“I already know this part of the story, I think,” I reply. Queen Mor told me months ago that her protection of the humans was what ultimately led to her exile from the Otherworld.
“Yes,” Rhion sighs sadly. “Mor was sympathetic to the plight of the humans. It’s not that she is a particularly empathetic being, but she does love law and order. She thought the brutality with which the folk treated the humans was undignified. She told me once she was sick of throwing away bloodstained carpets. When she decreed that the door to England was to be closed, there was outrage. Thefolk had grown used to their human playthings and they had also grown fond of England.”
“And Bram used this against her?” Marion asks.
Rhion nods. “He did. That’s the problem with immortality. In order for there to be a new ruler, the old one must be disposed of. There is no natural order of succession, only blood and betrayal and the blessing of the land. But there were those of us who agreed with our queen’s decision. I had grown fond of humans, and not just as sport. Before the door closed, I had friends in London, and I could see they were just as complex and feeling as I was, even if their lives were shorter than my own. Bram ranted and raved about his mother, but I never thought he’d actually take action against her. I was naive. I won’t be again.”
“What do you mean?” Marion asks.
“We need to rid England of him. He is poison. Neither of our worlds will survive for long if he remains on the throne.”
“I’m still unsure of how that involves me,” I say.
“You’re his wife.”
“I am, and I love my husband.” I parrot my denial from earlier.
“And so, you are now a part of his family. We folk have funny rules about things like that. You can go through the door unaccompanied. I cannot.”
My heart thrums. “The door?” I ask in a whisper, increasingly wary that this is a trap.
There’s a spark in Rhion’s eyes. “The door between our worlds. It’s nearly impossible for one of us to die on English soil. Only in the Otherworld will you be able to kill him.”
My blood sluices in my veins. This time, Faith says something before I do.
“We won’t mention this meeting to Bram as a courtesy. We’ll be going.” She turns on her heel as Rhion shouts, “Wait.”
I search for an emotion in his fathomless eyes and find sorrow. I don’t know what to make of it.
“I love my husband,” I say flatly.
“Surely there must be some way to make you trust me,” he pleads.
“I’ve seen too much of your kind to ever trust a faerie again. It’s nothing personal,” I reply.
“I can’t give up that easily.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you.” I attempt to leave again, but he captures the sleeve of my day dress loosely in his hand, then drops it just as quickly.
“If not for England, then what about for Lydia?”
“Lydia?” I gasp. “You do know her, then?”
“I—” His voice hitches and he casts his glance at the ground. “I loved her—do love her, I mean.”
There’s only one way Rhion could know Lydia.
I can picture myself so clearly on that night, last February. The air was biting cold and I was near mad with anguish over Lydia’s disappearance. In a last-ditch attempt to reach her, I tried to open a portal to the Otherworld like we tried to when we were children. It was the night I met Emmett. It was the night she returned.
I think again of those two weeks she went missing last February, and I know in my bones my suspicions were correct. “So she did go to the Otherworld?” I asked Queen Mor as much, back when I believed she could not lie.
Rhion nods. “Yes, she was there for months, long enough for us to get to know each other a little, but it must have been much shorter here.”
“Only two weeks,” I confirm. “And that’s where Bram is keeping her now?”
Again, Rhion nods. “It is.”
“Is she all right? Is Emmett?” The words come tumbling out of me; there are so many things I need to ask him. But then I remember who I am talking to. “Wait,” I gasp. “I still don’t trust you. How do I know you’re telling the truth? This could be another lie or game or farce meant to trick me into sedition against my husband, with whom, I’ll once again remind you, I’m madly in love.”
