The inside of the car is absolutely silent as we pull away from Elijah’s home.
It’s quiet as we leave the city on the same large thoroughfare we took to get here. The weight of the conversation we had with the wielder and the decision we have to make bear down on both our shoulders.
Finally, after many miles have passed and the silence has grown unbearable, I have to break it.
“We could do nothing.”
Seren hums thoughtfully, as if she’s already considered the possibility. “We could.”
“But you don’t want to.” Not a question.
I’m learning to read my star in the things she doesn’t say. In her hesitations and her silences, her hedged words and every small expression on her face.
“It would help Elijah,” Seren points out. “If we take what he gave us and talk to the fae queen, maybe she’ll call off the hunt.”
“Or maybe she’ll kill us for bringing back a ring and a letter instead of her heart.”
“Technically…” Seren nods toward where her bag rests on the vehicle’s rear seat. “He did say the ring’s stone is heart’s blood. Do you think he meant that literally?”
An uneasy slither of dread runs through me. “With the fae? Who knows?”
She hums again, altogether not disturbed enough that we might have a piece of the fae queen sitting within arm’s reach.
“What more do we owe Elijah?” I ask, still not ready to concede. “We’ve already done plenty to help by giving him a warning about the hunt.”
“The hunt is the other problem,” Seren shoots right back. “The coven has plenty of wards on their Veil gate, but they’re not unbreakable.”
“As you’ve so aptly demonstrated,” I mutter, and her lips quirk into a smirk.
“Exactly. And if I can break them, who’s to say there isn’t some other terrifying hunter out there who could come through and break them as well. Not to mention all the other gates across this planet that may not have the same protection.”
“So now protecting this entire world falls to us?”
“No. But if we have a chance to end the hunt, shouldn’t we take that chance? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not see those hunters come here and unleash themselves on unsuspecting mundane folk.”
My witch has a point.
But I still hate the idea of going back to the realm where I nearly lost her—twice.
I’d still rather stay out of Faerie and rather the both of us let the hunt go entirely.
Only… all the reasons she brought up are valid, and the reasons we started this in the first place are still just as they were.
Like she can sense those thoughts, Seren’s next words cut far too close to the truth.
“Besides, I still want the fortune that will buy me a new life. And you still want to pay off your debts, right?”
She asks the question innocently enough, but Seren’s too clever not to have guessed there’s something I’m not telling her.
It eats at me, the secret I’m still keeping, and perhaps I should just tell her. But every time I consider it, shame wells up bitter and choking in the back of my throat. Shame for the choices I’ve made. Shame for my family’s history and the situation I’ve found myself in. Shame that even half a fae queen’s fortune might not be enough to erase my debts completely and make me free to build the life my star deserves.
“Right,” I say instead, not looking at her, and almost think I can see her face fall from the corner of my eye, but I might just be imagining it.
The next hour passes mostly in silence, and the one after that. The scenery outside fades as dusk falls, and soon enough we’re driving back through familiar woods toward coven lands.
Seren pulls her car over to the side of the road and turns it off.
She rests her head against the back of her seat and closes her eyes. “You don’t have to go, you know.”
