“Another bargain?” Eira asked warily. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Don’t you want to know something about me as well? I’ll share one of my secrets if you share yours.”
She hesitated. “Not just any secret. You have to answer one question fully. No omissions. No hedging.”
One question. What were the odds she would ask the one thing I didn’t want to answer?
The odds were high. Eira had a tendency to poke in the precise spots I wished she didn’t.
But curiosity burned within me. Ididwant to know what had happened with Calista. Not just to understand Eira better, but to understand Calista. I hadn’t particularly liked the queen, but I had always believed her to be the rightful ruler of the Winter Court. Now that my perspective was changing, I wanted to fill in the gaps. How far did Calista’s deception go? What else had she been hiding?
“Fine,” I said. “We have a deal.”
“This is a bad idea,” Frisk muttered.
Mauro snorted in agreement, but Kendra shushed them both, her blue eyes fixed on me and Eira. She seemed excited.
“Calista didn’t banish me because of my human blood,” Eira said, her voice firm. “She banished me because I stole something from her.”
I frowned. That wasn’t what I’d been expecting. “What did you steal?”
“A magical object that reveals truth. It’s the only thing in the entire realm that can expose Calista’s secrets.”
“What kind of secrets?”
Eira laughed. “That’s another question. Sorry, Theron, but that’s the only secret I’ll share today.”
“No, you have to answer the question fully, princess. How did you escape? Why did you stay away? There’s too much unanswered.”
When she said nothing, I glanced over my shoulder ather. She was chewing on her bottom lip, her eyes gleaming in a frustratingly familiar way.
She was scheming. Damn her.
“When I stole the object, Calista tried to stop me. Then she tried to kill me. I used fae magic to get away. And I’ve stayed away because I don’t want to risk her taking the object back. It’s the only leverage I have against her.”
Shock rippled through me. Blood and ice, she was telling the truth. Leverage against Calista? That trulycouldturn the tides in favor of the Snow Princess.
Was this why Calista hunted her? Not to rid the court of her nuisance of a stepdaughter, but to silence her forever? To keep her secrets?
Now it made sense. This was why Calista hadn’t ordered me to kill Eira until now. She hadn’t wanted to risk me finding out what the princess knew.
“What is Calista hiding?” I asked.
Eira said nothing.
I tried again. “What fae magic did you use? And how?”
“That, dear hunter, is another secret you haven’t earned.”
I exhaled in frustration. “If you have leverage over the queen, why won’t you use it? Keeping her secrets is only servingher. If you spread those secrets, then she won’t be able to silence you.”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“How?”
“Well, for starters, who would believe me?” she snapped, her tone sharpening. “I’m half human. Most of the fae folk believe half breeds like me can lie. That I would say anything to win back my father’s crown.”
“So you’re waiting for proof,” I guessed.
