Page 58 of Hidden

Galeeta sat forward, her face pale. “Farras has threatened my family, and a challenge will force his hand. I will not tolerate a threat to those I love. That is the one unalterable truth.”

Lila groped for something that made sense to her. “I still don’t understand. If I’m key to this plan—even if I’m a bad actress—why not tell me everything from the first moment I got here?”

“You’ve been gone for years.” Her mother’s eyes grew dark with emotion. “I needed to be sure he hadn’t turned you against me first. He’s compromised at least a third of the great houses of Forest Fae. Maybe even half.”

All at once, puzzle pieces began to fit together. It wasn’t the words her mother spoke, but the emotion beneath them that triggered understanding. Lila blinked, seeing her mother as if for the first time. Whatever the family’s rank and position, Galeeta had never lacked confidence in her own abilities. She would have been certain of her path right up until the moment she was caught in Lord Farras’s power.

That moment of realization would have been poison, especially when the price of failure was her own household.

Lila had gone to the city with the same confident pride. She’d believed herself modern and authentic, a maverick breaking with hidebound tradition. She’d closed her ears to anything the fae had to say about it.

She was more like her mother than she cared to admit. Neither of them willingly questioned their course of action.

“You’re setting a trap for him,” Lila mused.

“I hope so,” her mother answered, her voice barely above a whisper. “I’m improvising.”

“That’s not like you. You’re meticulous.”

“These are uncharted waters.” Her mother gave a nervous laugh. “You mentioned the Magician and how he steals the lives of the young.”

“Yes.” The sudden change of topic left Lila even more uneasy.

“And you’ve heard of how the city fae are losing their powers.”

“I’ve heard the stories.”

Galeeta rose suddenly, pacing to the window. “Some believe there is a relationship between the two. That the Magician is behind both calamities, and that Lord Farras is involved.”

Lila made a wordless exclamation.

Galeeta turned from the window to face Lila, her gaze fierce. “A fae may lose friends and fortune, but if they lose their magic, they lose themselves. If Farras is responsible, we’ve found his vulnerability—the one thing even his most devoted followers will never forgive.”

Her mother was right. With a spark of both hope and terror, Lila began to see Galeeta’s plan. “We need evidence.”

Her mother reached out, grasping Lila’s hands. “Which is why I volunteered to host this banquet. As I said, it gives us an opportunity both to reassure his lordship of our loyalty and to find proof of his guilt.”

Lila pondered that for a moment. “Where does that leave Father? Aren’t we relying on Lord Farras to plead his case to the king?”

Galeeta’s jaw hardened. “If we hand over the Magician, the king will refuse us nothing. I will save Gareth one way or the other, if I have to tear down the royal dungeon stone after stone with my bare hands.”

Lila swayed slightly, as if her mother’s words were carried by a storm. She searched for a reply, and finally settled on the only one possible.

“What exactly do you need me to do?”

Lila left her mother close to an hour later. Her mind spun from the conversation, and from the amount of things that could go wrong. The sinking sensation in Lila’s gut left her sick and giddy. She finally understood Ademar’s anger, because his response to fear was to strike out. Hers had always been to run, but that would solve nothing.

Galeeta had finally spoken the truth, or at least most of it. Her mother was a consummate courtier, used to the cut and thrust of the chambers of power, but even Lila could see she was in over her head. Even if she survived and justice was done, Galeeta was guilty by association with Farras.

Worse, her mother’s sudden honesty highlighted everything she’d withheld before. Fae were good at half-truths. Lila still wasn’t sure how much of the story was missing.

An ache pierced her chest, along with an unspeakable loneliness. She had no family she could rely on. Sala had to protect her children. Ademar was wounded and in an unpredictable mood. It would be up to her to act, to make decisions that would save or doom her family—maybe all the Forest Fae. It was her against Farras with the fate of their people as the banquet’s main course.

She needed someone with real-world experience at her back.

She found Rafe in one of the storerooms, where the advance party of Lord Farras’s entourage had unloaded a mountain of dry goods. Rafe had been put to work with a broom.

“One of the porters broke a bag of rice,” he said, dark head bent as he swept the scattered mess into a dustpan. “In the old legends fae couldn’t pass a spill like this without counting every grain, but they walked away just fine.”

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