I hesitated.
“They took my... people.” I didn’t trust him enough to reveal it was family. The weird word vomit didn’t seem to apply as long as I didn’t mentally include Mom, but as soon as I thought of her, my throat closed up. I coughed and turned my thoughts back to Dad, Rissa, and Olive. “I followed them here, and I need to know where they went.” It went without saying that I planned to get them back.
“Yourpeople.” He repeated the word. “I’m not familiar with this specific relation.”
He obviously wanted me to reveal more. Too bad. I turned to face the fire, holding my hands out to soak up the heat. “That’s just what we call people we know.”
He crossed his arms. “For a human, you really are a terrible liar.”
“It doesn’t matter who they are to me, does it? The point is, I need to know where they went.” I should’ve said “want.” Iwantto know. “Need” sounded desperate. Which I was, but he didn’t need to know that. Time to go with plan B. I steeled my voice. “You said you like deals? What kind of deal would it take to get my family back?”
“Your family?” he repeated.
Crap.
I winced but didn’t say anything, staring into the fire. I couldn’t think of a way to pull my foot out of my mouth. Apparently, I played the “dumb human” role a littletoowell.
Moving away from the fire, I invited myself to sit on the couch. Time to shake it off and regain the upper hand... if I’d ever had it to begin with. The couch cushions begged me to sink into them, but I kept my spine stiff.
After a pause to consider me, he said, “You want my help finding them?”
“No.” If any of the books I’d read over the last week had any truth to them, the exact words of a deal mattered a lot. He was already twisting mine. “I don’t just want to find them. I want toget them out of here.”
He leaned forward a bit, unable to hide the way his eyes lit up. “What do you have to offer?”
I swallowed hard. When I’d imagined rescuing Mom from the fae, I’d considered lots of options, like big bags of cash or jewels—wishful thinking, obviously. I’d also tossed around the idea of food or random things from home, like our TV or books or, heck, maybe all our socks, if that myth had turned out to be true. I couldn’t see this Soren fellow’s feet behind his desk, but I got the sense he’d turn down a sock offer.
I’d even considered offering our house once but had quickly dropped the idea at the thought of fae living in town. The internet hadn’t been super clear on what they wanted from humans, so I’d never quite nailed anything down.
Chewing on my lip, I spread my arms wide, puffy coat swishing. “I don’t know... I don’t have anything except myself and the clothes I’m wearing.”And two garden-variety weapons in my pockets. But I wasn’t ready to give those up yet.
“Perfect, I’ll take it.” Soren’s deep voice brought me back to the present.
“What?” My hands automatically drew around my body, clutching my coat. I was suddenly afraid he’d actually strip me if I let him.
“Yourself.” He chuckled. “Specifically, your time.” With a wave at my outfit, he shook his head. “What use would I have for this strange wardrobe?”
Relief was brief. “Wait, I was being sarcastic. I don’t actually have time to spare. I literally just told you my family was taken—it’s urgent that I find themnow.”
“I believe the deal was that I’d help you get them out of here in return for your time.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m not stupid. You could turn that into any amount of time—weeks or years or more.”
Soren laughed unexpectedly. It had a pleasant ring to it that annoyed me. “You noticed that? It’s been a long time since someone surprised me,” he said, shaking his head slightly.
Pausing to study him, I debated saying what I really thought. I shouldn’t. It usually ended badly. But he stayed silent, leaving me an opening, and I blurted out, “I’m pretty sure you just haven’tadmittedit in a long time.”
A tiny corner of his lip twitched.
It looked like a real smile trying to escape this time instead of his mask. “You can think whatever you like.”
Well, if that wasn’t an argument, it was essentially an agreement, right? It reminded me of that list of “facts” I’d written down about the fae, one in particular.
“I wonder if you can lie,” I murmured without thinking, then pressed my lips together. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
The corners of his eyes tightened slightly. “Is that one of your human myths?” A deliberately unhelpful response.
“Maybe.” I shrugged, trying to be coy like him, relaxing into the couch a bit, but my acting was as terrible as ever. I felt like a puppet being moved by strings. “It doesn’t really matter though. I wouldn’t believe you either way.” Apparently, I said everything that came to mind now.
