His shadowy form hesitated briefly in the dim light. “It’s... risky.”
“Why?”
“Caius is unpredictable. He might agree without issue, or he might choose to withhold their contracts, simply because he can. Or because I ask.”
“Ah.” Now the frog in my throat was ten times larger.
“Don’t let it worry you, Brynn.” He covered my fingers where I held his arm with his hand and squeezed lightly. “I’ll do my best to make it a casual request and not give him any reason to decline.”
I nodded, unable to answer. I wished I could convey how much I’d misjudged him, but I didn’t know how. Instead, I let him lead me through the maze of creepy tunnels in silence. Better not to have the conversation now, when we may or may not run into a boggart or one of those other fae Soren had warned me about.
One staircase led to another, then to a third, which made sense considering how far underground we’d been in Cosmo’s home.Once in the higher tunnels, bright lights illuminated the way, almost like daylight. No longer needing to guide me, Soren let go and kept his distance.
Which was all my fault.
I should at least attempt to fix it.
To be fair, though, I argued with myself, the only reason I was even here was because his kind had stolen my family.
The storm of thoughts raged so strong that I didn’t even realize we’d reached his burrow until we stopped.
Soren must’ve asked me a question. He waited with slightly pinched brows, eyes on mine.
“Sorry, did you say something?”
“You should get some rest.” He glanced at his door. “It’s going to be a long night. If it’s hard to sleep with the noise, you can use my bed.”
I blushed. Awkward. What should I say to a handsome man—or male—offering up his bed? “Um... Okay...”
Apologize now.
The longer I waited, the harder it’d be.
But I changed the subject instead. “How long do you think it’ll take for you to get them and... the other humans who were taken?” That was close enough to asking about Mom that I choked a bit on the sense of word vomit coming up. I coughed and cleared my throat to hide the strange behavior, though Soren still gave me an odd look.
“I’m hopeful Caius will send most of them our way.” He hesitated. “That said, there’s a possibility we may need to track them down.”
“Okay,” I whispered again, because I didn’t have the energy to string words together into full sentences anymore.
With his face a foot away from mine, knowing that after I found my family I’d be getting the heck out of here, I decided to at least try to get to know the real him, without judgment. Starting with one last loose end that Caius had mentioned, which I still couldn’t quite explain away. “What happened to your wings?”
His entire body tensed.
“I’m sorry,” I said immediately. “You don’t have to tell me. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s... all right,” Soren murmured.
We stood there, and Soren’s hand lifted toward the door, making me think the subject was closed, but he rested it on the wall instead. “They were magically removed as part of my contract when I came to live here in the Hollow Court.”
I inhaled sharply. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish.”
“Caius painted you as a criminal. Made it sound like you did something to deserve losing them.”
At the mention of the prince, his hand on the wall tightened into a fist. “My only crime when I came here was being Unseelie.”
I bit my lip. Though each question I asked dug me into a deeper hole, my rabid curiosity demanded I ask one more. “What about your sister?”
