“Not now, Ana.” He doesn’t take his eyes off the travelers, who look a mixture of amused and intrigued as to what he’s planning to do.
I grab his forearm and tug with all my might.
“Yes,now,” I say through gritted teeth.
Fae, here in Otscold—far from the usual trading routes in the east. I can’t imagine what they’re doing here, but it can only mean trouble. And I don’t want that trouble anywhere near the people I love.
Kit glares at the strangers, and I pray to the gods he’ll listen to me. A fae is twice as strong as a regular man, and that’s before they use their mind-magic. I shudder, trying to block out the horror stories about their power that leap into my head.
Relief floods through me when at last Kit lets me drag him away into a corner where no one can overhear us. He turns on me, his usually open face twisted with tension.
“What’s so important?”
I don’t let go of his arm, digging my fingers in for emphasis and fixing him with an intense stare.
“They’re fae,” I say.
“What?” He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“You were about to square off with seven glamoured fae.” My mouth is dry as I say it. I doubt the county has seen this many of their kind since the war. The question is whether they’re bringing death with them this time too.
Kit looks like he wants to turn to stare at the travelers, but mercifully he stops himself. Still, the color drains from his face, as surely as if a pack of ravenous wolves had stalked into his parents’ pub.
“How do you know?” he whispers.
“That’s a question I’d also like the answer to.” The voice comes from behind us, rumbling like thunder, and we both spin round. “Howdoesa village girl spot a fae?”
I look up into a pair of fathomless gray eyes staring down at me from under dark brows, and I have to take a step back. Something tells me if I don’t, I might get lost in that gaze. I didn’t glimpse the traveler’s face before; he was the one who looked like he was sleeping. Apparently, that was just another act. Another lie. Just like their glamoured features and their merchants’ clothes. I’ll eat my hat if a single one of them is a merchant—especially the one standing before me. He carries himself like a soldier, and he’s built like a fighter too: I can see the shape of his muscles across his broad shoulders and down his toned arms, each tendon tensed like they’re ready to strike. I’m oddly reminded of a storm, and the intense, terrifying calm right at the center of it.
“You don’t have any quarrel with Kit,” I say. I’ve heard enough stories about fae to know they can be bargained with—carefully. Very, very carefully. “I’ll pay for your friend’s drink. Then there’s no need for trouble.”
“Interesting.” His eyes move between Kit and me. My hair bristles on the back of my neck, and I brace myself. There’s no telling what sensic magic this fae might have. With a snap of his fingers, he could wipe away my memories, manipulate my fears, read my every thought like a book. Anything’s possible, and without a spark of power of my own, I have no way to defend myself. Everyone in the pub, even with their powers, would be at a disadvantage against onewell-trained fae, and there areseven.
“I’m sure Eryx would appreciate that,” the man says, glancing over his shoulder at his friends. It’s then I see the hint of a smirk on his full lips, disappearing again as he looks back at us. He’s playing with us, but I don’t know how deadly the game is.
I have to hope if the fae are in disguise they want to pass through Otscold unnoticed, and hurting us would conflict with that. “However, that doesn’t solve the issue of how you came to be so well informed about?—”
The door to the inn swings open, and a flash of uniform I recognize all too well silences the fae’s words in my ears.
I stopped to save Kit, but I’ve lingered too long.
The Gallawing guards are here.
The tall fae blocks me from their immediate view where we’re standing over in the inn corner, but any moment now he or they will move in the wrong direction, and I’ll be exposed. Then months of careful planning, years of dreaming, will be ripped away from me.
Kit spots them too.
“Ana.” The panic in his voice mirrors the hot fear rising in me now.
The fae merely quirks a curious eyebrow and follows our gaze.
“Friends of yours? Should I invite them over?” There’s calculation, rather than enjoyment, in his voice, but it still burns me. I’m about to lose every glimmer of hope I have, and he’s toying with me.
But maybe…maybe, if he’s not furious, he’ll be willing to work with me. That’s the other thing I know about fae—they love to make a deal.
“Kit, go take their orders,” I tell my friend.
He stares at the fae in front of us. “But?—”
