“How do you figure that?” I choked out, unable to believe I was hearing him correctly.

“Once you have chosen, you will no longer be torn between them. I will have saved you the heartache of further attachment and the moment when you would ultimately have to choose anyway. Now you may do it for noble reasons instead of selfish ones.”

“Swell.”

“And now, Miss McQueen, if you would be so kind. Make your choice.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Decorum be damned.

“You don’t like the arrangement?” Aubrey feigned surprise at my outburst. “I thought it to be quite fair. Do you not think it fair, Brokk?” He addressed the fairy who was holding Kellen.

“I think it more than fair,” the fairy replied.

“And you, girl. Do you find it fair?”

Kellen looked uneasy, fidgeting from foot to foot, clutching Brokk’s hand. “I’m, uh…not sure? I don’t want to go.”

What did she mean? The fairy must have a spell over her, convincing her she didn’t want to leave. What was it with fairies putting people under spells?

“That wasn’t the question, though,” Aubrey said. “I asked if you thought my arrangement was fair.”

Brokk patted her hand and whispered something in her ear. Kellen looked nervous but said, “Yes. Very fair.”

Holden raised his hand. “I’m not a big fan.”

I didn’t shush him because the deal was between Aubrey and me, so Holden could voice whatever opinion he wanted without undoing the bargain. I was still trying to suss out how I might magically talk my way out of this ordeal and still have Kellen with me when I left.

“Your Majesty, may I speak plainly?” I spoke through gritted teeth, each polite word more of an effort than the last.

“I suppose.”

“The terms you are suggesting are ones you know I cannot possibly comply with.”

“Nonsense, it is a simple choice.”

“It isn’t. It is an impossible choice to ask someone to choose favorites between those she loves, and if you knew anything about love, you’d see why I can’t pick one or the other.”

“I know love, possibly better than you do. You make a mockery of it by suggesting you can love two as equally as you can love one. The heart is not meant to be divided so.”

I was on a roll now, and there was no stopping me. I’d logic my way out of this if it killed me. “Can a heart be broken?”

“Certainly.”

“Then there can’t be a limit to the number of pieces a heart can be divided into. If my heart can break into a million pieces, surely it can be evenly divided more than once.”

Aubrey’s face went red.

“And if we’ve proven my heart can be divided as many times as it can be broken, you must also agree the love each piece feels must be equal to that of another. Correct?”

He said nothing, and his cheeks flushed darker.

“Then if all that is true, it must be true that I love each of these men equally, and neither less than the other, and as such the terms you have issued cannot possibly be complied with. You have set an impossible task for me, and the bargain is unfair.”

Silence filled the room. I wanted someone to stand and give me a goddamn ovation for what I’d just managed to pull out of my ass. I had to settle for the intelligent part of my brain giving a sigh of relief.

“Miss McQueen, a word if I may.” Aubrey rose from his throne and strode towards me. Not waiting for me to accept his invitation, he grabbed my arm and dragged me behind him with remarkable strength I would not have expected from his lean body.

He ushered me across the room and through a black-wood door that didn’t match the rest of the room. The room was dark inside and very small.

“Did you just pull us into a closet?”

Aubrey looked around, as if only now realizing where he had taken us. “I believe I may have, yes.”

Nice to know even the fae needed janitorial provisions. No magic mops and buckets here.

“Do you know what you did to me out there?” he asked. His voice was level, so if he was angry, he was hiding it very, very well.

“I out-talked you.”

“That’s certainly one way to put it. But, no, Miss McQueen. You played me for a fool.”

“If I was able to, then you set yourself up to be played. The terms were flawed, and I exposed the flaws. I did to your game exactly what you were trying to do to me. Doesn’t feel very good, does it?”

His cheeks flushed again. “No. It does not.”

“I’m still willing to comply with the arrangement we made. But you need to set real terms. If it’s a trade, it has to be something I can give, and the freedom of another person isn’t mine to barter with.”

“But we are bartering for someone’s freedom.”

