“I’ll be happy to discuss my reasons after you provide your information.”
“What if I say no?”
I didn’t usually have quick comebacks, too worried about what people thought, but something about him brought it out of me.
We glared at each other, in a standoff.
“Soren,” Lore piped up as she set her teacup down with a soft clink. “I don’t know if you heard the loud thump outside a minute ago, but she didn’t see the stairs, and that fall can be quite a shock. Give the girl a minute.”
As someone who often struggled to hide how I felt, I recognized the irritated twitch of Soren’s brow before he hid it with a tight smile. “Take all the time you need.” He spread his hands wide and set the pen down. His composed mask was a lot better than mine.
While I didn’t want to give the faeanythingif I didn’t have to, I also didn’t have time to waste.
I caved.
“My name is Brynn. And I’m here for personal reasons.”
With a satisfied click of his pen, he wrote down my response and something else beside it in a swirling script before snapping the book closed. “It’s for the entrance log,” he said, surprising me by keeping his earlier promise to explain. “I’m tasked with noting every visitor who comes through the south entrance.”
Did that mean he’d seen Dad, Rissa, and Olive? I almost gasped.He might’ve seen Mom!
“Do people...visitoften?” That word tasted like dirt. His kind had dragged my family through here, and he was making it sound like they’d gone on vacation. But I tried to keep my feelings to myself.
He shrugged. “Sometimes.”
Purposely vague.
Like he had something to hide.
He was probably in league with the other kidnappers.
Stay suspicious.I chose my words carefully, feigning nonchalance. “Has anyone come through here recently?”
“What’s it worth to you?” His eyes narrowed, calculating. He wasn’t buying my act.
But that wasn’t a no. I’d bet he’d logged them in that book of his. “Which way did they go?”
He merely crossed his arms, waiting.
I gritted my teeth. “I don’t have any money.”
“Who says I want money?”
“What do you want, then?”
“What all fae want,” he replied, casually crossing one of his legs over the other and leaning back in the chair. “To make a deal.”
