“Are you warm enough?” Lore asked, eyeing my dress. “We could add a shoulder wrap—”
“I’m fine.”
“Did Soren mention what he wanted you to do at the revel?” Gwen asked next.
“No.” I didn’t miss the glances she shared with the others. Did they not know either?
Interesting.
I should’ve been worried about what he might make me do, but all I could picture was my family shuffling away down the tunnels, getting farther away every second.
“Dinner’s ready,” Peregrin, the guy with the ram horns, sang out, carrying trays in both arms. The smell of syrup and waffles hit me first, and my stomach betrayed me again with another growl. “Eat up!”
He set down eggs, sausage, and the waffles, which Julian immediately grabbed to use as a sandwich for the sausage.
I wanted to stage a protest and refuse to eat. But my hands didn’t listen to my head, scooping up a little of everything. I ate an entire plateful, then took a second helping of the waffles, which were legitimately amazing. Since Mom didn’t love cooking, it didn’t take much to make food seem magical, even if, as far as I could tell, it actually wasn’t.
That made my thoughts spiral back to my family again. Had anyone fed them? What if they were starving while I indulged in all this food? Especially Mom, who’d been here over a week now. Guilt at forgetting them for even a minute flooded me.
“Why the mopey sad-girl expression?” Julian had gone to the kitchen for a pitcher of what smelled like cider, stopping beside me on his way back. He kept his voice low, beneath the others’ chatter. He didn’t even look at me as he asked, focusing instead on pouring two cups, pushing one in my direction.
I swallowed, staring at the cup. “What do you mean?”
“You know.” He glanced at me long enough to wiggle his eyebrows. “You have this whole I-just-remembered-the-world-is-ending-and-we’re-all-going-to-die look.”
I snorted, then shrank inward as the others paused to glance over. When I didn’t move, they slowly returned to conversation.
Julian quietly poured a second cup. When he set the pitcher down and picked up his drink, he said, “So?”
“I’m sure Soren told you,” I hissed under my breath, eyes glued to my empty plate, trying to ignore the way the food had soured in my stomach, making me queasy. “My family is missing. Taken byyourkind.” I clutched my fork. “I don’t even know if they’re still alive, much less fed, so, yeah, my world is kind of ending right now.”
For once, I’d found the right words to make my point.
“If it helps, I can pretty much guarantee they aren’t dead.” Julian shrugged casually, as if we were talking about breakfast food. “They were brought here for labor or entertainment. All the humans are. They wouldn’t waste that.”
Wide-eyed, I stared at him. I hadn’t even considered they might be killed, so I wasn’t sure if his reassurance made me feel better or worse...
“I can’t promise they’re being fed though.” A hard expression crossed his face so fast I almost missed it. “Not all masters treat their human slaves well. But at least it’s only been a few hours, right?” He went back to his seat, downed the whole drink, and wiped his lips with the cloth napkin beside his now-empty plate.
My chest hollowed out.
He didn’t know about Mom. None of them did. I was pretty confident I couldn’t tell them, even if I’d trusted them enough to try.
It’d been over a week since she’d disappeared.
Picturing her, or Dad, or my sisters going hungry gave me instant heartburn. I regretted eating so much. I might be sick.
Soren swept into the room with a grim expression. “Some of the tunnel lights are out again.”
“Oh, I noticed that,” Lore piped up. “Sorry, I forgot to tell you with everything else going on.”
“Sabotage?” Gwen asked, glancing at the others.
Soren shrugged, filling a plate. “When is it not?”
They all nodded, and Gwen stepped away from the table. “I’ll take care of it. Hopefully it’s a quick fix.”
Did he mean the boggart? Or were the fae fighting amongst themselves? There was so much I didn’t understand about their world. The impossibility of saving my family with a million unknowns threatened to crush me.
