GAPING AT THEM, mouthopening and closing like a fish gulping water, I finally asked, “Where are you taking them?”
They all looked to Soren.
He’d started pacing, but he came back around the couch now to sit again. “We bring them across the veil so they can go home.”
I blinked at him, not really absorbing anything. “The... veil?”
“It’s a magical wall of sorts that prevents most humans from crossing into the fae lands by making it nearly impossible to continue onward.”
Oh yeah, I know exactly what the veil feels like.I vividly remembered that strange gloom and the urgent need to turn back in the woods until a sudden pop, as if I’d crossed some unseen barrier.
The rest of his sentence hit me belatedly.He’s bringing them home?I didn’t know what to make of that. The fae didn’t do nice things for no reason.
“Why?”
“Because no one should be stuck in a life they didn’t choose. They don’t deserve it.”
I leaned back a bit at his sudden passion. That sounded personal. But he didn’t seem stuck to me. What exactly about his life here wasn’t his choice? He seemed important, and he had a nice place and more friends than I’d ever had...
Despite their claims of rescuing humans, I couldn’t shake my suspicion.
My struggle to trust him didn’t make logical sense—I knew that. After all, he hadn’t done anything tomepersonally.
But my original opinion of him felt formed in cement, especially after what I’d learned about him damaging Caius’s reputation and hopes for a family.
“Soren’s not the only one who feels strongly about having a choice,” Gwen said, breaking the silence. She paused to throw a meaningful look toward him. “But some of us also appreciate that it upsets the Hollow Court to no end.”
I frowned. “How so?”
Grinning, she explained, “They can’t figure out where the humans are disappearing to.”
“They assumed it was a rogue boggart or two at first,” Peregrin told me with a shy grin.
“But then,” Julian added, “they noticed it only happened during the liftings.”
Liftings?I didn’t know what that word meant, but Lore spoke before I could ask.
“It didn’t help that we took nearly a dozen two nights ago.”
The day before I arrived?
I did the math as I looked at Soren. He’d asked me to lie to Caius about the day before I’d arrived, to say he’d been home. Clearly, he hadn’t been. Obviously, I’d figured that part out, but I’d just assumed they’d been doing typical fae tricks.
