Holding my breath, hoping it wasn’t a trap, I stepped through.
The prince’s boots echoed on the marble floor, accompanied by the slap of my sandals.
“Welcome to my home,” Caius offered with a wave of his hands and a lopsided smile. “Does it compare with where you’re from?”
Though he meant the Shadow Court, I instantly pictured Selmo and shook my head. “We don’t have anything like this. It’s... impressive.”
That clearly pleased him, because he launched into a long-winded story about how his father’s father had commissioned the greatest stonemason in all the courts to build out the tunnels here.
I tried to nod in all the right places, but my entire focus was on not getting lost.
Two left turns.
I tapped my left leg twice.
Down a set of stairs that curves around.
I curled my finger downward. Two taps, curl. Two taps, curl.
Not the best memorization technique, but I didn’t have any flash cards, so it’d have to do.
We took a right this time, then another staircase.
My subtle dance turned into two left taps, curl, one right tap, point down.
I shivered in my borrowed dress. This deep underground, the tunnels clearly weren’t heated anymore. The air had noticeably chilled.
To take my mind off of it, I picked out little details from our surroundings to help me remember as well. This staircase didn’t have softly padded carpet like the previous one or marble flooring like the tunnels above. It was simple gray stone. Less artwork too. It occurred to me then that Caius had fallen silent. Had he noticed I was distracted? I’d never been good at small talk. He was probably used to people bowing and scraping around him, but even if I’d wanted to, I wouldn’t have known where to start.
I tried to shake the tension from my shoulders as we approached a large wooden door.
Caius paused in front of it, turning to face me, which put him much closer than I expected. “You’re different,” he said decisively, just inches away, staring down at me. When my eyes flew wide, he grinned and clarified, “You don’t try to impress me like most folk would.” Turning to open the door, he waved me in first, still smiling. “It’s refreshing.”
I had no idea what to say to that. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to expect a response. For a split second, I’d thought he’d seen through Soren’s glamour, and my heart rate had jumped to double time.
We entered a room that looked like a hotel lobby. Or maybe more like a doctor’s office. A dozen or so chairs filled the space in rows, all empty. On the far side, a fae girl sat at a tall desk, lazily picking at her nails.
When she saw Caius, she leapt to her feet, smoothing the feathers on her dress. “Your Highness.” She bowed slightly. “How can I help you this evening?”
Her nose came to a sharp point, her lips were tiny, and she had round yellow eyes like an owl. Blinking rapidly, she glanced between us.
“If mortals are in my court, you can often find them here,” Caius told me, as if she hadn’t spoken. Then he turned to her, adding, “And this is...?”
“Oriel, Your Highness.” She blinked those huge eyes again, eyelashes fluttering. Was she trying to be coy?
“Oriel,” the prince repeated with a friendly smile, leaning one elbow on the tall desk. He turned to me.
When they both stared, waiting, I realized he wanted me to take over. “Oh, um, okay. One of them is an older man, around forty-five. He has these big round glasses, and his hair is turning white, even though—” I almost said, “He won’t admit it,” but that sounded too familiar. I stalled, struggling to think of a better way to describe him.
“That’s all right if you don’t remember much,” Caius reassured me, misunderstanding. “We can look through all the elder mortals if need be.”
“If I may, Your Highness,” Oriel said softly, leaning toward him with a flirtatious smile. “I believe I know which one she’s referring to.”
“Wonderful!” he exclaimed with a slap on the desk that made both of us jump. “We’ll wait here while you fetch him.”
She flitted through a door to her right.
Are they on the other side?I sucked in a breath.What if Mom’s here too?I couldn’t seem to let the air out, lungs frozen.What’ll I do if they’re here? Will he let me take them? Could it be that easy?
