He gave me a side-eyed glance. “You know I can’t do that.”
My eyes widened, and my chest grew tight. “You think I’ll fail?”
Groaning, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t say that either. Perhaps instead of predicting the future, we could go over what you’ll say one more time.”
NowIwanted to groan. But it was the smart move, so I nodded. “Caius told me a bit about the people—I mean, humans—in this court last night, so I’m going to use that as an opening. I’ll tell him that I know the secret he didn’t want to share with me.”
“Which is?” Soren prompted, letting the others get farther ahead.
“That the Hollow Court has enlisted more humans into service than the fae treaties allow,” I parroted.
The prince had implied the humans came here of their own free will, though. He’d said they were given food and shelter. In fact, he’d said all the right things, really, looking back. But if I considered his exact words, like Soren had taught me, he’d never actually said humans came here of their own free will, he’d said “some” have nowhere else to go. That could be as few as one or two people.And, technically, even if he gave them mere crumbs and a roof of dirt, he could claim he'd given them food and shelter. Had I been as wrong about the prince as I’d been about Soren? Actually, did I have enough evidence oneitherof them to make a truly informed opinion?
Earlier, I’d been too busy memorizing my lies, but now it hit me.
“When you say the humans are ‘in service,’ what does that mean?”
Soren cut his gaze to mine as we crossed through a dim tunnel with dozens of root pockets and crevices, where all kinds of strange creatures might be hiding. “I think you already know the answer to that.”
“I think I do too,” I whispered, unconsciously stepping closer to him. “But I need to hear you say it.”
“It means they signed contracts, like your family. And most had no idea what they’d agreed to until it was too late.”
Blinking at the blurry tunnel as I processed this, I nodded, throat closing. “Does Caius know?” Maybe the prince didn’t realize that some of these people had been tricked into signing their contracts.
Soren avoided my eyes. “Try to focus on the task at hand.”
Classic fae diversion.
But why?
If he hated Caius so much, I’d think he’d say yes, knowing it’d make me hate him too. So, did that mean he couldn’t say yes? That Caius didn’t know? I hoped that was the case. Knowing Soren, if he evaded a direct answer, I couldn’t expect to get any more information.
“Right. Okay.” I swallowed. “So, then I’ll say something like, ‘I probably shouldn’t tell you, but the Unseelie king just found out about the large number of humans and sees it as a big problem—”
Soren shook his head.
“Ah... I mean, as an act of war. Because his court doesn’t have access to as many humans, so they’re... uneven?” It definitely wasn’t supposed to come out as a question, but my breathing had gotten a bit choppy again.
“Unbalanced,” Soren corrected. “Your goal is to get him worried.” He repeated what he’d said earlier. “We want him to approach me to discuss a resolution with the Shadow Court. I’ll handle the rest.”
I nodded. It made sense that Soren could speak for the Shadow Court, since I’d gotten the impression that not many other fae here were from there.
Wait.“I thought my ‘goal’ was just to be convincing.”
“If you’re convincing, he’ll be worried, so it’s the same goal, really.”
It wasn’t though.
One was in my control, and the other wasn’t at all.
My mind raced as we traipsed through the tunnels. I tried to remember the exact wording of the contract.
Share a lie.No problem.
Deliver it exactly as requested... My jaw clenched.
As I’d noticed earlier, the wording was vague, with no specifics to clearly define whether or not I’d fulfilled it. If Soren didn’t get the results he wanted, he could claim I hadn’t delivered the lie correctly. I really should’ve at least tried to argue that point. Now it was too late.
