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I grinned at him. “Why, thank you, dear.”
Lifting his hand from the water, he stroked a fingertip down my cheek, an affectionate gesture that never failed to move me—something he undoubtedly knew. “If I give you this,” he said, very softly, “I ask one thing in return.”
Here it comes. “Tell me and I’ll decide.”
“Your silence. Don’t tell anyone else—no matter how tempting it may be.”
My heart stuttered a little. Was he finally trusting me with his secrets? “All right.”
“Don’t agree too easily. I know you, noble Gwynn, and you will be sorely tempted to share this information. You cannot.”
Ooh. Maybe I shouldn’t know. It would nearly kill me not to act on something if I found it important. Still, as I’d once told Starling, knowledge was power.I thought power is power, she’d replied. An observation that had stuck with me. “Yes. I will keep your list secret and will not share it with anyone—unless you give me permission.”
His mouth quirked up on the left side, acknowledging how I’d circumscribed my promise “We cannot speak of it outside this room. Do you understand that?”
Oh, really? “You planned this, didn’t you?” I accused him. “Once you knew I wouldn’t simply agree, you engineered to have this discussion in this place, where you could give me the reasons you knew I’d ask for.”
“You should know by now, clever Gwynn.” He smiled and some sorrow lurked behind it. “I plan everything.”
I sighed for the truth of that. “Fine, fine. Just tell me already.”
He lay back and looked into the endless ceiling. “Let’s see. To give it numbers then, as you prefer—I believe I’ve learned how to do this. One, the first and most important reason is the one I’ve already given. You bear my child. Two follows on one—because you bear my child, I must do everything in my power to protect you and the babe. Three encompasses the first and second. To fully exercise all my power, I must bring you both within the circle of it. The child comes with you, thus having you means having you both. Fourth—I have two tools to make you mine, marriage or enslavement. You’ve made it abundantly clear that the latter is not an option.” He said this last in a wry tone that spoke of his exasperation. “So I either go against your will or I convince you to marry me.”
“Wait. You think you could enslave me against my will?”
He rolled his head on the stone and met my gaze with darkly grave eyes. “Yes. Always that has been an option for me.”
My skin crawled at the ring of truth in his voice. I’d flung this accusation at him more than once, but I’d never really thought hecould.He waited watching me process that. This then—this was a measure of the trust he offered, letting me know that he could have, still could, and had chosen not to.
“Can you enslave anyone?”
“With one notable exception, yes. Why—do you want me to teach you?”
“No.” I wanted to rub my arms, though I wasn’t physically chilled. I settled for breaking his gaze and staring up into the shadows, stretching my neck. “I don’t want to be able to do that. I find it abhorrent that you can.”
“You and I come from different perspectives on that.”
“Yes, I know. Still.”
“Gwynn.” He wanted to touch me, but didn’t. The gentle brush of his thoughts against mine told me that much. “I didn’t do it to you. I wouldn’t ever.”
“Even if I refuse this marriage?”
He sighed. “Even so.”
“All right. Let’s set that aside. I assume there’s more to your list?” I hoped there wasn’t a lot more. Already I was having a bit of trouble following the flow of his Möbius strip logic. Fascinating insight into his alien intelligence, however.
“There are ten. Fifth,” he continued, “if you are not under my direct protection, the child will be vulnerable the moment it’s born. Fair play to anyone who wishes to enter the game, as you think of it.”
“Cecily was married to Fafnir.”
“Yes, but he delayed in sending for her, thinking to keep Titania’s interest away. An expensive gamble that he lost.”
For a while I’d hated the noble fae Lord Fafnir, thinking that he’d cut the fetus from his human consort’s belly with a sword, leaving Cecily for dead. He had, as it turned out, but only as Titania’s puppet. The look on his face when I told him the truth—because he’d demanded it of me, not because I wanted to—would stay with me forever.I am not like the other fae you’ve met because I have nothing left to lose.Looking into the eyes of an immortal at rock bottom was a sobering experience. Oddly, I’d come out of it with my hate transformed to deep sympathy. Not pity—he would hate that.
“He owes me a favor,” I told Rogue, recalling that this was one of the many developments we had yet to catch up on following our long separation.
“How is that possible when I expressly told you to stay away from him?”
