Mouth full, Julian agreed, “They’re delicious.”
“I’m sorry.” I felt stupid for asking. I’d let my guard down, and that almost never happened. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Now I’d offended them. The easygoing air in the room would fade to tension. The scenario was all too familiar. I sighed, setting the warm cookie down, too depressed to eat.
“Say whatever you want.” Gwen shrugged.
After a second, I looked up and realized she was talking to me.
“Yes, you’re allowed to not like it,” Peregrin muttered unhappily to himself, wiping his fingers on a cloth napkin.
Gwen sat back casually. “Perry forgets what our kind are capable of.”
He squinted at her, then me, then back at her. “Ah...” He twisted to face me, eyes hopeful. “So, you don’t hate my food?”
My lips twitched in a slight smile. “Are you kidding? It’s the best thing I’ve had all year. It’s just... the stories...”
Gwen tilted her head at me, considering. “I once ran into a human who was stealing children.” Her stare never left my face. “Should I assume you do the same?”
My forehead wrinkled. “What?”
She tilted her head. “If all fae behave alike, the same must be true of humans, yes?”
I got her point.
“I disagree,” Julian said before I could think of a way to apologize. He reached over to tap my knee, serious for once. “Assume the worst. Better to be cautious.” Then he winked as he held up his last bite and added, “More for me that way.”
Lore snorted.
It broke the tension.
They moved on while I turned Gwen’s words over. I’d only known about the existence of the fae since they’d taken Mom a week ago, but everything I’d read—and seen—had taught me that fae hurt people. Period. It went against every instinct to consider that they might be as varied as humans.
Rubbing my forehead to ease the headache forming, I sighed. All I wanted was to get my family and get out of here. Whether or not they might be the kindest, warmest group I’d ever spent time with was irrelevant.
The delicious minty chocolate disappeared in four huge bites. Placing my empty plate on the small table beside my chair, I stirred the coffee and took a sip. The food lifted my spirits a bit.
When Peregrin held out the sweets a second time, I didn’t hesitate to take another and add some actual breakfast to my plate.
“So, how do you steal blood?” I shook my head a little. Words I’d never thought I’d say.
“It’s not easy,” Lore said, then wrinkled her nose at Julian inhaling another treat. “Slow down. We’re not leaving for at least another hour.”
Gwen settled into a chair and gave me a huge grin as she started to explain, “We got ahold of one of the royal family’s enchanted—”
Soren’s voice came from behind me, startling me. I hadn’t seen him return. “Since that’s not fully covered by our contract, you’ll forgive me if I don’t share the details.”
Coming around the couches to join us again, he stopped by the fire, shooting a sharp look at Gwen.
She smirked into her drink, clearly unbothered.
Turning to stare into the flames, Soren touched his pocket subconsciously. It was the same one he’d put something from his room into earlier, when he’d pulled something out from under the bed. The same enchanted item? Or maybe a different one? Definitely stolen, from the sound of it.
“All you need to know,” Soren told me without looking, “is that to terminate your family’s agreement, you’ll need the name of the fae who took your family so we can obtain their blood.”
He made it sound easy.
Just a name.
