Page 116 of A Deal with the Shadow King

“And you made me strip by the pool.” I glare at Two, furious.

He presses his forehead to the glass, his chin tucked in. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m the drunk, cruel Damian. If I hadn’t been outvoted at every turn, we would have done a lot worse.”

I turn to One, my heart in pieces at his feet. “What do you need from me?”

He grazes my bottom lip with his thumb like I’m a branch from his sacred tree. “I wanted to win the bet to strengthen our magic. To survive. I never expected to fall in love with you…”

I blink a few times, trying to put the last pieces of the puzzle together. “Tell me about the bet. What is it for, exactly? What do you plan to do to my people?”

“Your father made sure I couldn’t tell you the details.”

I’ve always believed Damian would enslave us all if I lost, but everything I’ve been taught about him, about Faerie, has been a lie. Even Esme told me he was a monster…

“I give up, then. You win.”

His forehead wrinkles into a hopeless frown. “It doesn’t work like that. The finality of the bet can only be decided through your actions, not your words.”

“Then…I’ll flee. After you win the bet, you can take my magic. It will save you, no?”

He recoils violently at the offer and grabs a fist of his hair. “Don’t be ridiculous. If I take your magic, you’ll forget ever meeting me.”

“I know.” My eyes dart to the ground. It hurts too much. “Lori told me about Mara.”

He smears a fresh tear across my cheek with his thumb. “What’s the point of fighting this curse, enduring all this pain, if you don’t remember who I am?”

“But you’ll live. Your kingdom will be saved.” I try to sound confident, but the hushed words are sheer and brittle. “Your only sin is lacking the strength to do your duty.”

“Winning the bet would help, but it would only buy me a few more months… That’s not enough.” He rests his forehead on mine and gives it a little push. “I love you, Nell.”

“Then seek me out. Make me remember.”

“Mortals can’t live in Faerie. Not without magic.” His tortured gaze hardens into something sharp. “I won’t take it—it’s out of the question.”

My heart gives a painful squeeze. If mortals are not allowed to live here, it means that Cece can’t, either. But I can’t give up on her. If she has to stay in Demeter, then so should I. “It’s the only way to save you, Damian.”

He freezes for a moment, shock written on his face at hearing his name on my lips. “I don’t believe that. Not anymore. All these years… I was merely surviving the curse. I want to live again.”

I risk a glimpse at Four again, the ache in my bones almost intolerable. “Can I try to heal him?”

With a small nod, One cuts a window into the glass with his magic, large enough for me to reach the fourth, broken piece of them. Maybe my magic can heal him just as it healed One from the spider.

Four’s breath hitches when I flatten my palm to his bony arm, and his lids droop like he’s about to fall asleep. The same icy, destructive feeling I experienced when I failed to heal Firenze’s dead leg grips my heart.

Shadows wisp out of his wound like a wraith’s hand coming to greet me, and I draw back from the spooky apparition. “How is he still alive? He’s so…cold.” My voice cracks. “It’s not going to work.”

One squeezes my shoulder. “It’s okay, kitten. The more powerful the curse, the thinner the thread… It won’t be so easy.”

The smoke clears when I let the magic go, and a pearly white shape in the middle of the wound becomes visible, smack-dab in the center of the festering black goo.

A nervous hiccup quakes my throat. “Wait… What is that?”

“Morrigan pushed her poisoned shadow needle directly through his heart. If we remove it, he’ll die,” One says.

The smaller but identical pin in my calf burns, and my belly cramps. “Do you have a painting of Morrigan? A picture?” I start unlacing my boots in a hurry.

Two walks around the corner of the glass prison and leans over my shoulder to see what I’m doing. “Why?”

I rip off my socks and pinch the head of the pin Esme gave me. The three Damians all clench their fists in perfect synchrony, and a terrible truth slowly sinks in.

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