The knight sighed. "Nothing. Providing that you leave the brugh immediately."
Nothing? She was not sure what she expected to see in his face when she looked at him then, but it was not the weariness she saw there. No madness glittered in the depths of those pale eyes.
But she couldn't leave, and she couldn't tell him that her very human friend was sleeping it off on the other side of the hill. She had to play this out. "I'm not allowed here? It doesn't seem like there's a guest list."
Roiben's eyes darkened at that, and his voice dropped very low. "The Unseelie Court delights in guesting spies for the solitary fey. We so seldom have volunteers for our amusements."
Dangerous ground, now. The sadness was gone, and his features were carefully blank. Her stomach twisted. Delights… our amusements. The implication of his participation was not lost on her.
"You can leave through here," he said, showing her an earthen tunnel that was not the one she had come through. This one was hidden by a chair and seemed closer to the giant. "But you must do it quickly. Now. Before someone sees me speaking with you."
"Why?" Kaye asked.
"Because they might assume that I had taken a liking to you. Then they might assume that it would be amusing to see my face while I hurt you very badly." Roiben's tone was cold and flat. His words seemed to fall from his lips as though they meant nothing, just words dropping into darkness.
Her hands felt very cold as she remembered the diner. What would it be like to be a puppet? What would it be like to watch your own hands disobey you?
Fury rose up in her like a dark cloud. She didn't want to understand how he could have killed Gristle. She didn't want to forgive him. And most of all, she didn't want to want him.
"Now, pixie," he said, "go!"
"I don't know if I should believe you," she said. "Give me a kiss." If she couldn't stop thinking about his lips, maybe tasting them would get it out of her system. After all, if curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought him back.
"There is no time for your snatched pixie pranks," he said.
"If you want me to leave quickly, you'd best be quick." She was surprised at her own words, wondering at the giddy viciousness of them.
She was more amazed when his lips brushed across hers. A sudden shock of feeling lanced through her before he pulled away.
"Go," he said, but he said it in a whisper, as though she had drained the breath from him. His eyes were shadowed.
Kaye ducked through the tunnel before she was forced to think about just what she had done. And certainly before she had time to wonder how it had anything to do with revenge.>Then she came to a sudden halt. Half hidden by three toad-skinned creatures hunched over a game of dice, there was Corny.
He was wedged against an overturned table, a goblet tipped in his hand. He was rocking back and forth with his eyes shut. A puddle of wine was soaking his pants, but he didn't seem to care.
Revelers were packed in tightly around her, so she scuttled under the table.
"Corny?" Kaye said, breathing hard.
Corny was right in front of her, but didn't seem to see her.
She shook him.
He noticed that and finally glanced up. He looked drunk, or worse than drunk. Like he'd been drunk for years.
"I know you," Corny said thickly.
"It's me, Kaye."
"Kaye?"
"What are you doing here?"
"They said it wasn't for me."
"What wasn't for you?"
The hand with the goblet in it stirred slightly.