Does he think I was born yesterday?
Okay. That’s probably the worst way to look at it considering, but seriously? If he can’t affect me with a touch, then there’s only one reas
on he’d want to leave his mark—and it’s so that he can try to erase Nine’s.
That’s gonna be a nope, especially since it’s not like I can just snap my fingers and my haphephobia would disappear. When it comes to Nine, I can touch him. I’m beginning to think that it’s only because it is Nine.
I shake my head and stay on the other side of the room. “No thanks.”
“You’re afraid,” says Ash.
“I’m not—”
“Humans lie. So, it seems, do halflings. Zella, I can smell the fear coming from you.”
“It’s not you. I mean, I’m not afraid of you. It’s just… I’m not so good with being touched.”
“Oh, sweetie.”
I can only imagine what kind of terrible thoughts are running through Callie’s head. To make matters worse, not all of them are wrong—I didn’t have the easiest time going from group home to group home, with a couple of fosters in between—but that’s not what I meant.
“It’s something I’ve dealt with for a long time,” I say lightly, totally downplaying it while I offer an easy explanation. “When you’re taught from an early age not to let the fae touch you, but that anyone could be a fae wearing glamour, it’s understandable that you might develop a complex or two.”
To my surprise—and obvious relief—he drops it. Letting his hand fall to his side, continuing to touch Callie as if that’s the only thing keeping him grounded, Ash nods over at me. “Your mother tells me that you’re the one who brought us out of Faerie and broke Melisandre’s spell.”
I definitely brought them through the portal—nearly killed Ash doing it, too—so there’s no denying that. Breaking Melisandre’s spell? I’m still trying to figure that part out.
“I had to.” I’m wary. Defensive, too. It comes through in the careful edge to my voice. “I couldn’t leave you there.”
“What were you doing in Faerie? If Ninetroir was responsible for you, as I’ve been told, he should’ve kept you from the danger. His debt would demand it.”
I don’t like to think about Nine’s debt. We got into a huge fight over it when I first discovered that he’d been commanded to watch over me all because he owed my parents a debt and my mother called it in the day the fae caught up with her. Now I know that the debt was only part of the reason he felt responsible for me. The fact that I was his fated mate was up there, too.
I’ve never been so good with authority figures. Add it to the undeniable truth that the Light Fae is a stranger to me and Ash has me crossing my arms over my chest as he stares across the room at me, expecting my answer.
Oh, he’ll get it all right.
“It’s not like I went there on purpose. It happened and I faced the Fae Queen and, sure, Nine’s a statue now, but at least you two are okay. Right?”
“I know Melisandre. There’s no way she would have let you escape from under her nose. Not with us, and not with someone she cursed.” He shutters his eyes, a look of relief flashing across his features as he comes to the absolutely wrong conclusion. “You finished the prophecy. The false queen is gone.”
I shake my head. “Um. No.”
His eyes open. “No?”
“I didn’t fight her. I kinda just stole you guys away from her. She’s probably even more pissed off than before and, uh, she was pretty pissed to begin with.”
“Then Melisandre will still be after you because you’re the Shadow,” Ash realizes. “This isn’t over.”
I shrug helplessly.
Callie gasps while Ash spits out a word, cursing in a language that isn’t like anything in this world. And it totally is a curse. I don’t need to understand what he’s saying to know the meaning behind it.
Oops.
I guess they really thought I had ended the Fae Queen already.
Yeah, not quite.