But what he didn’t know was how dramatically fast that opinion was rising.
I dragged myself after him, fear weighing me down.
“Come,” he urged again, reaching a hand back to pull me along. “This is not the time to lose heart. Your family is not only safe but also close by, all three of them. Yes, they’re making things difficult, but it’s still far from impossible.”
I stared at his fingers where they wove through mine, blinking to clear my vision. He made a good point. Dad’s words had made things feel hopeless, but they weren’t.
Then I thought of Mom and wanted to weep again, because even if I could find a way to tell Soren about her, she didn’t seem to be here. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to ask Dad if he’d seen her.
But I couldn’t give up hope.
One problem at a time.
Straightening my spine, I took a few deep breaths until my voice only trembled a little. “Up until now, I couldn’t get you to help me without a deal. What changed?”
“If I tell you, you can’t tell anyone else.” His eyes twinkled a bit, and he even gave me a tiny smile, clearly trying to cheer me up. “It would ruin my reputation.”
I couldn’t fathom where he was going with this. “Okay...”
“I would’ve helped you even if you’d refused to bargain.”
I tripped. This time it wasn’t my imagination that he reached out to catch me. His hand wrapped around my waist and didn’t let go.
Swallowing, I slowed to a stop. “That’s easy for you to saynow.”
“It’s also true.”
He pulled back to press a gentle hand to my face.
I sucked in a breath.
But then I registered the familiar motions. He was just putting the glamour back on.
Maybe his hand lingered a little on my cheek though.
No. Not after the way I’d treated him. That was wishful thinking. He was just being kind—a quality I would’ve recognized in him sooner if I hadn’t been so suspicious.
My eyes fluttered lower as his fingers ever so slowly pulled back.“There,” he murmured. “You look fae again. Just a precaution, since we’re still in Cosmo’s burrow.”
I stared up at him. “Soren?” I wanted to tell him I’d been horrible and he didn’t deserve it, but as I licked my lips, his eyes dropped to my mouth, distracting me.
Before I could break out of the trance, a fae the size of a tree trunk turned the corner and stopped in front of us.
“Soren Velarde. I heard you were here but could hardly believe the audacity.”
“Cosmo,” Soren gritted out.
Cosmo?
My gaze traveled slowly up, up, up to the way his large head nearly brushed the ceiling.
Oh.
Now the size of the tunnels made sense. The dude was ginormous. His muscles had muscles. He looked like a gym bro with pointy ears, and instead of a stereotypical muscle shirt, he’d just skipped a shirt altogether. Technically, he wore some sort of metal-plated shoulder pads. It honestly looked like the least helpful armor I’d ever seen in my life. I hadn’t seen a whole lot, but it was clearly decorative only—not that the guy really needed armor when he could easily run both of us over if he wanted to.
“You’re not welcome here,” he growled at Soren.
“Prince Caius gave us entrance,” Soren began, and he moved away from me like he might actually try to go around this Cosmo creep. Or... maybe he was trying to distract him so I could slip away?
