His eyes harden into two shards of ice in reaction to my banshee impersonation, clearly not used to being spoken to like that.
“Excuse me, young Alice,” he says, his clipped British accent even more pronounced. “Who do you think you are speaking to?”
“Don’t call me Alice,” I sulk. “Please, will you be so kind as to go and fetch my sire?”
He sighs and sips his tea. “Better, but I am sure you have more grovel in you than that,” he says and hides his smirk behind another sip of tea and if he hadn’t had that blasted barrier up, I would have smacked it off his face.
“What do you want?” I ask, slightly terrified of what he might say.
“If I can’t call you Alice, then what can I call you?” he asks instead to my ire. “You have such a multitude of names, it’s confusing.” He frowns slightly into his tea.
“You can call her, Your Majesty,” Xane snarls at him, having finally adjusted enough to rejoin the conversation, but that was not very helpful.
“Hah!” he says. “There is not a chance in Hell, young Draconis, that I will ever bow down to The Pretender.”
“Pretender?” I yell at him. “How dare you? Just because you never got to…”
He holds his hand up, stopping me in my tracks. “I would think very carefully about your next words, Alice. You wouldn’t want to make me mad when I am your only hope now, would you?”
I button it, with great effort, and he smiles all genial again in the blink of an eye. “So, your name?”
“You pick. But not Alice,” I sulk.
“Hm, I suppose I should go with your Dragon name, really, but it’s quite a mouthful, ValamAtrux.” He casts his gaze over me, head to toe, critically. “Although it is a fitting name: Fanged Queen. But I do not recognize your rule so maybe I should call you Xerxei? No, I don’t like it. It doesn’t suit you as you are. Aefre it is then.” He stands as he replaces the cup and saucer on the table and walks forward to stand right in front of me. “Well, Aefre, time to bargain. How much is a trip to the Fae Kingdoms worth to you?”
“How much is it worth to you?” I ask and he chuckles.
“Nicely done. I have a price in mind, but will you pay?”
“You won’t know unless you ask,” I say, hands on my hips, but I feel anything but cocky. I feel fear. Fear that he is going to ask too much and yet I will have to give it to him to get my sire back.
“One week,” he says. “You give me one week, seven days in your dreams, and I will give you a return trip.”
The feeling of dread blossoms in my stomach, but I push it down. It’s just a starting point.
“No, Liv. You can’t,” Xane says desperately. “You can’t give him that. You don’t know if he will keep his word.”
“My word is my honor,” Remiel snaps at Xane, annoyed for interrupting.
“Four days,” I say quietly.
“Five,” he says quickly.
“Three,” I drop it to his astonishment.
“Five,” he says more determinedly.
“Two,” I drop it again and he is furious.
“Five or no deal.”
“Two. One day to take me there and one day for bringing us back.”
“That’s fair,” Sebastian says, as Xane opens his mouth to protest further.
“Five, going once…” Remiel says, backing away.
“I can always find another way. Between Sebastian and me, we should be enough Faerie to find a Ring and pass through.” I am probably spinning a yarn but who knows, it could work.