His frown deepened. “I meant your devotion to your family is strange, not you.”
I scoffed. “What’s the difference?”
Quietly, he said, “It’s one of the things I admire about you. I can’t imagine my family doing half as much for me.”
Oh.
Well, even if he hadn’t insulted me, the human contracts were two hundred extremely valid reasons to keep my distance. He had to know that.
His hands gripped me tighter. “There’s clearly something else upsetting you.”
“Nothing you need to worry about.” I brushed it off. I just wanted Caius to leave already so we could find my family.
“I thought we were making progress,” he murmured in my ear, pulling back to give me a quizzical look. “That you were beginning to trust me?”
I couldn’t pretend anymore. Even if it meant he didn’t help me find my family, I couldn’t hold it in. “That was a mistake obviously.”
His steps slowed at my poisonous tone. “I don’t understand.”
“You’re just like Caius,” I spit out. “You both want human contracts and tried to make me believe you were ‘helping’ them, but really, you just want them for yourself. How are you any different from him?”
Soren froze, his unreadable mask back in full force. “That’s what you think of me?”
“It is,” I snapped. “I heard you in the tunnels.”
We glared at each other.
Or at least, I did.
He took a step closer, breathing harder than necessary after such a slow dance, as he searched my face with a frown. Leaning down, he whispered in my ear, “I had assumed since you were eavesdropping that you were paying attention to the exact words chosen.”
“Obviously,” I hissed back. “The prince was extremely clear about the fae going to the Shadow Court. You’re not bringing them home at all.”
He gave me a searching glance. “Do you truly expect me to have corrected him in his beliefs? To tell him—” He glanced around the dimly lit room, lowering to my ear again despite the chaos of music and voices around the room. “To tell him the truth about where the humans were going?”
I shivered as his lips touched my ear. “But you told him to sign the contracts overto the Shadow Court.”
“Did I?” he asked, shifting slightly to take in the rest of the room, or maybe just to hide his expression from me. “Or did I tell him to sign them over tome, as a representative of the Shadow Court?”
Well. The same thing was starting to sound different.
I frowned. “But you said, ‘The contracts on their own are worthless to the Shadow Court as they are.’ ”
His eyes tightened at the edges when he met my gaze. “Yes, I did. And that will continue to be true.” He sighed. “Sometimes stringing together two unrelated truths can help reinforce misdirection.”
A sinking feeling came over me.
No. It still didn’t add up. “You told the others you were taking them to the Shadow Court too, remember? The prince was long gone when you said, ‘We’ve obtained two hundred contracts.’ ”
Slowly, he lowered his arms, though he didn’t pull away yet, still speaking softly so no one else would overhear. “We were in the middle of court, Brynn.” His deep voice held a fissure of hurt. “I chose my words carefully in case they were repeated back to him, but I specifically said, ‘Caius is sending them to us instead of directly to the Shadow Court.’ ”
Yes, I remembered that word, “directly.”
I tried to swallow.
All of a sudden, I heard the emphasis he’d really meant.
Sending them to us.
