“I’m sure I could find my way in the morning,” I say, ignoring his first point.
“So you can go back to learning how to fight and kill an enemy you can’t even recognize?”
Finishing his task, he comes over and crouches before me. Even in the darkness, his features are strangely familiar—comforting, even—but his green eyes lock on mine with an intensity that lays me bare.
My voice rasps out of my parched throat. “What are you…”
With a shift in the moonlight, a shadow lifts from his face. His intoxicating eyes brighten as if verdant flames burn within, the angles of his face sharpening. And his ears… narrow to a point at the tips.
“Fae!” I scramble backward on my butt, my heart pounding. I belatedly realize I should lash out with an incantation, freezing or trapping him somehow. Anything to keep him away.
But he shakes his head with a condescending chuckle and walks off, leaving me… even more confused. And slightly ashamed of my pathetic reaction. So I gather myself up and hobble after him, channeling my tangled emotions into anger as pain underscores my every move.
“You said you don’t care about my father,” I say, stopping next to him as he kneels, searching through his bag. “Do you even know who he is?”
“Of course I do, Eloise Detura, I just don’t care. It has nothing to do with why we’re here.” He takes a swig from a waterskin, closing his eyes as he swallows.
How is he so casual right now?
“Then… why? What other value do I have?”
Taran sighs, pushing his hands off his knees as he towers above me, my eyes level with his chest. My shoulders tense as I step back.
He could crush me.
“Despite what you may think, I have no qualms with your people,” he says. “Twenty-one years ago, our queen—the one who led the war against you—was uncrowned and exiled to your lands. I have reason to think that she has returned and stolen the throne. While she was here, we believe she placed a curse on you, and it’s my hope that the reason for that curse makes you”—his brow furrows as if he’s struggling to find the proper words—“well-positioned to help me prevent a war between our realms.”
He nods, clearly satisfied with his explanation.
I am not.
“What does that even mean? I’m not under a fae curse.”
“You are. It has caused you to forget much of the last three weeks.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Didn’t they teach you fae can’t lie?” he asks, and I shoot him a glare. “I’m told you attended an equinox ball. Try to remember it.”
I huff, in no mood to humor his nonsense. I turn to walk away, but a spike of pain in my legs stops me after two steps.
“Fine.” He tosses his hands up. “Do what you want. I’m going to collect firewood.”
“No need.” With three simple incantations, I sprout a small bush, dehydrate it, and engulf it in flames.
Taran scowls at the fire, then at me, the flames reflecting the heat in his eyes. He storms to the opposite side of the blaze, hurling his pack to the ground.
Satisfied with my display, I settle down where I am. But try as I might, his words keep sneaking into my mind. Ididgo to the ball. Alexis and I went together. She met up with Oliver, and I followed her in…
My stomach twists, and my hand shoots to my mouth to cover my reaction. I glance Taran’s way—he’s too busy beating his pack into the shape of a pillow to have noticed.
I don’tactuallyremember entering the ball. In fact, the more I think about it, I don’t remember anything until the next morning when I was in class with Reid. I don’t even remember walking there.
“Let’s say you’re right about this queen putting a curse on me.”
“I almost certainly am.”
Fortune preserve me, this man…
