Ari looked over her list and added another column—“Things I Know About the Fae.”
What did she know? Iron harmed them, but lost its power the older the fae got. Runes were effective when used with iron and spoken commands in the fae’s tongue, but she didn’t know any runes or any commands other than the two she’d overheard Hansel teaching the beasts’ handlers. She knew that Gretel believed an answer to her problems was hidden somewhere in the nursery primer.
She also knew that Gretel had warned her not to become involved with the fae.
It was too late for that. She’d been involved with a fae from the moment he decided to take advantage of her brother. And she planned to stop him, once and for all; but to do that, she needed to fill in the gaps in his history. Find out where he lived. Learn how to take him down.
And to do that, she had to start with the place where he apparently spent most of his time and energy.
She had to go into east Kosim Thalas.
TWENTY-ONE
“OUT OF THE question.” Sebastian slapped a shield onto the table in the middle of the armory and faced the princess.
“It’s the next logical step.”
“Sure it is, if your goal is to be dead by morning.” His voice shook. His entire body shook, and it took more effort than it should have to rein it in.
He’d stopped trying to argue himself out of being friends with the princess two weeks ago because when she’d said she could be relentless, she’d been telling the truth. They’d become close before he truly realized he’d forgotten to keep his guard up. But here was the cost of that friendship punching him in the stomach and sending waves of panic crashing through his body.
She wanted to go into east Kosim Thalas.
No, not wanted. That implied that she sometimes announced plans she had no intention of implementing. She was going into east Kosim Thalas.
Worse, she was going in looking for information about Teague.
It was a death sentence, and he had to make her see it.
“Princess Arianna, you have no idea what going into east Kosim Thalas means for someone like you.” He made a conscious effort to keep his hands from becoming fists. “You’ll be instantly pegged as an outsider, as nobility or merchant, and several things will happen. You’ll be robbed, beaten into submission, and then either sold to Teague as a slave or . . .”
He couldn’t finish. He couldn’t put into words the horrors unsuspecting youth from the nicer parts of the city experienced at the hands of those in east Kosim Thalas who’d spent years without enough food to feed their bellies but with plenty of injustice and pain to feed the rage that fueled them now.
She drew in a deep breath. “I know I’m risking another run-in like I had with Teague’s men in the market. And I have to be very careful that I don’t ask the wrong person a question, because it can’t get back to Teague. I have to do this, but I don’t want Cleo to pay the price. That’s why I was hoping you might come with me.”
He stared at her. “If you go through with this, then of course I’m coming with you. Did you really think there was a chance I wouldn’t?”
She gave him a relieved smile, and he took a step toward her.
“You don’t understand, Princess. All those things I just listed that would happen to you? They’ll happen to me too, if I’m not ready. If I’m not on guard. And even then . . . even then things happen there. It only takes a split second to lose focus and then lose your coin and possibly your life.”
“I don’t want to put you in danger.” Her thinking frown took up residence between her brows. “Maybe if I dress like I’ve always lived there, I could go in unnoticed on my own, and then—”
“No.”
“But—”
“I’m not discussing that option. Ever.”
Stars, his knees weren’t going to hold him if he couldn’t control his panic. He closed his eyes and fought to keep his mind from showing him the street runners’ faces if they recognized the princess. From seeing people pouring out of the buildings to surround them, everyone desperate for a piece of the princess’s wealth, and when that was gone, for a piece of her as punishment for being born outside east Kosim Thalas.
One mistake. That’s all it would take. One single mistake, and she would suffer horribly before she died or was sold to a broker.
“Sebastian?” Her voice was gentle. “If it’s too much to ask you to go back there, I can find someone else to go with me.”
“There is no one else.” He opened his eyes and found her standing right in front of him, her hand hovering in the air as if wanting to comfort him with a touch when they both knew there was no comfort for him there. “Unless you know of someone else who was raised there and who has a reputation for winning every fight—”
“I’m sorry.” She let her hand fall without touching him, and he told himself he wasn’t disappointed. Of course he wasn’t disappointed. That was a foolish thought distracting him from the real problem at hand. “I don’t know what else to do. I have to know where Teague lives—”
“Please tell me you aren’t planning to break into his home.”
“The thought crossed my mind, though it’s probably pretty hard to break into a fae’s house.”
“Argh.” He turned from her and began pacing through the armory, gathering weapons as he went. If he was going to escort the princess, stars help him, into east Kosim Thalas, he was going to do it armed to the teeth.
“I need to know if he’s hiding anything. If he has any weaknesses.” The princess grabbed a dagger and strapped its sheath to her ankle. “There has to be a way to bring him down.”
She slid a throwing star into her handbag, and he began praying that there’d be no need for her to throw it.
Squaring her shoulders, she moved toward the stairs that led from the armory to the arena.
He followed her into the arena and then outside. He was about to continue their argument when she stiffened and took a step back, nearly running into him. He peered past her and froze, his heart racing, as one of Ajax’s beasts, half crouching, half running on its hind legs, came straight for them.
“Daka,” the princess whispered.
Sebastian wrapped a hand around her arm and pulled her behind him as the creature thudded to a halt in front of Sebastian and locked its amber eyes on him. A deep growl grew in its chest as it thrust its face toward Sebastian and sniffed.
His knees were shaking, and every instinct screamed that he needed to grab one of the weapons he carried, but he knew he wouldn’t have time. If the beast decided Sebastian wasn’t allowed on the palace grounds, he would be dead before he finished reaching for a blade.
The beast pushed past Sebastian, its claws digging into his shoulder as it shoved him away from the princess.