Touch (Touched by the Fae 3)

I should be happy. I should be relieved. The golden fae, the monster with an angel’s face who haunted my nightmares and stole my sister from me… he can’t come after me again. I’m finally free of him, except there’s part of me that can’t forget his earnest declarations of affection and how careful he was to keep me from harm, even when I pushed him way further than I ever should have.

He tricked my mom—but he didn’t hurt her. He killed Madelaine—but he’s fae and he didn’t understand the importance of human friendships. He turned Nine into his rival—but then he held his own against his comrades so that I could escape with my soul mate after Melisandre turned Nine into a statue.

Overall, I should hate Rys.

I don’t.

I always thought he was the villain in my story. Of course, that ended up being Melisandre. Gillespie, too, if I’m being honest. Rys was just Rys, and I might not have wanted to be his ffrindau, but I never wanted to see him punished because of me, either.

This sucks.

Nine told me something like that once when I called Rys a monster. There’s no good and bad. Despite being called the Cursed Ones and the Blessed Ones, it comes down to light and dark—and it’s pretty literal at that. The Light Fae rule during the sun, the Dark Fae belong to the shadows, but good and bad? Human concepts. Just like people, the fae are complicated.

Maybe I’m more fae than I thought. I hate the idea of owing Rys anything. Him being stuck in that Su-crah place… yeah, that’s on me.

And I hate that, too.

“But… you’re the king. Can’t you do something? He wouldn’t be in there if it wasn’t for me.”

“I can’t. Believe me, there’s no escape.”

“No one walks out of Siúcra,” murmurs Nine. “It’s not so easy as that. It requires a sacrifice, and that’s if you even found a way out. The prison never lets anyone leave.”

I look from Nine to the king and back. “So Rys…”

“He’s alive,” offers Oberon.

“But he’s in jail.”

He looks to Helix.

Helix nods.

“Yes.”

“So I’m betting he’d rather not be.”

“If the prison has its hooks in your Seelie, then he wouldn’t be,” agrees Oberon. “I can’t give you the Seelie’s freedom. Siúcra claims its own and, even as the Summer King, my power only goes so far and that’s with the whole Court behind me. I’ve only just reclaimed my crown. Money and permission to shade-walk as you please, that I can do.”

And that’s still giving me a lot, since I already asked him to kill the Fae Queen so that I didn’t have to.

“I understand.”

I don’t like it, but I understand.

“Then we have an agreement.”

I slump under the weight of his announcement. Whoa. Did I make a mistake? Probably. It wouldn’t be the first time, and I’m eager to get away from Faerie while Oberon is still pleased with me.

He waves Helix forward, lowering his voice so that he can have a private conversation with the lead soldier. I’m sure Nine is listening but I take his action as what it is: a dismissal.

Yup. Time to go.

I reach out with my senses. There aren’t as many shadows in this room without Melisandre’s power—her glamour hid her Unseelie nature, but the shadows gave her away—but I’m a pro at wrangling them now. I gather up enough to create a portal that would lead us back to the human world.

Nine immediately knows what I’ve done. He glances over at the patch of darkness blooming in the far corner of the emptied throne room, then looks at me.

“You ready?” he asks.