AS HE SAID this, atoddy wobble stepped into view, only a few feet away.
The prince nodded to him in dismissal, and the toddy fulfilled its namesake by slowly wobbling away.
Crap!
I was seriously terrible under pressure. Once again, I had the internal to-run-or-not-to-run debate fly through my head, but instead, I just whispered, “What do you mean?”
“Well, you see”—Caius crowded me until my back hit the stone wall—“after I spoke with Soren, your family intrigued me.”
Your. Family.
I knew for a fact I’d never told him that.
He knows.
But how does he know?
His eyes never left me as he nodded at the unspoken question on my face. “I tracked them down and discovered I own their contracts. A conversation with your father was quite eye-opening.”
“You talked to...” I tried not to implicate myself, even though it was probably too late. “What did he say?”
“Where to begin?” Caius asked in a suspiciously cheerful tone. “I suppose the most obvious place is discovering that your father is human, which makesyouhuman. Who glamoured you? Soren?”
I swallowed.
Where was Gwen and her strategy right now? This would’ve been a fantastic time for Soren or his friends to appear. But of course, they didn’t, because how could they know this conversation had gone sideways?
I decided to try the truth, to play to his compassion, if he had any. “Yes, it’s a glamour.” I cleared my throat, skipping over any mention of Soren. “I’m just trying to get my family home.”
“I figured as much. You’re lucky you’re the daughter of Maeve Thorneveil. I’d rather not harm a member of the Grimhollow clan. Too many repercussions. But how dare you lie to me, and worse, how dare you think I’d help a filthy human?”
He knows Mom?
Why would he care what she thinks? And what repercussions?I blinked at him, unable to puzzle together what he was saying.
He pivoted on one foot to storm away.
“Wait,” I cried after him, doing exactly what Soren had told me never to do. “Please, I’ll do anything.”
Fury filled Caius’s face when he looked at me over his shoulder. “If not for your connections, I’d make you regret that.”
What on earth does that mean?
A cold smile stole over his face, and he stalked back toward me. “It wouldn’t matter if I returned them to you though. Do you know why?”
I didn’t want to say it, but the word slipped out. “Why?”
Watching me closely for my reaction, he said, “Because this particular solstice, the veil has closed early.”
What?
