“Thank you,” I breathed again into the near-darkness.

  Renner had his back to me. Scraping his slowly fraying ropes against the rough wooden floor. He stopped at the sound of my voice, then spun around. Probably excited that I’d managed to get my mouth free. His eyes went round as I sat up.

  Whole. Unbound. Uninjured.

  He jerked backwards with a muffled cry. Copper flashed and narrowed in the low light.

  My chest tightened. Right. No… no easy explanation. The glass was one thing. I could’ve told him I found it on the ground. But… I don’t think I have an answer for this. I crawled forwards in the cramped space, kneeling beside him.

  He watched me warily.

  Heat surged behind my eyes. Do I tell him the truth? What if he hates me?

  Just a few hours ago, that would have been fine. In fact, I had more or less assumed he did hate me.

  And then he’d stayed. He’d fought. Outnumbered and clearly outmatched, he’d still tried to save us.

  He’d nearly died trying to get us out alive.

  I didn’t want him to hate me.

  But he deserved to know the truth.

  “You’re not a coward,” I whispered. My hands were shaking. I sniffled and lifted them, shifting forwards a bit so I could reach around for the knot of his gag. “You’re not. I… I’m sorry I said you were.”

  He watched me, expression flat and guarded, as I struggled to untie the thick cloth.

  “You deserve the truth. A-and it’s alright if you hate me. It is. I deserve it. It’s m-my fault you’re in this mess and it’s my fault we got captured and if you’d… if you’d known the truth you wouldn’t have stayed, you’d have let them kill me and that’s… that’s alright, too.”

  I finally got the knot free. The cloth fell away and I swiped quickly at my blurring eyes.

  Renner flexed his jaw and turned, giving me access to his hands. I dug my fingernails into the ropes. I waited with baited breath for him to say something, anything- questions, accusations, curses- but he was silent as I painstakingly got the bindings loose.

  The moment the ropes fell away, he stretched one mottled arm out and grabbed a hand-length shard of bone from the tamped earth. It was wide and flat on one end and narrowed into what looked like a very nasty point at the other.

  My pulse quickened. “Is that for me?”

  Renner looked at me incredulously. “What?

  “The… you… k-kill… people like me.”

  His mouth tightened. “Ladyship. We’re trapped in a cage underground with an insane monster who just tore someone apart. Are you what I need to be worried about right now?”

  I blinked. Shook my head. “No.”

  “Good.” He scrabbled through the bones and tattered strips of mud-caked cloth for a while. Produced a few sharp, jagged bones. Some of them had bits of sin-black gristle clinging to the white.

  I gestured towards the broken sword. “There’s witchwood in that. It could hurt her. If we can reach it.”

  Renner’s jaw tightened. Then he started grabbing up scraps of torn clothing. He practically threw them at me. “Start tying these together. Unless you want to burn us a doorway.”

  I eyed the dead wood nervously. I don’t think me lighting this thing on fire is a good plan. It’d get us out, but at what cost? Even if I managed to douse the flames right away, one of us could catch. I glanced around at the state of our dank little prison Salt, the whole room could catch. And a tiny space like this filling up with smoke…

  “I… I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

  “Me neither. Start tying.”

  I did, heart pounding madly in the stifling dim. I sucked in deep breaths in an attempt to calm myself. Started to imagine familiar things. Royce’s easy laughter, the smell of Durst trying to cook bacon, the way Marion hummed while she weeded. The warm smell of leather and the smooth rustle of parchment beneath my fingertips.

  The runebook was long gone, but I knew every page by heart. Alar. Veth. Luridel. Nothing I know will get us out of this. If the hag comes back I can use fire, maybe even kill her with it, but as for breaking free…

  I thought of the next few pages. The ones I hadn’t used, yet. Velidan. Sharp slashes, like the fangs of a beastly maw. Something in the back of my mind had always reeled at the sight of it… and at the same time, it had always taken a while to tear my gaze away. Faer. A winding pattern of curves. Graceful and throbbing behind my eyes. Halaeth. The shape of an eye with a hooded lid. One that I was always certain watched me, just as surely as I peered down at it.

  I shivered. Nothing came to mind now. Not in that insistent, pleading way they sometimes did.

  Asking to be used.

  I knotted some of the cloth, then handed it almost shyly to my grim-faced companion. He didn’t meet my eyes as he snatched it away.

  Renner looped one end of the makeshift rope into a ring and bound it with his frayed bonds. Then he slid an arm through the wooden bars and slung the loop towards the broken sword.

