“Why would she allow them to use humans to get their powers back? Why give them that opportunity when the fae have so little regard for human life as it is?”
“Because the queen wanted the Unseelie to become as evil as they’re rumored to be. She wants them to kill humans. It’s her way of punishing all humans for the one who stole King Oberon’s heart.”
“And yet she wants her own son to marry a human.” I’ve never liked the queen. I may have pitied her that first night when I saw the emptiness in her eyes, but when I learned about the camps, I began to hate her. But it is still hard to imagine the sweet mage’s apprentice I fell for coming from someone so spiteful. So diabolical.
“She wants her son to thrive, to continue on after her and to be more powerful than even she could be. It is her son who wants to marry a human—a very specific human with the loveliest fire-red hair.”
He tucks my hair into the pouch at his waist. “I’ve given you more than is fair for your offering.” He lifts his hand, his fingers pressed together to snap.
“Wait!”
His hand drops to his side. “Yes?”
“Can the curse be broken?”
He shakes his head. “You push your luck. Good night, Fire Girl.”
“Stop.” I pull another lock forward from the back of my hair. “If I give you more hair, will you tell me how to break the curse?”
He merely extends a hand and slowly opens his palm.
I close my eyes as I shear away another lock. My maids will have a fit when they see what I’ve done to myself. But if I can save Finn and those children in the camps, if I can save Lark and keep Pretha from having something as simple as a scrape cause that look of terror on her face . . .
I place the lock in the palm of his wrinkled hand.
“You can break the curse. For twenty years the Unseelie have tried and failed, but you are unique in that there are two paths to end the Unseelie’s torment.”
He starts to tuck my hair away, but I grab it before he can. “How?”
His eyes blaze in anger, and he yanks the hair out of my grasp. “The curse comes from the queen’s blackened bitter heart. As long as she sacrifices one of her own each year to feed the curse, it stands.”
“Sacrifices one of her own?”
“On each summer solstice, a golden fae must be offered to the fires to feed the curse.”
My stomach heaves. Jalek’s sister. Who did she sacrifice this year? The Unseelie refugees can’t afford to wait another year but . . . “If the sacrifice could be prevented, would the curse be broken?”
“Weakened, yes, but not broken.”
I hate the way goblins talk in circles. “Tell me how to break the curse and give the Unseelie their powers back.”
“Fire Girl, you have two paths. Which do you desire to know? The one where you die or the one where you live?”
A cold specter slinks over me, and I swallow. “The one where I live.”
“If that is what you choose—” His smile is wicked. “To end the curse and live, you must kill the queen.”
There’s a knock on my door. So much for my hour.
I open my mouth to tell Bakken to leave, but he’s already gone.
“Abriella?”
The sound of Sebastian’s voice on the other side of the door warms and cools me all at once. I’ve been dreading the moment I’d see him again after last night, but despite any residual heartache, I need him more than ever.
Does Sebastian know about the curse? He must—it seems all the fae do—but does he know his mother is responsible? Does he understand that a whole host of faeries want her dead—not just because of feuding courts but because she is literally killing them? I can’t imagine he’d sanction the death of one of his own simply to keep this curse alive. Then again, there’s so much about Sebastian that I never would have imagined, which is exactly why I can’t trust him.
I tuck the Mirror of Discovery under my skirts and wrap it in shadow. Drawing in a fortifying breath, I open the door and am met with the sight of Sebastian’s deep eyes and smiling face. All thoughts of curses and sacrifices scatter from my mind as it fills with images of Sebastian with his hands all over that other woman.
Keep it together, Brie. Focus.
Swallowing hard, I gesture him inside. “Hi.” One word, and it wobbles. I don’t know if I’m capable of pretending last night didn’t happen.
“We need to talk.”
“Okay . . .” I drop my gaze. I’m so sick of keeping secrets from him, but if I get the Grimoricon from the summer palace, I will be that much closer to the end of these lies and all this deceit. That much closer to helping Finn and his people—and I’m realizing that’s something I really want to do.