Sir Toby was, indeed, snoozing on a plush rug in front of the roaring fire, and Oberon sat in an armchair nearby. Normally, when I found him like this, he was reading, but tonight his hands were empty and his expression stony. I walkedforward, bare feet falling silently, and cleared my throat. Sir Toby lifted his heads, then thumped his tail lazily against the rug.
“Did you enjoy your visit to Locksley?” Oberon asked in a low voice.
I froze and swallowed hard, debating just how egregious of a lie I was prepared to tell, but decided to let him show his own hand first.
“How much do you know?”
The faerie king lifted his dark eyes to meet mine. They reflected the firelight, glowing like a wolf’s through the darkness, and for a moment, I was afraid. The longer I stayed in the Arden, the easier it was for me to see him as a benevolent king and loving grandfather, but now I was reminded of how powerful a creature he truly was.
“Why would you assume that I have not known everything from the start?” He rose from his chair and walked over to the fireplace, staring into the flames again.
“I-I would never assume that,” I muttered.
“And do you think that you can flout my laws so easily, with no consequences?”
“I have reaped my own consequences.”
“No, you have not!” Oberon bellowed, slamming a fist against the mantle and sending a glass vase tumbling down to shatter on the hearth. “Not yet!”
With a snap of his fingers, shadows billowed up from the floor, forming a tight ball which melted away to reveal Devil—on his knees, bound and gagged by shadow ropes. I let out a strangled cry and took a few steps, then stopped in my tracks when Oberon curled his fist and Devil twitched in pain.
“Do you truly think there is a line I would not cross to protect my home, Marina?” said Oberon, his face twisted with both fury and despair. “Do you truly think his life meansanythingto me when compared to yours? Compared to the survival of the Arden? What must I do to get you to understand?”
“Please…” I whispered. “Please don’t hurt him…I’m sorry…”
“It is far too late for your contrition! You have put all of us in danger, and you have even sacrificed human lives to Titania’s madness! What game do you think you are playing, and do you really imagine you can win?”
“Mypeople are suffering far more than anyone in the Arden!”
Oberon flicked his fingers and Devil’s eyes rolled back as his body went rigid. “If your naive righteousness sends us to war, you will have no people left on either side of the Channel, Marina.”
My voice came out as a desperate rasp. “Do you really not understand what is happening here?! Do you really not see that everything is connected? The Archer’s Cup, the Rot, the caravan, the Iron Fist, it is part of the same darkness! A darkness that will consume all of us if we do not do something! Why shouldwe not help one another? Nottingham’s people do not deserve this anymore than the Arden’s children deserve the Rot. What if we could end all of it? Together?” I held my hands out, silently begging him to stop as Devil writhed on the floor only a few feet away.
“I do see it,” Oberon growled, “but that does not change my mandate to protect the Arden above all else, and it does not change the fact that you deliberately disobeyed my command to stay away from the humans. You called Titania’s attention to that caravan by stopping it, she murdered those men, and now the Iron Fist lurks on our doorstep. Because of you!”
“Please stop! You’re hurting him!” I cried, taking a single step forward. “We were going to tell you. He wanted me to tell you everything. This is my fault, so please just…just let him go!”
Oberon hesitated for a few moments, then relaxed his hand, allowing the shadows to fall away from Devil’s arms and legs. I ran forward and dropped to my knees as he gasped and rolled onto his side. The scale-like patterns on his skin pulsed with soft light, and his breathing was labored, his face slick with sweat, contorted in pain. A dark, undulant cloud of my own shadows poured out and I turned to face Oberon with my teeth bared.
“I told you that if you hurt him, I will not save the Arden,” I hissed. “Did you think I was bluffing?”
Oberon just glowered. “You made a bargain, Marina. If you do not fulfill it, you will be trapped here and share our fate.”
“So be it,” I spat. “I’ll not serve nor sufferanyking who treats his own people, his own creations, with this kind of cruelty. You willnevertouch him again. Do you understand me?”
I was terrified, my hands trembling, but the memory of Tuck’s words gave me the resolve I needed.Here is a girl who will take up space, who will never let people forget what she is, and what she can do…
Oberon studied me carefully, eyes still hard with anger, but then he sighed and his shadows dissipated. “Understand me when I say this, child: The best way for you to protect the people of Nottingham is to stay away from them. They will never again see you as human, and anything you do now will come back on the Arden. The best way for you to help us all, the humans and the Fair Folk, is to forget your old life, and focus your energy on the Rot.”
Desperate for it to be over, I just breathed, “Very well,” and released my own shadows. When I knelt beside Devil again, he groaned softly and pushed himself up. I put an arm around his waist to steady him when he swayed, and tried to ignore the strange look Oberon was giving us. We walked slowly out of the librarywith Sir Toby following behind us, whimpering, and did not speak a word until we were back in my room with the door bolted. Devil collapsed on the bed and gasped loudly, releasing all the pain he’d clearly been hiding.
“What did he do to you?” I asked, climbing onto the bed behind him and wrapping my arms around his chest. Bitterness flooded through me when I remembered that my healing gift did not work on him. I could not even soothe whatever pain he was in.
“He did exactly what he has always threatened,” Devil answered. “Pulled me apart…or at least, he started to…”
I dropped my forehead onto his shoulder, still shaking with rage. “I wanted to kill him,” I whispered. “Gods, I wanted to fucking kill him for hurting you.”
“My life is not worth that, May, and it certainly isn’t worth the entire Arden. You should not hold them equal.”
