Rys is right there. He grazes my shoulder with his palm, carefully redirecting me so that I’m staring up at him instead of the bars in front of me.
“Look at me,” he murmurs, keeping his lovely voice low. “We’re not inside. The cell is empty, Leannán. It’s not meant for us.”
“For now,” interrupts Helix. While I freaked out at coming face to face with another cell, he must’ve followed us. “So long as you respect his majesty, the cell should remain empty.”
Rys glares over my head. “The holding cells, Helix? You couldn’t have arranged for the portal to lead us anywhere else?”
A careless shrug. “I could have, but I thought your human might like to see this part of the palace.”
Yeah? How kind of him.
Dick.
Helix gives his head a royal shake, sending his long hair over his shoulder and out of his lovely face. Because that’s the thing when it comes to the fae. They’re as heartless and calculating as they are gorgeous. He might look like an angel brought to life. He’s still an arrogant, cruel bastard.
And I have to make nice with him because, between Helix and Dusk, I know which one is the lesser of two evils.
I pat Rys’s chest. “It’s fine,” I murmur. “Let’s just get this over with.”
I can tell that he doesn’t want to let this latest slight go but he will if only because I asked him to.
He nods, a gentle look whispering across his perfectly imperfect features before he closes off his expression and rises to his full, impressive height. “Are you going to lead us to Oberon, or am I free to bring Elle there myself?”
“You’re no longer a guard, Rys, but you are his majesty’s guest. I’ve arranged for an escort.”
Helix lifts his hand, snapping his fingers once, twice. I have no idea where the other fae comes from, but as soon as the second snap dies out, he appears at the end of the hall we’re standing in.
Another Seelie. Same bronzed skin, same golden eyes. He’s wearing a white uniform similar to Helix’s, though I notice there are fewer gold decorations along the front and sleeves of the newcomer’s uniform. And, while Helix has never once drawn his sword from its sheath at his side, this soldier has his long, slender fingers wrapped around the hilt of his.
The diamond-edge of the sword twinkles beneath the massive, enchanted sconces filled with fairy light. It reminds me of the ones in Rys’s house, only these are even more ornate.
Because, even if these are the holding cells, this is still the Seelie king’s palace.
And the fae soldier brandishing his sword is going to bring us in front of him.
Great.
“Dain?” Rys blinks, the only sign that he hasn’t been expecting this latest turn. “Not you, Helix?”
“The Summer King’s orders were to bring you to his palace. I did. Now, if you’ll excuse me. There are other matters that demand my attention.”
As the Seelie captain trades places with the other guard, he leans in, whispering something to Dain. I can’t hear what he says, but when he’s done, Dain nods before slipping his sword back into the sheath.
That’s something, at least. Maybe we really are guests.
Hey. A girl can hope.
Dain guides us through the hallways. He stays at our back, just in case we decide to take off or something, but he offers directions whenever we reach another corridor. Honestly, he’s wasting his breath. Rys knows every twist and turn of the palace’s hallways, from the holding cells down below, all the way up to the throne room. He’s already heading down the correct path even before Dain tells us which way to go, but if the Seelie guard realizes it, he doesn’t care. He proceeds to call out directions until we arrive at an oversized set of doors with sparkling crystal doorknobs.
There’s a pair of guards standing there, one on each side of the entrance. At Dain’s signal, they each turn a knob and pull open a door. We step through and, if it wasn’t for Rys warning me what to expect during my mad dash to get dressed earlier, my jaw might have dropped.
Even so, he didn’t prepare me enough for this. It’s a throne room, sure, so I was expecting the high-rising dais and the throne sat in the middle. The walls are so white, so clean, so bright that I have to squint a little at the glow they’re throwing off. I can see crystal frames hanging on the wall, each one holding a painting that seems to shine in the overwhelming light.
And then there’s the fae sitting on the elaborate crystalline throne.
Oh, boy.
He’s Seelie, because of course he is, but even if I didn’t know he was the king, I would’ve guessed. He has this… I don’t know, aura about him that makes it obvious. His skin is just a little more golden, his hair a little more rich, and his eyes…