Freed (Imprisoned by the Fae 3)

“I don’t know. Would you?”

“Nine,” scolds Riley. “Be nice.”

“I’ll try, my mate. It’s just… this changes things. Tell me, Elle. How did you find Morrigan in the first place?”

I open my mouth. Stop.

Oof.

How to explain?

I glance over my shoulder, making sure that Morgan and Jim are safely inside. Then, keeping my voice low, I tell Riley and Nine all about my “debt” to Grimly and all the crazy tasks he made me do in order to pay it off.

As soon as I’m done, Nine says the last thing I expect.

“Can you call him?”

“Who? The gnome?”

Nine nods.

“I… I don’t know. I mean, I have the name he gave me, but I don’t think it’s his real name or anything.” And this is Faerie. Even if my cell phone wasn’t the first casualty during my stay, I can’t exactly call Grimly… can I?

“You haven’t been in Faerie long enough. Some of the lower races… they don’t guard their names as well as they should. He very well could’ve given you his name. And if you have his name—”

“I can summon him here and ask him why he was trying to use me to get to the Winter Queen.” Because I’m willing to bet my leather jacket that he knew who she was when he told me I had to steal a strand of hair from her head. “But why?”

“We won’t know until you call him, will we?”

Spoken like a true fae.

While I stay with Riley inside of the shadow barrier, Nine slips back outside. I know he’s gone to talk to Rys about everything I just told him. I would’ve done it myself except he points out that I should be waiting for Morgan to come back out with Jim.

Oh. Right.

He’s definitely perked up by the time she finishes up with him. I notice she’s wearing her gloves when the two of them come back outside to the porch. Jim has shiny cream smeared all over his cuts; half of them have already healed completely. She must have pulled on her gloves to avoid touching him.

She invites us inside, but before anyone can accept her invitation, I quickly say, “We’d love to, but first we have to check in with Rys. You know. My… the Seelie.”

“Jim? What about you?”

Jim looks from Morgan to me and back. He gives an apologetic shrug. “I should probably go with Hel.”

Could he sound any less enthusiastic if he tried?

What… what’s that about?

I don’t know. And maybe I’m just being terrible because, right now, I can’t really deal with that. Not when I have something else I have to do.

Morgan’s bright silver eyes seem to dim a little, but she offers a small wave as we leave.

I wish we could tell her what we’re up to but Nine made it clear that it would only hurt our chances to get Morgan to agree to see Oberon without some kind of leverage. And, even though I can’t stop thinking of her as the Unseelie I got to know while I was all alone in the Shadow Realm, I have to keep remembering that she isn’t just Morgan. She’s Morrigan, the Winter Queen, and unless I want my own trip to Samradh, I have to focus on fulfilling this mission for Oberon.

So what if Dusk is no longer a threat? I still don’t want to end up in fairy jail again.

The three of us push through the shadows, ending up in the clearing just outside of Morgan’s barrier. Rys is there, so’s Nine, and as soon as we’re back on the other side with them, Rys asks me to see if I can call Grimly.

It has to be me. If it is his true name, then I’m the one he gave it to. Anyone can hear it, know it, say it, but unless they were given it, it doesn’t count.