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“You’re in no position to argue,” he growls.

I shrug, despite every part of me wanting to flee this room, I need to know what this man wants. He clearly wants something, or I’d be dead already. I make a move for the door, but Eagan’s broad body stops me as he steps into my path.

“Will you accompany me to the gallows,” I ask, “or should I find my own way back?” The king growls behind me. Eagan looks over my shoulder, and a small smile tugs at his lips as he steps aside. I move for the door.

“Wait!”

I pause.

So he does need me for something.

“You told me to choose, so I choose death . . . Unless—” Before I can turn around fully, the king’s chest is flush against me. I gulp and take a step back. He moved so silently I didn’t even hear his footsteps on the floor.

“You dare ask something of me after I just saved your life from what King Zander intended for you?”

I flinch. “My life wouldn’t have been in danger if you hadn’t sent people to find me.” My words don’t come out as smoothly as I want when I have to crane my neck just to peer up at him. He’s so tall that I feel like a child scolding him.

He arches a brow.

“What do you want with me?”

“You’ll accompany me home. That’s all you need to know for now.”

The silence stretches as I watch the muscle in his jaw tic, and my hands tremble. It’s risky to make demands, but it’s clear he values me alive at the moment. “If I go with you, I want something.”

He tilts his head slightly. “What could you possibly want from me? You should be begging at my feet after what you did, or have you forgotten the blood bank and how you robbed me?”

My face and neck heat at his mention of the blood bank. I couldn’t possibly forget. My rage grows from a simmer to a full boil. “You almost killed me!”

“I still can, and no one would bat an eye. You’re a servant. You hold no power here.”

“Then you won’t mind letting me choose death with King Zander,” I answer, some small voice of intuition telling me he knows exactly what I am.

The mages were villainized, hunted, burned. If he knows what I am, the only reason he wouldn’t tell King Zander is if he’s planning to use me for his own gain.

“Should I escort her back, my king?” Eagan asks, and the king’s hostile gaze cuts to him. Eagan smirks, unfettered by the king’s glare. This amuses him.

“What is it you want?” King Kylian asks, his red gaze returning to me as he folds his arms across his broad chest.

I hesitate, unsure if even mentioning Sable is the right thing, but right now, I am out of options, and he may just be able to get her back for me. Perhaps if he says yes about her, I can ask for his help with finding Arlo. “I have a sister named Sable.” That seems to pique his interest.

“You have a sister?” he asks. I chew my lip nervously. “Is she like you?” he questions.

Like me?

He definitely knows what I am, or maybe he still thinks I’m a fae hybrid. Either way, his question is loaded, and answering it could get Sable killed.

“The King’s Guard took her. She was shipped off after her contract was auctioned at the flesh markets.”

Something flickers in his eyes. “That’s why you were at the blood bank. Trying to get money to buy her back.”

I nod quickly. “I tried to buy her back, but the ship left before I returned.”

He looks at Eagan behind me briefly then moves back to his seat. “Do you know where she was sent?”

I shake my head. “They didn’t tell me.”

He sighs. “She could be anywhere by now.”