“Your father.”
“Yes.” His face was sad and she ached to go to him, but her feet were firmly rooted.
She’d fallen for his lies too many times. She was no fool and wouldn’t be again.
He shook his head. “Shayera, I broke faith with him because I did not believe in his obsession.”
“And yet,” she said, narrowing her eyes, “here you are doing the same. How long have you been running these games, Rumpel?”
He snorted, closed his eyes, and then sighed. “Thousands of years. But you have to understand, I wouldn’t do it for me.” His look was pleading. “My son is dying. Caratina died when he was only five months old, and he didn’t have enough time to absorb part of her soul; without it, he’s going mad.”
“So you brought me here to absorb my soul, but I wasn’t worthy, was I?” She shook her head. “I failed every test, and so yet again you see these games do not work.”
“No, you are wrong.” He took a step toward her, clenched his fingers as though he wanted to reach out, but then decided to drop his hand by his leg. “You passed every single one.”
“What?” She blinked. “You’re lying again.”
“I never lied.” He scrubbed his jaw. “Never. I did not tell you the truth, but you did not ask me the right questions.”
“And why should I have to, Rumpel? Omission is as good as a lie.”
“Because it’s not in my nature to be anything other than I am, Carrot.”
She snorted. “I suppose your next words are that for me, you are willing to bend?”
“You do not believe me?”
“Of course I don’t—you’ve given me no reason to.”
“You were tested on three of the seven deadly sins. Wrath. Greed. And Lust.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “You did not kill Brenna, though she deserved it, you denied your wrath. Your father was greedy and blinded by it. You would not help him, even though I sensed your love. And now…”
“You seduced me and I said no.” She smirked. “But it was so easy to do, Rumpel. Because I did not want you. Anyone else and I might have succumbed, so you ruined any chance of seeing that I’m just as imperfect as the rest of them.”
It was so quiet in the room that she could hear the beating of her own heart whooshing through her ears.
“Just as I cannot utter a lie, I can also sense when others tell untruths. You want me as desperately as I want you.”
“No.” She laughed.
“It’s okay, my Carrot, it is only what I deserve. I have been wrong and should never have done what I did to you. But I would hope in some small corner of your good heart that you will not think of me too badly. I am sorry. You passed every test.”
Clutching at her chest, she took a step back. “You can’t do this, it’s wrong. I won’t let you take my soul.”
“You’re right. I can’t do this.”
She waited, waited for him to laugh, to snap his fingers and call the demons down to take her to the boy so he could suck out her soul. But he just stood there, drinking her in like water, studying the lines and planes of her face as though memorizing them.
“You’re letting me go? But your boy…” She swallowed, finally understanding the sacrifice he was willing to make for her, and though she had no desire to allow the boy to take her soul, it grieved her. “Rumpel.”
He held up a hand and gave her a small smile. “My problem now. Go home, Shayera Caron, and thank you.”
“For what? I’ve done nothing.”
His eyes grew so sad. “You’ve done more than you’ll ever know.”
“Before I leave, I have one question to ask you.”
“Anything.”
“Are the boy and the wolf one and the same? I saw him in the bowl, hidden beneath the castle in a cage. Do you shift like him?”
“Royalty cannot shift into animals. That is a skill of the commoner. Euralis has three forms—the boy, the wolf, and the crow.”
“Why was he in the bowl? Why did he show himself to me? Dalia said that bowl would show me my happiness.”
He shrugged. “It is magic from the old world; it probably no longer even works.”
She wanted to hug him fiercely, but she was so confused, and still very angry by his deception. Ready to go, she had one last thing to say to him. “I read in your book that there’s a chalice. The author seemed to believe it might work.”
“Aye.” His Adam’s apple rolled as he nodded. “But the chalice is in the heart of darkness, and I can no longer return to Delerium. Neither I nor a member of my household. If the chalice does exist, I could never hope to get to it. And just so you know, the moment I was kicked out of Delirium, my wife”—he stressed the word like a curse—“married another. There was no love between us. It was always only politics.”