He frowned. “My sister?”
“Caius said he wanted to marry her, but you told her some rumor that made her turn him down.”
“Is that what he made you believe?” Soren’s tone turned cold. He huffed. “I suppose it is technically true, or he couldn’t have said it. However, the tale I shared with Karina about him was also entirely true. She made her decision based on learning his true character, not by any falsehoods from me.”
I gaped at him, processing.
Caius had done exactly what Soren had warned me about: he’d used half-truths and misdirection to make me believe false stories. Meanwhile, Soren had only ever helped me.
“Why did you let me think he might be a good guy, then?” I scowled. “I asked you if he knew about the humans, and you didn’t answer.”
Soren sighed, leaning against the wall. The silhouette of his wings drooped a bit. “I shouldn’t have done that. But I confess, I couldn’t bear the thought of lowering your opinion of the fae when you lumped me in with him.”
I winced.
Another reminder of how far I’d shoved my foot into my mouth. At this point, could I even get it out?
I stared at the shadow of his wings to avoid his eyes. “You can’t... get them back somehow? I mean, are they gone for good?”
At first, I thought he’d brush it off, the way he tended to when he didn’t like my questions. But he hesitated.
“If the contract ended, I could get them back.” His chin dipped down as he fiddled with the cuff links on his shirt, hiding his face from me as his deep voice quietly said, “But that won’t happen anytime soon.”
There was a rasping bitterness in his voice that told me he couldn’t quite laugh this one off.
I inexplicably wanted to cheer him up somehow. “You know, it’s probably for the best,” I quipped. “You’re already scary and intense—if you had wings, you’d never be able to make friends.”
Like I’d hoped, it startled him enough to lighten the mood and coax a small smile out of him. “You think I’m scary and intense?”
“Did I say that?” I joked, pressing a hand dramatically to my heart. “That doesn’t sound like something I’d say.”
He laughed.
Genuinely laughed, eyes crinkling at the corners, shoulders softening slightly as some of the tension left him.
I wanted to make him laugh all the time.
Then, with a long sigh, his gaze turned back to his door as he murmured, “As nice as this is, we should probably go inside and check on everyone.”
He opened the door before I could stop him, leaving me with another missed opportunity.
This shouldn’t be so hard. I just needed to say, “Sorry that I thought you were pure evil. I realize now you’re one of the good ones.”
I blushed just thinking the words. It wouldn’t be easy at all. In the end, it didn’t matter, though, because the moment had passed.
Chaos poured out from Soren’s burrow.
I didn’t know where to look first. Like Cosmo’s party, bodies were packed in as far as I could see, except these were all human.
Despite overhearing earlier that they’d be sent here, it hadn’t really sunk in untiljust nowthat there was a chance that Mom could be included in those two hundred contracts.
As Soren moved to shut the door behind us, my eyes scanned the room wildly, searching each face for a familiar one.
Then a second time.
And a third.
Soren passed me as I did, turning to look back over his shoulder with a concerned frown.
