“Is that what you want?”
The wood around them was dark enough that the little mushrooms growing among the fallen boughs and wide ferns glowed in the dark. “I would eat.”
“What?”
“After a magical ordeal. I would eat. Oat cookies, the first time. It was what I had in my pockets. Osalor had wine.”
“So after your pact, you ate cookies?”
“One cookie. We shared it. And three sips of wine. Osalor said that it would be much nicer to drink when I was old enough to like more flavors.”
Saeldian had stolen that cookie knowing they’d pay the price later. But after they met Osalor, it hadn’t cost them a thing, not after a little trick had fixed it.
“Because you were a child.” Kell sounded like he’d never realized it. “You became a warlock when you were—how old? Could you even read your contract?”
Saeldian snorted. “You’ve been reading too many books. Fiend patrons like written documents, signed in blood, all that detail. That’s how they get you.”
“How old were you, though?”
Too young, but it didn’t matter. “I’d been bound eight years when you met me.”
“That bastard.”
“Don’t you dare,” Saeldian said. “He saved me with that pact. You were a beloved child. I wasn’t. Power kept me safe.”
“But if you don’t have a contract, how does it work?”
The mushrooms wouldn’t grow where they would be trampled, which made them the perfect guide back to the floating lights that glowed like fireflies. “You know what fey bargains are, Kell. Don’t make me treat you like a dullard.”
“So he gave you power. And you gave him…what?”
I don’t want to ask for something it would hurt you to give.
They walked five more steps before Kell said, “You can’t tell me. I don’t know why I asked. Sorry.”
“You like to know things.”
“That’s true, but—does it hurt you? When someone wants information you can’t give them, I mean.”
It was strange how easy it was to talk to Kell, even about a subject Saeldian had to talk around. No. It was strange how easilyKell talked to them now, after hating them until they were in the dream.
What did he see in there?Saeldian had stood and waited for him to drop his ball next to theirs for so long, they’d barely made it back to Shuahn. She had called a warning, and Kell hadn’t moved an inch, like he hadn’t heard the call.
Saeldian could have turned around and walked out of the maze. The exit had opened behind them. But they waited, even when Shuahn waved her arms trying to urge them to come out. It didn’t even occur to them to wonder what would have happened if they were still in the maze when the last grain of sand fell. They just waited for Kell to let go.
Why don’t you give me the thing that hurts you the most?
“It doesn’t hurt me,” Saeldian said. “I just can’t answer.”
“All right,” Kell said. “Come this way.”
He headed toward the lights floating above the door to the cookhouse.
Saeldian followed him, looking for anyone who might see them sneaking around. “What are you doing?”
The door opened at his touch.
“We shouldn’t be here.”
