“One?” I said slowly.
He nodded.
“One day?” I guessed.
He shook his head.
“One week?” Another shake. “One month?” I started to panic when he winced and shook his head again. “Oneyear?”
Rían gave me a sardonic clap.
I shot to my feet. “I’m going to be dead for a bloody year? Are you mad?”
“A lifetime of misery, a year of death, or destitution for your family. Those are your choices, are they not?”
“How do you know about my family’s . . . financial difficulties?”
“I make it a point to learn all I can about those who wish to bargain with me.”
With the options listed so clinically, it felt like I’d chosen the best of the lot.
Still . . . ayear?
That may not have seemed like a long time to a powerful immortal like Rían, but it was three hundred and sixty-five days of my life I would never get back.
Keelynn was the only person who would truly miss me. “Who will you torment while I’m gone?” I asked, dropping back to the rocks.
“Probably some orphan. Or a heartbroken widow. Or a crippled old man.”
I picked up a stone and tossed it at his back. “You are awful.”
He chuckled, not bothering to dodge it the way he had the mud. “I know.”
“Will you be there when I wake?”
His shoulders stiffened. “No.”
For some reason, I had expected him to say yes.
“But I will ensure you are kept somewhere safe,” he went on, collecting another sliver of wood to twirl between his fingers. “And then you can put all this nastiness behind you, and live out the rest of your short human life playing in dirt.”
“Until you come to collect your favor.”
His smile faltered before he turned back toward the flames. “Right. Until then.”
A year. That was all.
And when I came back, I could go . . .anywhere.
Anywhere I wanted any time I pleased. I could stay in Airren or travel to Vellana. Or Iodale. Or the continent. It would be up to me.
My choice.
Only mine.
I’d want a base though. Somewhere to call home. A place for Keelynn to visit. And Padraig.
I closed my eyes, envisioning the whitewashed cottage from my dream. “A cottage by the sea.” I inhaled the salty air. “With a garden.”