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“She could use a friend.”
“Me?” I just stared at him. “I don’t understand.”
“Shop with her, hang out with her, keep her mind off it until it’s over.”
I sank into a chair near the window, wishing I could just swipe his flask. “You want me to distract her so you can force her to marry someone?”
I hadn’t signed up for this. I liked Ciara, despite the fact that she was a Gage, and even if I didn’t, this was the twenty-first century. I started to shake my head.
“She’s already agreed.” Was I imagining the regret coloring his tone? I had to be. “Marriage between courts is always political. Once she produces an heir…”
My eyebrows shot up, my stomach beginning to churn on her behalf.
“…she’ll be free to do as she pleases. She can stay in London or return here. It’s simply a transaction.”
A bargain, I realized. That’s how this world worked. But the desire the fae dealt in felt a lot more like desperation the more time I spent in the Otherworld.
“What about your other sister? Fiona?” I grasped for an excuse to get out of this. “Can’t she come hang out with her?”
“Fiona will not be a distraction. She probably won’t even come, since she already suffered through the Equinox. She avoids the court unless she’s required to attend.”
Gee, I wonder why? I bottled the comment up. “And you aren’t going to require her to be here for Ciara?”
“Ciara would probably beg her not to come, and I’d rather not add listening to their endless fighting to my plate.” He tilted his head. “That’s why I need you.”
“I’m not sure I’m the right person to ask.” I was definitely not the right person. I might even be the last person who should be asked, except, apparently, for Fiona. “Why me?”
“Because I trust you.”
This again. He must have a lot of enemies if he thought I was his best option.
“And because Ciara knows me best in the world, except maybe for Roark,” he continued.
“So?”
He arched a brow. “I assume you’re trying to figure out the answer to my riddle.”
What did he want with me? What did he get out of our bargain? The two questions I kept asking myself over and over again. I’d do almost anything to answer them. Almost.
“And you think that dangling the person who knows you best is enough for me to pretend to be your sister’s friend? That I’m willing to use someone like that?”
“I’m just trying to show it will be mutually beneficial.” He shoved a hand in his pocket, but not before I saw those twisting tattoos. Why did they move like that? Was it another clue to how he worked? “You can say no. It’s not part of our arrangement. I just… This will be hard for her.”
And he didn’t want it to be. That shouldn’t matter. Not since he was the one putting her in this terrible position. But I knew a thing or two about doing something terrible to your sibling when options felt limited. Was sending Channing to jail any better than what he was doing? I recalled how my brother had looked at me earlier. I bet he wouldn’t think so.
But there was one thing that didn’t make sense about this.
“Do you want me to find out what you’re after?” I asked. That’s what I really couldn’t understand. I knew that he was keeping something from me. This was about more than the bargain, but I couldn’t begin to guess what. The thought hollowed out my stomach. “Because if Ciara knows what you want out of this bargain, she might actually tell me.”
“Maybe I’m trying to play fair,” he offered.
I shook my head. That definitely wasn’t it.
“We all have to pay for our mistakes, princess.” His smile made my stomach sink like a stone plopped in a pond. “Ciara doesn’t know why I made the bargain with you. Not even Roark does.”
Did he even know why he’d made it? I was beginning to wonder. Maybe spending more time here would reveal what he was trying to hide.
“But when you fail to break our bargain, I don’t want you to accuse me of tricking you,” he said. “I’m giving you a fair shot.”