Heavens above. Another one? Perhaps I should’ve asked for a list of people who didn’t want me dead. It’d be a lot shorter. “And Muireann is . . . ?”
“She’s Rían’s—” Ruairi’s mouth snapped shut. Color climbed his flexing jaw. Suddenly, he found the grass next to him very interesting, and he began pulling it out blade by blade.
“Rían’swhat?”
“His merrowfriendwho resides in the fountain,” he muttered under his breath.
The word “friend” had a bit too much emphasis. No wonder the merrow had glared at me. She ought to get over herself. If she wanted Rían, she could have him.
“The sprites watching us from the trees probably wouldn’t kill ye directly, but they could make ye hallucinate so ye end up walking off the cliffs.”
Something moved in the higher branches of the closest tree, behind one of the lushest, ripest pears I had ever seen.
Brilliant.
“So basically, everyone wants me dead.” As if I needed another reason to not want to be here. I sank to my knees to gather the spilled bulbs back into the bowl.
“Basically. Yer human. And in these parts, humans are the enemy until they prove otherwise.”
The Danú were hated in my world. It made sense they would feel the same about me in theirs.
I gave over my useless worry to the earth. Each time the blade cut into the ground, turning aside the grass to the dark, rich soil beneath, I could feel the tension in my shoulders loosening. If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine being back at my father’s house, doing what I loved without a care in the world.With the heat pricking my skin, I pretended it was a summer day.
My sister would be reading in the library. We’d share lunch when I finished, laughing and giggling over some silly nonsense that used to matter to her. Gossip. Scandals. Cake.
The moment I opened my eyes, the illusion shattered.
Ruairi watched, as if digging in the dirt was the most fascinating of pastimes.
I shoved my hair back where it had fallen over my sweaty brow. Why was it so warm and close in this infernal land? “Staring is rude.”
“Sorry. It’s just . . . ye seem remarkably well adjusted fer a hostage. Ye barely screamed at all.”
So he had heard me screaming last night and hadn’t come to my aid. I stabbed the ground. So much for finding an ally. “Have you met many hostages?”
I didn’t like the look of his answering smile.
Brilliant. I was just another captive added to the long list. Bloody brilliant.
Ruairi picked up a lump of dirt to break it apart with his fingers, removing the small stones and setting them aside. “Why’s he keepin’ ye?”
The trench I’d dug was large enough for three bulbs. Not knowing how much room they needed, I left plenty of space between them. “I made a fool’s bargain.”
“Don’t they teach humans not to bargain with the fae?”
“I was desperate and foolish.”
And I silently vowed to never be that desperate or foolish again.
* * *
The next morning, I awoke to a tray of food in my room. After eating my fill of fresh peaches, yogurt, and toast, I dressed and made my way to the entry hall.
Expecting to see Ruairi, I froze in my tracks when I found Rían waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.
“Hurry it on,” he grumbled, twisting toward the door, a leatherbound book tucked beneath his arm.
Hurry it on?