Page 25 of Magic Forsaken

“What choice?”

A glow sparked in Faris’s green eyes. “We need this Symposium, Raine. We need the courts to come together and forge an agreement. We need a system of justice that can be satisfied with no loss of life or destruction of property. That’s why I offered to serve as host for this gathering, and why I’ve granted my assistance to Callum to ensure that it can be held peacefully.”

That was all very well and good, but what did it have to do with me?

“You can’t keep working here at The Portal,” he continued, driving a spike of fear through my chest. “Not until after the Symposium is over. Normally I would tell them exactly where to put their objections, but I’ve been informed that I’m going to have to… What was it again?” He paused and glanced at Morghaine, one eyebrow raised.

“Play nice?” she suggested, smirking a little in his direction.

“Something like that.” He looked like he’d rather have his beard pulled out by the roots.

“So, where does that leave me?” I tried to keep my tone level, but I doubted I could fully conceal my anger and frustration. He said I still had a job, but he was putting me on hiatus for two weeks? We needed food. Clothes. And a long-term place to live. I couldn’t sit around for that long without a paycheck.

“Raine.” His green eyes met mine calmly. “I took you on, and that means I’m not going to just abandon you. There’s still a job opening, and it’ll pay you better than waiting tables.”

I heard the “but” at the end of that statement…

Faris seemed to stare straight through me. “It will be more dangerous, yes. But you would be helping to ensure that there will never be another Elayara.”

I stared back. Wondering exactly how much he knew and how much he’d only guessed.

Elayara, former queen of the fae, had been caught kidnapping other Idrians, stealing their magic, and transferring it into objects for the use of herself and her minions. She’d been stopped about eighteen months ago, and her actions repudiated by the Idrian community at large, but many of her victims had never been found, and no one on the outside had known the full extent of either her plan or her abilities.

“I came here to disappear,” I said softly. “All I ever wanted is to be invisible.”

“And in one sense, I’m sorry,” Faris said, and to my surprise, he actually sounded genuine. “But that’s not going to be possible anymore. Not unless you decide to run again.”

“I thought this was supposed to be a place of refuge from the courts,” I ground out. “That you were the one person who didn’t play their games. I came here for safety, and now you’re saying you’re going to throw me to the wolves?”

“Not the wolves,” Morghaine murmured from her corner, somehow sounding endlessly amused. “Just the dragons.”

Oh yes, that was so much better. They could barbecue me first andtheneat me.

Then it hit me exactly what she’d said.

“That wasn’t rhetorical, was it?”

Faris shot his mate a wry look before answering. “No, it wasn’t. Callum and I have agreed that his team would be a far safer place for you. At least for the duration of the Symposium.”

My deer-in-the-headlights stare must have communicated exactly what I thought of that idea, because Faris sighed and looked at me as if I were a particularly recalcitrant toddler under his care.

“Look, at least talk to him. If you don’t want to do it, we can try to come up with another solution, but… I don’t know whether I can fully protect you from the consequences of last night. Working with Callum will make you more visible, but it also gives you more protection and more respect.”

I would have been all too happy to agree with his assessment… if I were normal. If I were any other Idrian.

But I wasn’t. None of us were, and that left us dancing on a tightrope no one around us could possibly understand. Working with Callum… I shuddered at the thought.

Faris leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms once more. “It’s your decision. As long as you understand you won’t be able to come back to work here until after the Symposium.”

Which meant no paycheck for at least two weeks. Which meant we would be out on the street at the end of that time. Barely hanging on until I could get paid.

But how could I agree to work for the king of the shifters?

More importantly, why would he even want me? They claimed I was unusually powerful, but surely his team was already full of frighteningly competent shifters. There was no reason for him to trust a total unknown unless…

Unless my very lack of connections was what made me ideal. Because then he could blackmail me into doing whatever he wanted. Had he basically manipulated Faris into this in order to acquire an employee who couldn’t say no?

“Raine?”

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