  Nothing caught. He reeled it in and tried again. Then again. He continued, eyes flicking towards me and traveling down the length of my body very slowly. Taking in the smeared, dried blood and the unbroken skin that surely stood in stark contrast. “So. You gonna explain, or should I start making guesses?”

  I opened my mouth to answer… and then burst into tears. I didn’t know why, exactly; after everything else that had happened during this nightmare of an night, it seemed like being honest wasn’t the thing that should break me, but… well.

  Renner offered no comfort. He watched me with cold dispassion, rolling the grisly bone in one hand and trying to catch hold of any jagged metal with the other.

  It took a few minutes, but I finally settled against the warped wood and calmed my sobs enough to speak in nearly-complete sentences. “You… you had it right. I’ve been lying. Not about everything. Not about m-most things. But… you’ve been right about me. Since the start.”

  His voice was a knife’s edge. “Yeah, I’m getting that.”

  I curled my knees to my chest. “I know the paladins will kill me. Or lock me away. I know. It’s alright. I never lied about wanting to go north. I… the plan has always been to go to Pinnacle. To get to the Order. Even if they kill me. I didn’t… I thought maybe I could explain it all to them. I m-made a mistake, but I haven’t hurt anyone. I haven’t helped him.”

  “Him?”

  “The… the… him. And I haven’t done what he wants, not once! I swear. I just have to answer his… but I can lie, you know? I can. He thinks I am, anyway, at least about some things, and mostly he just asks what I’m doing…”

  Renner breathed a long, low sigh. His forehead pressed against the wood and his hand slackened on the cloth. “Ladyship… you’re not making sense.”

  I sobbed and laughed at the same time. As awful as this was, as afraid as I was to look Renner in the eye, it felt as though a terrible weight was being pulled from my shoulders. As if finally explaining all of this- even if I was doing it in a horribly broken, nonsensical way- was making everything just a little bit better.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “I know, I know I’m not,” I babbled, wiping tears from my eyes. “I know, I’m sorry, I just… I’ve been so scared. I don’t know what to do. I didn’t… I didn’t know what it all meant. Fellbrook was safe!” My declaration echoed off the stones and we both flinched, then turned as one to the slab of rock separating us from Baltha. I held my breath, praying the cry hadn’t alerted her.

  Silence crawled by. Eventually Renner’s shoulders relaxed and I heaved a deep sigh.

  “We don’t have pacted. We… I didn’t even know what they were. It’s safe. Everyone’s safe. At least… it was…” I trailed off, pressing my palms against my eyelids.

  “Was. Yeah, that’s how the story always goes. And now you’re running through the realm playing innocent, batting your eyes at anyone who’ll look twice, swearing you’re blessed,” he practically spat the word at me. “Almost had me going, too.”

  Angry heat bolted up my throat. “Batting my… you’re not listening! The magic wasn’t part of it! He… he didn’t give me anything, Renner!”

  He sneered. “Yeah? Funny, I don’t believe you.”

  “He didn’t! He saved Royce! That’s all I asked him for! Royce came to my house the night of the attack. He was terrified. One of the monsters followed him. It tried to kill us and… and Royce was so brave, he tried to f-fight it so I could run, but he… he couldn’t… it…” I buried my face in my hands.

  It was at my feet again; the pool of warm crimson. Spreading, threatening to swallow me whole.

  “I was alone. There was blood everywhere- gods, Renner, there was so much blood! His leg w-was… he wouldn’t wake up. I tried, I tried to stop the blood and I tried to wake him up but he wouldn’t open his eyes and I couldn’t do it and then he came and… and he didn’t give me anything! He just asked if I wanted Royce to live. I… I said yes. I said I’d answer his questions. I would’ve done anything! I didn’t know what it meant.”

  He was silent. I curled my knees up and pressed my forehead into them.

  “I was scared. I just wanted Royce to be alright. But now… he doesn’t… he won’t stop. Every t-time I fall asleep he’s there. In my dreams. I can’t ever wake myself up, I’m just trapped there. He asks me questions, and if I don’t answer then Royce… R-Royce… ”

  “Real sad story, ladyship.” His voice cut me as sure as a knife. “How long have you been working on it?”

  I raised my eyes, lips parting. “W-what?”

