“He said that no harm would come to either of us if we left with the cipher.” I swallowed thickly. “In exchange, I agreed never to set foot in the Quartz Palace.”
For an instant, Kaden’s expression went totally blank, as if I’d knocked him unconscious. Then a burst of cold rage lashed across his face.
“Why would he want me to promise that?” I asked in a shaky whisper.
I wanted Kaden to tell me that it was inconsequential — that it amounted to no more than a paranoid old faerie trying to keep his enemies at bay –– but the look of stony calm that settled over his features told me that wasn’t what he was going to say.
“If you did not know,” he said, “then you should not have made the bargain in the first place.”
Bitter shame unfurled in my gut. Of course I knew he was right — knew it had been foolish to make a deal with a faerie. I just didn’t know why.
“What does it mean?” I rasped, my voice breaking on the last word. “He told me that the Quartz Palace was the home of his forebears — an ancestral site in Anvalyn.” I dragged in a breath. “Why should it even matter? The portals between the mortal world and the Otherworld have been sealed for centuries.”
“It doesn’t,” said Kaden coldly, his jaw flexing.
I blinked, taken aback by his reaction. Clearly, the Quartz Palace meant something to Kaden, even if it meant nothing to me.
“Then why make the bargain?”
When he finally met my gaze, Kaden’s eyes were cold steel. “Did you not think to ask yourself that questionbeforeyou agreed to my cousin’s terms?”
His voice was so quiet, I found myself wishing that he’d shouted instead. I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
“You know how dangerous it is to make a bargain with a faerie,” Kaden murmured. “And yet the moment Caladwyn had you backed into a corner, you went and made him a promise thatcannotbe undone, no matter what other magic is at work.”
Acrid shame spilled into my gut. I didn’t know what to say. I’d known bargains like the one I’d made were unbreakable, but it wasn’t until I’d felt the strength of the magic that bound them that I fully understood.
“You haven’t told me why it’s important,” I pressed. “What is the Quartz Palace, really? And how would I evengetthere?”
“If Caladwyn asked you to make the bargain, then he has already foreseen how this will unfold.”
“C-can hedothat? See the future?” I’d never met anyone with the gift of precognition — no witch, vampire, or faerie.
“No,” said Kaden, his expression distant. “But he is frighteningly perceptive. More than I ever gave him credit for.”
I shook my head. “What does he think is going to happen?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Kaden gritted. “We have the cipher. You should go. Tomorrow we can work out how to use it.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s none of your concern.”
“I’m the one who made the bargain,” I spat back. “Clearly, it is my concern.”
“Not anymore.”
I ground my back molars together, furious that I was being dismissed — and that he was hiding something. “Why didn’t you tell me Caladwyn was your cousin?”
Kaden shrugged. “It didn’t seem relevant to our mission.”
“Didn’t seemrelevant?” I repeated, narrowing my eyes. “You brought me to his estate — an estate I assume you’d visited before — and didn’t think it could be useful to share everything you knew?”
Kaden rounded on me then, his face as hard and unforgiving as stone. “Let me make one thing clear,” he hissed. “You are a huntress. I am fae. I thought you might be useful in retrieving the cipher tonight — just as I thought you might be useful in other ways when I first saved your life. You are a means to an end. Do not make the mistake of thinking that I owe you any explanation — that I owe youanythingbeyond what I have already given.”
His words sliced through me like white-hot daggers. Rage and hurt I hadn’t known I was capable of feeling leeched from the invisible wounds his words had inflicted, and I felt my cheeks heat.
“I will find you tomorrow, and we can continue to plan our assault,” said Kaden. “Once Silas is dead, we can go our separate ways. I think that is what we would both prefer.”
