“To be honest, I was too scared to look around.” She closed her eyes, remembering the terror. How long ago that seemed. “For all I knew he was going to show up at any minute. I got in, found a coin jar by the entrance, took the penny and ran. I could have grabbed something else, but I was so damn mad at Keith I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of handing over something of real value. And I hoped that if I took only the penny, just maybe Cuelebre might not kill me if he ever caught up with me.”
“Which is a great segue into our next mystery,” said Urien. He cocked his head, studying her like she was a bug under a microscope. “Why hasn’t Cuelebre killed you yet?”
She laced her hands in front of her stomach. Hold on, peanut. If anyone has truthsense, he does. Here comes some tricky tap dancing.
“You’d have to ask him,” she said. She widened her eyes. “Because I’ve got to tell you, it has surprised the heck out of me.”
His eyes were narrowed, unblinking. She felt his cold Power drift across her skin and struggled not to shudder. “How did you escape the Goblins?”
She shook her head. “Again, you’d have to ask him. I was locked in my cell when he came for me. Taking the penny didn’t help a bit. He was in a hell of a rage when he caught me, and you have to know he’s not the forgiving type. He was determined to be the one to pass judgment on me, nobody else.” Then something occurred to her. “You know, I never thought of this before, but he also wouldn’t have wanted me to get away alive because I know where his lair is.”
The Fae King’s eyebrows lifted. “Very true.”
“Not that it matters anymore,” she added.
“What do you mean?”
She shrugged. “One of my guards said Cuelebre decided to move his hoard. I suppose now that the location has been compromised . . . ?” She let her voice trail away.
He shrugged as well. “I guess that’s to be expected. Too bad. He’s kept so much from me. I would have liked to have stolen more from him. Maybe I’ll have you take something from the new location.” He waved a long white hand. “But that’s a conversation for another time. What I want to know is how you did it.”
His Power enfolded her and squeezed tighter, an invisible boa constrictor coiling around her body. Goose bumps rose along her skin. She bit her lip to keep her teeth from chattering. Her mind raced, working to find and eradicate any loopholes in her story before she said them.
“You know how marmosets are little, weird and quick?” she asked.
“Marmosets,” he said.
“Didn’t Keith or someone tell you by now that I’m a half-breed Wyr?”
“Someone did mention it, yes,” he replied slowly.
“Well, I’m weird and quick. And I have a gift for getting through locks.” She raised her fingers and wiggled them. Infer, imply, don’t state. Careful now. “That’s how I was planning on getting away . . . today? Earlier, anyway. My guards don’t know I can do that. I was going to trick them into looking the other way, then slip out of the locked area where they’ve been keeping me.”
He gave her a charming smile and the chilling compression eased somewhat. “Impressive. So, my dear, you have not only humiliated Cuelebre by stealing from his hoard, but you have the ability to escape from his Tower too. I knew you would be worth tracking down.”
How lucky for us, peanut.
“This leads me to our last little mystery,” Urien said. “What happened between you and Cuelebre on that plain? You two seemed quite the team. Something happened, some kind of Power surge, and he was able to shift. We had been assured he wouldn’t be able to quite so soon.”
A chill trickle of sweat slid between her breasts. He had in so many words just confirmed an Elven accomplice. She closed her eyes and rubbed at her temples. She was beginning to feel depleted and her hands trembled.
“Did you know that the Goblins beat me quite badly?” Her voice shook too. “They were trying to get a rise out of Cuelebre, which didn’t fucking happen, of course, because he watched the whole thing with this stone-cold look on his face.”
Huh, didn’t know she was still upset about that, which was mighty irrational of her, wasn’t it? It wasn’t as if Dragos had had any choice. That game face of his might have saved her life.
The Fae King sipped wine and watched her.
“Well, we faced a whole damn plain of those stinking Goblins. I would have done anything to get away. In New York I at least had some hope of survival if I could find a chance to escape. There was this white place on his shoulder where the Elves had shot him with their magic crap.” She gestured on herself. “It was right about here. So I made a last-ditch gamble. I convinced him to let me lance the wound. And apparently you were there—you must have been on the bluff? As you said, you felt his Power surge.” She let the horror of the memory show in her eyes. “He killed everything on the plain except me.”
Silence filled the room. She searched Urien’s face, which was smooth and expressionless. You think he bought it, peanut? Can’t tell. Maybe, maybe not. Don’t ever play poker with this creep.