“Kellen isn’t some fairy lord’s plaything. I know you might not understand that because your people have been kidnapping women since before there was a written record to show it, but you had to figure one day someone might come looking for one of those women.”

“You aren’t the first, you know.”

“Yeah, there are plenty of epic poems in my world, believe me. The point is, she’s not a thing, she’s someone’s sister. Someone’s friend. And we want her back.”

“The girl is nothing to me.”

“Then let me have her.” My anger rattled some jars on the shelf and was probably heard outside.

“Shush, shush.” He held a finger to his lips like that might soothe me. “Times certainly have changed in your world. I remember when a proper lady never spoke above a whisper.”

“Tough shit for you, then, because I’ve never been a proper lady.”

“And yet you are a queen.”

I crossed my arms and shrugged.

“I cannot simply give her to you,” he said once it was apparent I had nothing to add to his point. “It would look weak and even more foolish than you have already made me. I have set the terms as a trade, and so a trade it must be.”

“But it won’t be for another person.”

“No.”

“And it won’t be for someone you and your kind view as being something other than a person,” I added, recalling how Ghillie had dismissed Holden as being dead.

Aubrey tapped my nose and I recoiled. “You learn quickly.”

“A wise woman told me not to put my trust in fairies.”

“Don’t be so invested in what that woman claims is wisdom.”

“When you can see into the future, Your Majesty, I’ll start listening to your wisdom over hers.”

He didn’t have anything to say, which was a bonus because I was starting to get worn out with all the wordplay.

When he continued, we were back on topic. “We agree that I will take a trade.”

“Something mine alone to give.”

“It will be something valuable.”

“As long as it isn’t anyone’s life, you and I have a deal.”

He smiled, and I didn’t like it. “Very well. I believe I know just the thing.”

I was desperately hoping he would suggest my firstborn. With my useless, self-defeating womb, it would be the perfect solution. “And that is?”

“Something you hold dear but is reviled by others. Your greatest weapon.” He patted my cheek. “I will like to have it very much.”

I searched my brain for what he might be talking about, cataloguing my possessions. Then I remembered my fae katana, the one I’d soiled by using it to slay the undead. I remembered the way the creepy fairy twins had reacted to it, and reviled was an appropriate word.

I really liked that sword. I would go so far as to say I loved it, in the way one can love a possession. The damned thing had saved my life more times than I could count in the years I’d had it, and if we were keeping score, it had also saved the world once.

“When do I have to give it to you?” I’d left it in our room. For all I knew he already had someone collecting it. I wouldn’t even get to say goodbye.

Snap out of it, Secret. It’s a sword, not your best friend.

“Once you pass through the gate, it will be gone.”

“And I’ll have Kellen. And Holden, and Desmond.”

“You will have everyone you came with.”

“And everyone I left behind,” I reminded him carefully.

“Yes. No one you hold dear will be touched.”

I hefted a big sigh. One sword for the promised well-being of all my loved ones? It would suck, but that was his price, and I was willing to pay it.

“Deal,” I said, and offered him my hand.

He looked amused by the gesture but took my palm in his and gave it a shake.

“That’s it then? We’re done?”

Aubrey nodded. “Go collect your things. I will prepare the gate for your return, and Kellen will say her farewells to Brokk.”

“‘So long… Thanks for kidnapping me.’”

“You underestimate so many things, my dear. But you’ll learn a thing or two about human attachment yet in your life.”

“I think I know more about human attachment than you ever will.”

“We’ll see,” he said, and I didn’t like the implication of his words one bit.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Fairies must love consumerism, because the gate we exited took us through the front door of a Bath & Body Works south of Harlem.

I did a quick headcount and was relieved to see I had one vampire, one werewolf—still in wolf form—and one human heiress. Add one exhausted half-vampire/half-werewolf Tribunal head and we could do our own fucked-up version of the YMCA.

Once I’d accounted for everyone and breathed an internal sigh of relief, I took stock of myself. Gun? Check. All essential body parts? Check. Pulse? Well, I was able to stand around and think and breathe, so chances were good my pulse was a big old check. Magic fairy sword? Huh. Check.