“You know this claim is valid, Redring,” the Fat Frog said. “It is magical law. We will retaliate on her behalf if you refuse.”
“Yet magical law also lets us kill anyone who enters our dwellings without our invitation. Hmm, how to resolve this?” Redring tapped her lip, pretending to be thoughtful, while the tribe jeered at the locals, and prodded weapons at the intruder.
The woman shot a startled look at the Fat Frog, then back at Redring—probably the frog hadn’t told her that part. “Please,” she said. “Just return these people to me. That’s all I want. We’ll leave you alone. No retaliation.”
“Oh, but I’d like to think about it a little longer,” Redring said. “Because dawn is so close now. Then your claim would become worthless, for their forms will be permanent. Or at least, I could turn them back into humans, but they’d never be the same again. Their minds…” Redring shook her head in mock regret, and the tribe shrieked with laughter.
“Please.” The woman’s voice broke. “A deal, then? Anything to change them back and let me take them home.”
The liaison roared again in furious protest, but no one paid him any attention. Even Flowerwatch had drawn away from him, creeping into the inner edge of the circle to observe the action.
Redring beckoned Skye and her mate forward. They obediently disentangled and crawled over. “Let me show you,” Redring told the woman, almost gently. “New tribemates, do you want to return to being human? Do you want to go back to that sad little town with this woman?”
Skye turned to look into the woman’s eyes. The woman locked gazes with her, and caught her breath. Tears filled her green eyes.
“Skye,” she whispered. “Come back. Please.”
The whole tribe hushed, watching.
The agony in Skye’s heart kicked harder, tortured. Strangely, she wanted to say yes. But that made no sense. Why say yes to something that caused so much pain?
Her mate grumbled behind her. She sensed uncertainty in his scent.
Skye looked away. Too much unhappiness in that life. Never again. She’d be foolish to accept.
“No,” she said.
“No,” her mate echoed.
“Skye,” the woman sobbed. Tears made wet, pale tracks in the soot on her face.
The sound tore into Skye’s heart, and she shrank away, wanting to escape that emotion. She turned her back on the woman, hooking her arm into her mate’s.
“You have your answer,” Redring told the intruder.
“Redring,” the Fat Frog warned, bobbing just outside the railings.
“She doesn’t know her mind anymore!” The woman’s voice grew strong again. “Change her back, change them both back, and I’ll—I’ll make a new deal with you.”
The liaison growled and writhed, louder than ever. Slide stomped on his head, hard enough to knock him half-unconscious, and he fell silent.
Redring smiled at the woman. “I am listening. Amuse me. What kind of deal?”
The human glanced in fear at the liaison, then looked Redring in the eyes again. “Gold. That’s what you want, right? I’ll get you more. For my whole lifetime. More than he’s getting for you—in addition to what he brings you.”
An interesting tug-of-war of feelings battled in Skye: gold-lust combined with a strange abhorrence, a desire to keep the woman from agreeing to this deal. The abhorrence came only from that surviving kernel of humanity. It would fade before much longer; she only had to ride it out.
Redring edged between weapon points to draw out the intruder’s necklace on her fingertip. “Starting with this little piece?” She snapped the yarn and clutched the gold ring in her palm.
The woman gasped, darted a look around, then held still, watching Redring.
“Ugh.” Redring flung it aside. It bounced between the feet of other goblins, some of whom scrabbled for it, then grunted in disgust and let it fall again. “It’s foul,” Redring said. “It’s local. It will take extra magic just to cleanse it. So that’s how you got here.” She bared her teeth in a menacing grin as the woman stared at her. “Thought you’d vanish if I stole that, did you? No, not once you stepped onto our lair. We hold you now. You will leave when we wish it.”
“Then—then yes, take that gold, and more. How much more do you want, in exchange for letting us go, all four of us, unharmed, tonight?”
Above, the Fat Frog and other fae zipped back and forth, whispering in frantic consultation.
Redring considered the human. “Fifty times the weight of my ring. Every month.”
The woman’s gaze dropped to the talisman. “What does it weigh? Can I…” She reached out a hand toward it.
“Why, yes, weigh it in your hand and see. It is but a little trinket.”
The woman cupped the ring in her palm, testing its weight. Then with a move she probably thought was fast—but pitifully clumsy to the eye of a goblin—she yanked at the chain.
Everyone shrieked. Redring leaped back, the ring still safe on its chain. Knives and arrows lunged at the woman, but the locals plunged in and blasted them back with a wall of air, a whirlwind knocking weapons asunder and keeping the intruder safe, temporarily. Skye knew her tribe would soon scatter the pests like a cloud of gnats. Indeed, seconds later they did, but Redring held up her palm to stop the tribe from attacking the woman.
The intruder crouched on hands and knees, cringing up at her. Redring swung her ring back and forth. “A sad attempt. As if you could break this chain, little mortal. Only a goblin is strong enough.”
“Please.” The woman’s voice was low and serious. “I apologize. The deal, then.”
“No, Olivia Darwen!” the Fat Frog insisted overhead.
“I’ll do it, really I will,” the woman continued. “If it’ll save her…” “I think not.” Redring turned away and addressed Slide. “Escort these two humans off the premises. The fast way.”
“No!” the woman begged.
Slide and another goblin stepped forward and grabbed her arms and legs. Two more did the same with the dazed liaison.
Flowerwatch scurried back and forth, mad with excitement. Skye and her mate stayed still, though she felt oddly agitated inside.
“We warn you for the last time, Redring,” the Fat Frog said. “Put them down and do not harm them.”
“You haven’t the power to get rid of us,” Redring told the frog. “You’d have done so by now if you could. You’re weak.” She turned to her goblins and barked, “Over the edge.”
“No, please, no!” the woman said.
They lifted her and the liaison over the railings.
Redring watched, along with the rest of the frenzied tribe. Skye huddled with her mate, frozen.
Flowerwatch leaped. She tore the necklace from Redring’s neck, spun, and flung it straight toward the frog.
The Fat Frog caught it, zoomed up out of reach, and hovered there.
“You stinking worm!” Redring picked up Flowerwatch and threw her against a wall. Flowerwatch yelped and slid down, and huddled on the deck. Redring rounded on Slide and the others. “Drop them! Kill them!”