Tarrah shivered. “It sounds like a dreadful place.”
“You’re the one who says her mother went there,” Nollaig replied.
“Oh yes.” Tarrah nodded. “But that does not mean it isn’t dreadful. My mother liked dreadful things very much.”
“Tarrah, you always bring such cheer to our quests,” Reyna said with a grin. When she had first arrived in Findius, she had felt a terrible hatred toward Tarrah Glas. But she’d begun to feel protective of the girl. Her only crime was trusting in something she shouldn’t have.
Nollaig coughed. “Was that alie, Shieldmaiden?”
“What?” Reyna frowned. “That’s impossible. It was a joke and nothing more.”
“No, that was a lie,” Lorcan said insistently. “You’ve never once spoken a falsehood, not even through a joke.”
She laughed, suddenly uncomfortable with the way everyone was staring at her. “I’m certain the Dagda understands the difference between a joke and a true spoken thing. I don’t know why you all are making such a big deal of this.”
“Because you just lied, Reyna Darragh,” Lorcan said.
“I didn’t,” she insisted. “I can’t.”
Tarrah gasped and pressed her hands to her mouth, eyes bugged wide. “I know what’s happening. Your vow to the king. It’s made you one of us. You’re ashadow faenow.”
“That isn’t true.” Reyna’s heart thumped hard. “Only yesterday, I drew power from ice. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I’d somehow been transformed into a shadow fae.”
“It’s true,” Lorcan said. “She did.”
Reyna sighed in relief, glad that they could move on to the task at hand instead of theorize about a simple joke she’d made. But Lorcan had not moved on at all.
“But I still believe you lied,” he said.
“This is ludicrous!” She threw up her hands.
“Prove it then. Try lying now.” He grinned. “Try telling me that you hate me.”
“Well, I certainly could say that, but I thought you wanted me to try to lie,” she shot back.
“So say it then.” With a smug expression on his face, he crossed his arms and waited.
“Honestly, I don’t know what you hope to accomplish with this,” she said, scowling.
“If you’re so certain we’re wrong, then why are you stalling?” A single raven eyebrow winged upward.
Anger rushed through her like a storm. “You know what? Fine. If you want to play this ridiculous game, then here you are. I hate you, Lorcan Rothach. I hate you with every ounce of blood in my veins. I would rather die than look upon your face ever again.”
She gasped and pressed a trembling hand to her mouth. How had she just said that? How had she even managed to form the words? It was an impossibility. The fae of Tir Na Nogcould not lie. It was one certainty in their world, the one thing that had never changed. The only fae who could were…
“But I’m not a shadow fae,” she mouthed, no sound escaping from her parted lips.
She couldn’t be. She was born of the ice. She bled in the ice. And she found power in the ice. The ice was her home. It was her strength.
And yet, she could lie.
Nollaig cocked her head. “Well, that is certainly interesting.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re considered part of our court now,” Tarrah tried. “You may not be one of us, but your vow binds you to this place in a way. Perhaps that means you’ve been given the means to lie because of it.”
Reyna’s head snapped up. “My vow.”
Tarrah nodded. “It makes perfect sense. You’ll be able to lie until the king releases you, I suppose.”
