowing blue shone amongst the turquoise. He dipped his head—acknowledgment, not agreement.
“She is still here—she is choosing to stay because even after all that has happened, she will not leave me here to face him alone. And so long as she is in Balar Shan, she is under the king’s power,” Garrick said. “He is betting that she will not leave me. And he knows that I will not leave you.”
Another reason why I could not let myself feel. Those I cared about could be used against me. They always got hurt. And they had the ability to hurt me.
I spun away. I could not look at him for a second longer. I would slap him, or kiss him, or both. I’d touch him, and that would send me over a precipice that could only lead to disaster.
Isanara moved with me as I fled across the room to the oversized hearth. It was already roaring. Someone knew we would end up here. Would I ever be anything more than a pawn in other people’s games?
