I bristled at that comment. She’d have to go through me to do so.
“The fairy that led you here,” Hestia said, “she is one of a select few who know my location—and her knowledge of this place will be a temporary thing.” I swore I heard her grumble under her breath about deals made with fairies. “No seer will locate you before we meet again.
“Stay another day here, and I will get you your seer’s shroud—for a price.”
I swayed in my seat, and the room seemed to spin. The smoke was addling my mind.
“Price?” I rubbed my temples. “If it’s a soul you want, you’re going to need to get in line.”
She laughed at that. “Not your soul. Others can fight for that. I want something else.”
I dropped my hands. “What is it you want?”
She pursed her lips, the wrinkles around her mouth deepening. “Part of the cost is not knowing what it is I will ask for.”
I’d be an idiot to agree to these terms, especially considering the bounty on my head. Intuition told me that she wouldn’t hand me over to those that would harm me, but there were other things she could ask for that would come at too steep a cost.
My mind drifted to Andre, who’d sacrificed so much to get us here. He seemed to think we needed this—so badly, in fact, that he’d traded his clubs to Ophelia for the opportunity.
I extended my hand. “Agreed.”
She sucked in more of the pink plumes and glanced at my hand. Instead of shaking it, she blew out her breath, and thick, indigo-colored smoke cascaded over it.
“Good,” she said. “Then the first part of your payment begins tonight.”
The first part? “You never said there would be more than one—”
“You agreed to my terms.” She spoke over me, her voice severe. The force of her words pushed me back into my seat. “You will fulfill your end of the bargain.”
I lifted my hands in supplication. Man, her bossiness could give Andre a run for his money.
“You will not leave here the way you came, and you will not see your mate until tomorrow evening.”
Unease pooled in my stomach. What had I agreed to? “How do you plan on keeping us apart?” Even if I didn’t seek him out, Andre would surely hunt me down, using our connection to guide him.
“I will deal with the vampire. You should be more concerned with your own fate.”
She chose those words because, somehow, she knew they’d sober me right up.
“There is a bridge down the street from here,” she continued. “On the other side is a dirt trail. Take it and it will lead you to a copse of trees—you can’t miss it, they make a perfect ring—and within that copse is a rose bush that only blooms in the dead of winter. Fetch a rose for me and come back here straightaway.”
“You want me to retrieve a rose for you?” I asked, disbelieving.
Her hooded eyes pierced me. “Yes, insolent girl, I want you to get me a rose.”
My voice dropped low. “Why would you have me do this?”
“Like many other things in my collection, this rose is a rarity, and I want it plucked by a special hand.”
My eyes moved from her to a wall of jars containing various ingredients—fairy dust, unicorn hair, dragon fire—which continually scorched the inside of its container—mermaid scales. Rare indeed.
She clapped her hands, and a door manifested itself on the other side of the room. “Now, it’s high time you’re off.”
When she saw my face, she patted my hand. “I am no seer, but I know you will live to see another eve.”
Oh, that was reassuring.
I stood. “Where am I supposed to go once I deliver the rose to you?” Because, unless this rose bush was a hundred miles away, I’d finish this task quickly.
Her eyes, which had dulled, now sharpened. “One step at a time, consort. But,” she leaned forward, placing her wrinkled hand on my thigh, “between you and me, sleeping arrangements are the least of your worries.”
I am the village idiot, I thought as I trudged down the street. I had no real idea where I was going or what I’d gotten myself into. And all for some seer’s shroud, which I might never get my hands on because I’d be dead.
I glanced behind me at the now distant stone chapel, which rested at the edge of the small town, and I willed Andre to walk outside. To see me, to stop me, to prevent me from fulfilling my end of the bargain.
He never exited the church.
I sighed, taking a deep breath. Hestia would keep him away from me until I retrieved the stupid rose. And I had to retrieve it and fulfill my end of the bargain if I wanted to get that seer’s shroud.
Lamest quest ever.
The cold air stung my throat and lungs, but I embraced the sensation as it slowly drove away my drug-induced haze. The sorceress sure knew how to hotbox a room.
I swiveled to face the road ahead of me. The town I walked through was impressively small—just a single main road of shops, and then two small neighborhoods on either side. This late at night—or rather, this early in the morning, no one was out.
My ears searched for the sound of heartbeats, and I heard many, but all were slow and steady—the sound of a town fast asleep. Besides them, I didn’t hear anything.
Passing through the village, I finally caught a glimpse of the huge stone bridge Hestia had talked about. It had two lanes and ran about the length of a football field. Several lamps lined either side of it, and they were the last bits of illumination before the darkness beyond.
My muscles tensed, and I used my senses to search for any hidden attackers. I didn’t trust Hestia’s reassurances—not completely. That one was tricky with her words.