His cousin pointed at Erisa and her father. “I meant them.” Then she leaned closer to Will, squinting her eyes. “Something’s fishy about you.”
Erisa bent in her chair and retrieved something from the floor. “What’s this?”
“Oh,” said Will. “I dropped my coin purse yesterday.”
“You need to be more careful with your money, William,” his mother chided.
“Don’t worry, Erisa. He never forgets what he’s owed,” said Selene, her voice thick with sarcasm.
“Well, that’s good to hear,” said his uncle. “What do you have planned for today?”
“We should start scouting, I would imagine,” said Selene, filling her voice with false enthusiasm.
“Not in the daylight,” said Will. “We’ll go tonight.”
“You can’t be planning to go through the Glenwood at night,” said his uncle.
Selene agreed. “If we create a magical light, it will give us away when we get close to the village. At least during the day we can—”
He cut her off, “I can see in the dark.” Will got to his feet and headed for the door. “I hear really well too,” he said over his shoulder.
“Where are you going?” asked his mother.
“To kill some time. I’ll be back later.” Looking back, he saw a worried look on Selene’s face. Maybe it had been a bad idea to give away his hand, but he was feeling vindictive. Good. Let her worry.
Chapter 57
The Glenwood was a balm for his nerves. Throughout his life, Will had always retreated to it when anything bothered him. He didn’t go far, though, since there was always the chance he’d run into a Darrowan patrol. Instead he wandered in the direction of the first congruence he had found, the one that had changed his life.
He stopped when he was close to it, but he had no intention of crossing. He did consider calling Tailtiu, but decided against it. There were still favors to collect, but he intended to take care of his problems on his own. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with his sex-crazed fae aunt again.
“What would Tailtiu do?” he wondered aloud. The answer to that was always simple. Of course, in his situation last night, it might have been more practical than what he had done. Seduce the girl to keep her from getting suspicious—that would have been a wiser course. Play off his enemy’s ignorance rather than give away what he had learned.
“That’s easy,” said Tailtiu, standing behind him. “You should know me better by now.”
He was startled, but he did his best not to show it. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you. Mother wants to talk to you again.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t. I crossed over to make it easier for you to find me when I called. Wait here.”
She disappeared through the congruence and was gone for nearly a quarter of an hour before returning. Aislinn was with her when she reappeared. “Grandson,” she addressed him.
He held up a hand. “Same terms as before? One hour, guarantee of peace afterward?”
Aislinn smiled. “That will do fine.”
“What do you want?”
Arrogan’s one-time wife narrowed her eyes. “You have the scent of a woman on you.”
“I just saw Mom and Sammy—”
She held up a hand. “Not family, an outsider—a sorceress?”
He was impressed. “You can tell all that with your nose? Maybe I’ve been focusing on enhancing the wrong senses.”
His grandmother nodded. “Tailtiu told me of your success with her type of magic. Who is the sorceress?”
Will knew not to trust the fae, even Aislinn, but he needed advice. Deep down he needed Arrogan, but that need sprung from a desire to find support from someone older and wiser. After hearing Selene’s conversation the night before, he felt betrayed—and more importantly, alone. Starting from the beginning, he shared everything he knew about Selene with his grandmother, including his most recent discovery. He finished with a smile that failed to hide his pain. “Honestly and without deception. Was that an answer worthy of our bargain?”
Aislinn frowned. “It was far too much. If you deal with my kind like this in the future, you will surely die.” Then her eyes softened. “But I’m feeling motherly today. Perhaps I won’t use it against you. What would you like to know?”
Motherly? That bordered on a lie. She’s pushing the limit today, thought Will, but it gave him an idea. “If you were still human,” he began, “if you truly could feel motherly, what would you tell me? What would your advice be then?”
“Since you were so forthright, I will give you two answers, since I am not entirely sure what I would really do if I were human. First I’ll tell you what I would advise as a fae, then I will guess at what my old self might have said.”
“Fair enough.”
“Kill her,” said Aislinn, her eyes cold. “Her kind don’t deserve to live under the best of circumstances, and she has betrayed you, so she is doubly damned. Or trade her to me, in exchange I will—”
Will interrupted, “I’m not going to do that, so let’s move on to the second part.”
His grandmother sighed, closing her eyes as if in deep meditation. “Give me a moment.”
Is it that hard to remember being human? he wondered.
A few seconds later, she opened her eyes again and her entire demeanor changed. The alien stillness of her stance vanished, and her face showed such concern that he could almost believe it wasn’t an act. “William, you’ve been hurt. Don’t let your pain cloud your thinking. Do you have feelings for this girl?”
“What? No!”
Reaching down, she grabbed his ear, pulling him painfully to his feet. “Tell the truth.”
“I think you’re overdoing this human thing,” he protested.
She glared at him. “Human does not mean nice. You should have listened better to what your grandfather told you about me.” Then she twisted his ear. “Now, the truth.”
“Ow, ow! Yes! Maybe? I don’t know!” She released him then, and he could see Tailtiu laughing silently in the background.
“That’s better,” said Aislinn.
“So, you have feelings, and now you think she’s using you. What you need to consider is—”
“Think? I know she’s using me,” corrected Will.
His grandmother’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t interrupt me again, William. I didn’t misspeak. You think she’s using you, and that may well be the truth. The words you overhead seem to indicate it, but they could have different interpretations. From this point forward you need to be cautious, but not stupid. Don’t let your prejudice color your judgment. Stay in her good graces, discover the truth, but don’t give away your heart until you know what that truth is.”
Her human-like façade faded away after that, replaced by the cold, alien gaze of the fae. “I’m done,” she said. “But also, I would like to add that you should kill her.”
“You really are bloodthirsty, aren’t you?” said Will dryly.