Ignoring the frustrating tingle his fingers left across my skin, I stared stubbornly at the wall of books, forcing my attention to them until he finished, refusing to let stupid hormones get in the way of my intelligence again.
“Shall we go?” he murmured, stepping back.
I nodded without looking at him and swept out the door when he held it open for me.
We left the others behind, moving quickly through the brightly lit tunnels, traveling deep underground, away from court this time, if my sense of direction could be trusted.
The tunnels descended deep enough to put a chill in the air. I shivered.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could feel Soren’s gaze on me when he thought I wasn’t looking. Judging me probably. Or maybe wondering how he could get me into another contract.
Part of me cringed at the thought, feeling guilty for even thinking it. But the other more cynical side reminded me that being too trusting and buying into his nice-guy act was the whole reason I was in this situation.
We traveled in uncomfortable silence until we came upon a line of fae.An actual line.It felt like we were at the world’s strangest theme park, waiting to ride a roller coaster, or maybe more like a late-night movie premiere for some fae movie that everyone was cosplaying.
I spotted creatures I couldn’t name that had flora growing out of different parts of their bodies, others with blue or green skin, a skinny half-naked one with hooves for feet, and so many others, including a bunch of those cute little toadstools that wiggled and danced. They made me smile slightly despite what Soren had told me about them. Up ahead, I even spotted the bright red hair of a toddy wobble.
Soren remained quiet beside me, almost uneasy.
I leaned against the dirt wall, wishing I could disappear into it, then remembered the stunning gold dress I wore and jerked away. Somehow, not a speck of dirt stuck to it.Distracted from my nerves and disgust with Soren for a brief moment, I enjoyed the way the dress shimmered and moved like liquid gold.
I slipped my hand into the pocket, wanting to turn the phone on for the hundredth time. It was a long shot this deep underground. Basically impossible. But I still had to try. Keeping it in my pocket to hide the dimly lit phone screen, I peeked at it when no one was looking.
No signal.
With a sigh, I powered the device off again. Of course.
Our place in line slowly progressed down the entire length of one tunnel, then another, close enough to Cosmo’s Winter Solstice Ball now to hear violins warring with drums in a uniquely fae style of music that poured out of the burrow ahead, teasing us. This particular burrow’s large double doors stood propped open with two fae as tall as the doors standing outside, checking names against a list. With their size, no one could try to force their way in.
Someone strode past us, and Soren reached out to catch his sleeve.
The fae turned. His catlike eyes took in the two of us with unblinking disinterest.
When Soren whispered in his ear, though, he nodded and held out a hand. Soren pressed something into it, and then the feline fae stalked on down the line, moving right past the pseudo bouncers with feral grace, disappearing into the burrow.
We reached the door a few moments later. The bouncers didn’t even bother to check their list. The larger one gave Soren a wicked smile. “Guest list just changed to high fae only.”
“Iamhigh fae,” he snapped back, quick enough to make me wonder if he’d gone through this before.
The other bouncer snorted. “Seeliehigh fae.”
I started to panic. He’d promised to get us in, had sworn on that stupid contract of his that my family was inside and that we’d find them and that he’d help me get them out of here, or at least get me inside the burrow anyway, and now he wasn’t even doing that, and—
“Let them in,” a deep voice purred from the shadows of the doorway. “On Prince Caius’s orders.”
The bouncer’s smirk faded.
Reluctantly, he waved us inside.
Soren’s mask slipped for a split second, and I caught satisfaction before his face returned to neutral.
As we entered Cosmo’s burrow, I blinked at the sudden darkness, waiting for my eyes to adjust. We dodged stone arches and wove around fae, slipping through one dimly lit room into the next, or maybe it was all one big room with a lot of load-bearing beams to hold up the ceiling. Either way, these dark underground pockets of connected rooms created a honeycomb effect.
Everywhere we went, fae twirled and sometimes flailed beneath colorful stalactites that gave off a soft otherworldly glow in different shades of vibrant red, deep orange, and golden yellow. Glowing liquid dripped from them to the floor, and sometimes onto the fae as well, though none seemed to care. It created a weird pattern of colorfully lit goo across the floor and crowd.
In each room, I scanned the crowd for Dad or Rissa or Olive.
At first glance, there were only pointed ears and unearthly good looks. But as we moved through the dark, I bumped into a shadow that turned out to be a human serving drinks. He wore all black. In the dim lighting, I had to look closely to rule out Dad. After that, I peered into the shadows for any movement at all.