  “Is that how you’ll say it to the Thalessians?” His mouth curled in a sneer. I heard a scrape as the cloth caught on steel, and he began to ease it along with a triumphant little hiss. “Might want to add a few more tears. Really try to tug their heartstrings. Not that it’ll work, they’ll still feed-”

  “It’s the truth!”

  “Yeah? Why should I believe you? You already lied once.”

  Frustration welled like boiling water. Perhaps he was in the right to be angry at me, even to hate me for my deception, but to just dismiss the rest of my story outright... I clenched my fists.

  But it’s not like I have any proof. Just my word.

  How am I supposed to prove that any of what I say now is the truth?

  “You said you killed pacted,” I whispered, looking pointedly away. The cage felt entirely too small at the moment.

  Renner dragged the palm-sized bit of metal closer, until it was within range for him to reach out and grab. “Yeah.”

  I swallowed. “Can you blame me? F-for not telling the truth? By the time I realized what I’d done, if I said anything you were going to… salt, Renner, I didn’t understand! We don’t have pacted in Fellbrook, I didn’t know… I just thought I’d answer his questions right then, in my home. I thought… I thought that was the end of it.”

  There was a long silence. Then, very quietly, he murmured, “Until?”

  I raised my gaze to meet his.

  He winced, and the bitter dispassion returned to his face. “No, that doesn’t mean I believe a word of this. Just… humor me.” He set the broken shard down and tossed the cloth out again, towards another jagged fragment.

  I swallowed. “Until I started dreaming. At first I thought… I don’t know. My hands were hurt during the attack, and he… we were in a garden, and I didn’t think it was real. I just thought I was having a nightmare. But then he… he healed them. And when I woke up…”

  “I remember. Your hands were bandaged back at the inn.”

  “Yeah. I didn’t… I don’t know. I was scared. And then it kept happening, and finally I asked him about it all. He said… he says…”

  You belong to a High Fae.

  I turned away. A chill swept across my skin.

  No. I’m not telling him that. I’m not telling anyone that.

  I’ll never say it aloud.

  “Yeah?”

  I wiped my eyes. Warm, shameful tears leaked out. “I don’t think I’ll ever be free,” I whispered. The finality of the statement, given voice, fell like a stone between us.

  He was quiet for a while. Then, flatly, “And the magic?”

  I gave an exhausted huff of laughter. “It’s not from him. I’m a runekeeper. I have been since I was twelve. I… I told you. He didn’t give me anything. He only helped Royce.”

  “Uh-huh. See, ladyship, I still think you’re lying about something.”

  “Of course you do.”

  “I do. And it’s not just ‘cause you’re easy to read.”

  My face grew warm. I glowered at him.

  He returned the expression. “You say he didn’t give you any powers? Maybe. But he definitely wants something from you. And he expects he’ll get it.”

  “Why do you-”

  “He fixed your hands. Healed your face just a few moments ago. Untied you. Hasn’t harmed a hair on your pretty head, according to you.” He leaned in, eyes glinting viciously. “That’s not what Fae do.”

  I looked down at my hands. “Maybe he’s different.”

  “Yeah? Maybe he’s not.”

  I felt blood rush to my cheeks. It was a silly thing to feel defensive about, since I’d had that very same thought countless times. “Maybe. Probably. I know he wants me to give him the shard.”

  “What, the thing he attacked your town for?” Cloth snagged on steel again. Metal scraped as Renner painstakingly drew the loop back.

  “Yes. He told me it’s a weapon. He said it could even kill him. He’s been trying to… bribe me for it.”

  “Why can’t he just appear? Rip a hole in the damn realm and take it from you?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve been wondering the same thing. He… he was holding it,” my voice dropped, turning thoughtful. “When Durst shot him. When he left. He was holding it, and then… and then it was on the floor. Maybe he can’t carry it across the realms.”

  “But you can?”

  “He seems to think so. He wants me to fall asleep with it, and then hand it over.”

  “Huh. Can’t want it that badly, if he’s just asking you.” He punctuated the statement by seizing the now-close sword fragment and tossing it at my feet. It was bent and small, but sharp.

  I felt a knot form in my chest. “I kept thinking I’d be tortured. Fall asleep and… and… I don’t know. Get my fingers torn off or my tongue ripped out or something.”

  He grimaced and tilted his face away. Cast the loop out again.

  I brushed some hair back from my forehead and sniffled. “Mostly it’s just been questions.”

  “About?”

  “About… things that don’t matter. What I know about his kind, if I’ve been dealing with other Fae, what I’m doing, things like that.”

