Page 115 of A Fae in Finance
“You are a bigger a fool than any of them,” she said, “if you value loyalty over power in a companion.”
“I’m really regretting saving your life right now,” I muttered.
She hissed at me. “That is the only reason you still breathe,” she said. “When ordinarily, I would have recourse to kill you on sight. I abide by the laws of my land and my magic, human. What laws govern you?”
“The Ten Commandments?” I said, mostly as a question.
Kamare did not condescend to a response. I amused myself by trying to remember the Ten Commandments. I definitely knewThou shalt not stealandThou shalt not murder. I felt fairly confident also aboutThou shalt not sleep with your neighbor’s wife even if she’s superhotandThou shalt honor thy parents, ye ungrateful cretin, lest ye have a daughter JUST LIKE YOU.
I continued in this vein for the remainder of the walk, hardly noticing when the ground transitioned back to the loamy black soil of the American northeast. The trees around us sprouted more branches, and I felt the occasional side-sweep of an evergreen against my cheek or shoulder.
Lene managed to slip up beside me and slid her hand into mine.
Ever since I’d gone off on the Gray Knight in my bedroom, I’d had this coiled feeling inside my stomach, like a gutful of cobras. Whenever the numbness faded, I wanted to irritate people. Or I wanted to make other people uncomfortable. To make them feel as bad as I felt, trapped and powerless.
Kamare seemed like a great target for irritation.
“So, like, what are you soldiering about?” I asked, making my voice nasal.
Kamare made a hissing noise, her back stiff. To my surprise, she answered, a practiced cadence to her voice. “We should not open our borders to humans. They will bring destruction into our home.”
“Kamare, you have not seen the sun, as I have,” Sahir said. “And if I lose my life to human malice or mishap, I will not regret it, having had that warmth on my skin.”
The other soldiers crowded forward as Sahir spoke; I felt them at our backs. When I turned my head I saw Gaheris at the head of a knot of them, only a foot behind me.
I didn’t like the thought of Sahir losing his life. “But that’s not likely, right?” I asked.
Lene squeezed my hand once, then let go and stepped back to walk with Gaheris.
“Oh, it is quite probable,” Gaheris chimed in. “It would only—ow!”
Since Gaheris and Lene were behind me, I could only speculate as to what had happened. But I’d probably speculate correctly.
“It’s possible I tripped,” Lene said, confirming my suspicions.
“Ow,” Gaheris said again. And then, “Kamare, there are many Courts that will not allow humans at all. Our Princeling is an outlier. There is no need to engage in this crusade.”
“She might be bored,” I interjected. “Since none of you have anything to do all day.”
Lene made a soft yowling noise, and I regretted my comment.
“I am not bored,” Kamare snapped. “Our risk is great, Gaheris. Once a human has entered our realm, she may travel freely between the Courts, and poison anyone she meets along the way.”
“Is human sweat poisonous to you?” I blurted, rubbing the scratches Lene had left on my skin.
“What?”
“Well, if a human can poison anyone she meets along the way, maybe the faerie poison is sweat.” I fidgeted with my hands, with the lighter band of skin where my gold ring had rested on my index finger.
“No, human sweat is not poisonous to us,” Kamare said. She batted away a branch so hard that it snapped and fell to the forest floor. “That is utterly ridiculous. The Princeling implied that you were intelligent.”
“Hedidonly imply it,” Gaheris mused. I shot a glare over my shoulder, missing him entirely. The faerie I glared at stopped midstep and hunched their shoulders like a prey animal appearing smaller.
I looked forward again, at Kamare’s back.
“So… is it human saliva?”
Sahir closed his eyes in a swift and silent prayer for release from this hell. Unfortunately for him, he’d signed himself up for a human lifetime of my company.
