He paced away from her, pushing a hand through his hair. “Bloody hell, Bella. You have to come with me now. I didn’t want this. It’s too dangerous.”
“Yes, well, I don’t want to go either.” Even though a part of her did. He was going to the Boundary Lands and she very much wanted to see them.
And maybe that wasn’t the only reason she wanted to go with him.
“I’ll tell them I coerced you into going with me.”
“The guards clearly saw me trying to protect you, Ronan.”
He swore under his breath. “It doesn’t matter. Once I have the object, I’ll be able to bargain with the Summer Queen for anything.”
She tried, and failed, to imagine what could compel the Summer Queen to forgive Ronan of all his trespasses, and Bella’s too. Her voice lowered. “What did you do for the Phaendir, Ronan?” He smiled, his teeth white against his golden skin. “I stole something for them and then I stole it from them. Something very rare and powerful.”
FOUR
Ronan studied Bella as she walked under the soft glow of the intermittent streetlights with snowflakes catching in her long dark hair and on the shoulders of her burgundy coat. She glanced at him. She’d drawn her normally lush mouth into a thin line and narrowed her eyes.
They were making their way farther into the Ceantar Láir, the area where most of the fae in Purgatory lived, the trooping fae—all those who didn’t belong to one of the courts and weren’t wildlings. The Ceantar Láir formed a half ring between downtown Piefferburg and the Boundary Lands, and there was a lot of water in it and many bridges. They were walking because any other sort of transport right now was too risky. Metal amplified tracking spells.
“Give it up, Bella.”
“I’ll never give anything up to you.” She continued her march.
He missed a step at the venom in her voice and watched her walk past him. His objective was to make that a lie. Right now he lived for it. He wanted her to give everything up to him. He wanted to f**k her luscious body from twilight to morn—every way she’d allow him—with no sounds issuing from her lips but sighs, moans, entreaties for more, and his name.
The phrase I love you wouldn’t go amiss either.
He picked up his pace to catch up. “You don’t even know where you’re going so fast.”
“Anywhere far away from you is acceptable.”
“You wound me.” He fell into step beside her.
“I’d like to do more than just wound you.”
“You just saved my head, Bella. I don’t believe it, unless you mean something else,” he finished with a suggestive lilt to his voice.
She colored a little. With skin as fair as hers, it was easy to see even in the gentle glow of the streetlights. “I’m only coming with you because I have to.”
“Okay.” He shrugged one broad shoulder. “Like I said, I’ll take what I can get from you. Before we travel to the outreaches of Piefferburg, we need to visit a friend. I need the ingredients for a spell for magickal countermeasures.”
“What kind of countermeasures?”
“I need to block their tracking spell. Even now they’re figuring out where we are and coming after us.
Is your magick strong enough to block a tracking spell?”
Bella hugged herself. “You know it’s not.”
“Then we need to make a stop first. Afterward we’ll find somewhere to sleep. It’s cold and we’re both exhausted.”
She eyed the rows of neat houses they passed. Each of them was unique to the type of fae it housed.
The brownies’ abodes were small and round, while the Formorian houses were large enough to shelter a family of giants. The effect was discombobulation, unevenness, chaos. So unlike the neat suburban neighborhoods of the humans, where all the houses looked alike and everyone cut the grass to exactly three inches.
Dear Gods, how Ronan loved Piefferburg. He’d been beyond the borders, thanks to the Phaendir. He’d seen the human world. All the fae wanted out of here, but he couldn’t see why. There was no magick out there.
“I guess hotels are out,” she muttered.
“In a normal hotel, even with countermeasures, the guard would track us so fast our heads would spin off our shoulders.” He grinned. “Never fear. I know the perfect place.” She gave him a suspicious sidelong glance. “Where?”
“A love hotel.”
Her steps faltered. “A what?” Her gorgeous brown eyes grew wide.
“You’ve lived a sheltered life. A love hotel is a totally anonymous establishment. You check in via an unmonitored computer system and pay cash for the room. Very popular with the affair-having set.
Small, simple rooms, since usually people don’t go there for the décor.”
“They go there for the bed.”
“They go there to f**k.”
She averted her gaze, looking straight ahead. “No way.”
“You’re going if you don’t want to freeze to death, or be captured by the Queen’s Guard, or both.”
“Why couldn’t you have just left me alone? I could be home in bed right now.” His boots crunched the snow-covered ground. “Why didn’t you leave me alone? You could have left me in my prison if you’d wanted and you didn’t. I didn’t want to put you in danger. I didn’t want you on this journey, but maybe it’s better you’re out of your prison too.”
“Prison? What are you talking about?”
“Come on, Bell, you know as well—”
“Bella.”
“—as I do that all the Seelie nobles are locked in a prison.”
“Every fae in Piefferburg is a prisoner, Ronan.”
“You know what I mean. The Seelie are expected to behave a certain way. They’re indoctrinated into a restrictive culture and told half-truths and outright lies about the outside world. Being born into that court is akin to being born with shackles on for an eternity.”
“Wow, Ronan. You never used to feel this way. When I knew you, you weren’t so negative about the Seelie. Is it because they recently tried to get rid of you?” He shook his head. “My opinion of the Seelie Court has never changed. I petitioned the Summer Queen to reside in the Rose Tower because I had a good reason to do so, that’s all.”