  “Uh-huh. And what have you been doing?” He turned back to face me fully, leaning forward with a sneer. “‘Cause I’m still not buying the innocent act. Either you’re still hiding something, or you’re dealing with someone who’s… I don’t know. Taking his time. Toying with you, for some reason.”

  I met his eyes. Lifted my chin obstinately. “What have I been doing? Let’s see. Running. Hiding. Crying. Begging. Gardening, briefly.” I ticked my fingers off.

  “Gardening?”

  “Yes. Oh, and I tried to burn his house down. And I stabbed him.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Uh-huh. And no limbs ripped off.”

  “Not yet.”

  “See, that just doesn’t add up. There’s something you’re missing. Or,” copper glinted again, “That you’re hiding.”

  I swallowed and turned away, resting my chin on my knees once more. I felt suddenly, impossibly weary. “Tell you what, Renner. If we get out of this alive, I’ll write a salted book for you. Every nightmarish moment and conversation I’ve had for the past few days, written out in perfect detail for you to pore over. I’ll work on it while you drag me up north. Once it’s done you can watch me be executed for my terrible crime of being afraid. Then you can collect your bloody reward and never think about me again.”

  “Sounds like a bargain,” he growled.

  The words stung, but I tried not to let it show. I forced venom into my voice and bit out, “You know, you can be as angry as you like about me lying, but the truth is that if you hadn’t been so horrible when we met then I might’ve told you the truth. Salt, you seem like you know more about Fae than most people; I might’ve asked you for help!”

  He scoffed. “You sold your soul to a monster, ladyship. You don’t deserve help.”

  I flinched back. “You don’t… you can’t mean that.”

  “No? Think again.”

  Fresh, hurt tears pricked at the backs of my eyes. I turned my back to him and sucked in mouthfuls of hot, rancid air.

  “Is it… you still think I’m lying. Is that it?” My voice came out thick. I forged on before he could answer. “Or do you just hate pacted so much that you don’t care about the reasons? You just… just think we all deserve to die, regardless of the circumstances? Even if we haven’t hurt anyone? I’d never hurt anyone, never, but I guess that doesn’t-”

  “Spare me the sob story,” he snarled. “And, yeah, I think you’re lying. Truth is, though, at this point; I don’t really care. The circumstances don’t matter. You made a choice. Bound yourself to a monster that, for all I know, can make you do his bidding at a moment’s notice. That makes you dangerous. Too dangerous to live, no matter how innocent you may act.”

  My shoulders tightened. We fell into unhappy, tense silence in the near-darkness. I wiped my eyes. Gradually I heard cloth rustle against earth and he swore a low oath.

  He can’t mean all that. He can’t. The people at the inn… maybe they deserve it. After everything they’ve done. After tonight. But… Gil? When he’s been trying to stop it?

  And what about poor Terrence? What if he’d said yes? He didn’t deserve to die. He was just afraid.

  How can he hate me so much?

  This morning seemed like a lifetime ago. When Renner had looked at me so gently, held my wrist so carefully… and now, he wanted me dead. Just like that.

  I swallowed. It felt like ages ago, but I remembered his words outside of Gil’s home all-too-clearly. “So. Fire and blood, huh?”

  He paused. “What?”

  I bit my lower lip. “That’s… that’s what you said. Earlier. About pacted. It ends with fire and blood.” I eased myself back around to face him. My eyes fell to his leathery, ruined forearms and the warped, mottled skin of his hands.

  The cloth loop flew through the air. Missed. “So?”

  “Is that… what happened? Why you’re so… why you… why?” I ducked my chin, hiding from his too-intense gaze. “Your hands. Your arms. It… it must have been awful.”

  He grew very still. I could feel his eyes boring into me, and wondered if I’d pushed too far.

  It’s not like he can murder me right now. My fire is our best chance of fighting back.

  So I pressed on. “Was it recent?”

  For a long time, I thought he wouldn’t answer. Then, darkly, “No.”

  Another scrape of metal. Silver glinted as the steel twitched along. “How… how do your hands still… I mean, it looks like it was terrible…”

  “Paladins,” his voice was clipped.

  I peeked up. He was scowling at the nearest jagged shard.

  “They healed you?”

  He grunted.

  “Did they… did the person who did it… what happened to them?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Are they dead?”

  “No.” I opened my mouth, ready to give voice to a dozen other questions, but he ended the conversation with a grim, “Not yet.”