“History, specifically,” Koan said with an eye roll.
“She likes it,” Jolter said defensively.
“Well,Solantumwill cure her of that,” Koan muttered.
I strode around them and picked up Solantum’s Recent Historyof Hemlit. It was the only book I knew of that discussed my parents’ policy on Hemlit’s isolation. No fae needed to know about that. I looked at the other titles on the floor. More history titles. More information on my people. More knowledge I could not risk handing to potential enemies.
She’s not your enemy.Something in my brain protested the label, but I knew what her kind had done to me.She’s only here because of you,my mind argued again.She would have gone home if you’d let her.But I’d let a fae hurt the people of Hemlit enough. I could not risk any more. Even Koan and Jolter’s persistent juvenile behavior could be attributed to my curse.
I shook my head. “Do not give her any history books.” Their shocked expressions hit me like a judge’s verdict.Guilty. Cruel.Monster.
Koan spoke with a rare sincerity and solemnity. “But, Your Majesty, she’s asked for so little.”
A heat ran through my veins. I needed to leave the castle before I shifted. “Give her art supplies. Or a nature book. Or anything that does not include information on how to destroy us.” I needed to keep Solantum’s volume in a safer place, but the fire under my skin ticked like a bomb. I had to leave. I shoved the book toward Jolter. “Have this delivered to my room.” I waited until he met my eyes. “It will be your death if it is not in my room tonight.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
I gripped both their shoulders and hauled them to their feet. “My prisoner is to be protected. I want her safe, not educated. She does not need to know our history, our magic, or how our kingdom works. Can you two remember that?”
They nodded slowly, wincing from the heat in my hands. “Can you?!” I didn’t have time fortheir frivolity.
“Yes!” they screeched, scrambling away from me.
“Good,” I hissed at them. “And remember—you still owe me.”
Their faces turned down in anxious shadows. The fae had been right. A perpetual threat over these two was far more effective than a painful beating—and she hadn’t even tried to hide her capacity for manipulation when she’d suggested it. But I didn’t have time to linger—the heat in my blood was now crescendoing. I spun and raced to the garden in the back courtyard where I usually changed into a drekkan.
Chapter 7: Callista
Istrummed the lute Koan and Jolter had brought me a few days ago. The tips of my fingers were too sore to attempt any more chords, but I didn’t have anything else to do. The brothers had promised they’d bring me more things tomorrow. I’d spent some time looking out the window—my room was in one of the towers—but once the sun set, the air was far too cold to keep the shutters open, even with a blanket wrapped around myself.
That left me with my little bird book and the lute.
A scream tore through the hall outside my door. I ran to the door, lute still in hand, and almost tripped over my own feet trying to move so quickly. I flung the door open and took in a scene of chaos.
Koan held a very young elf, a small child, who screamed like he was missing an arm. He was loud enough that none of them could have heard me open my door. The boy twisted and writhed and threw his weight so that hecould grab Koan’s hand… and then the child bit Koan.
Koan flung the toddler off himself and yelled something unintelligible. The child would have hit the ground head-first, but Jolter leaped closer and caught him just in time. The boy started shrieking again, and Jolter set him down and darted back. The boy turned and ran down the hall, away from my room, in a direction I’d never been.
“Stop!” “No!” Koan and Jolter both yelled at the child and jumped in front of him, cutting off his access to the hall.
Koan reached for the boy but then withdrew his hand, muttering something about half-sized villains. The boy started screaming something I couldn’t make out while trying to worm his way past Koan and Jolter, who darted in front of him every time he tried to run down the hall.
I didn’t know why they were trying to block him, but they were doing it all wrong. A small child needed someone to distract him, not fight him. I glanced at the lute in my hand. Maybe that would work.
I pinched my thumb and forefinger together and strummed back and forth across the strings hard and fast with my nails. I didn’t know how to play a lute, but the sound echoed against the stone walls and caught the attention of all three elves.
I repeated the strumming and locked eyes with the boy. I changed the rhythm of my strumming, then plucked the chanterelle string a few times, and then strummed twice more. The boy turned and faced me.
Koan and Jolter looked at each other and froze, probably guessing at what I was trying.
I raised a brow while I held the boy’s lively brown eyes with mine and strummed a few more times. I was no musician, but the sounds seemed to be working. “Have you ever played alute?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, but he did start walking closer to me.
I sat down just inside my room and plucked a few more strings while he worked his way closer to me. Koan and Jolter moved like a hesitant wall a few feet behind him, clearly hoping to catch him if he bolted again.
But he waddled right up to me and stretched an arm out. I strummed across the strings with my thumb and then offered the boy my hand. He placed his hand in mine, and I guided his fingertips across all the strings. He grinned, pulled his hand out of mine, and clumsily strummed on his own.
