“That’s all,” the Erlking said. “You may go.”
I hated to let Ethan out of my sight, but it wasn’t like I had a choice. I held on tightly to the mug of coffee he’d handed me, and that helped me resist the urge to reach out and grab him, keep him from leaving.
Still refusing to look at me, Ethan bowed to the Erlking, then left the room. I heard the Erlking fixing himself a cup of tea, but I couldn’t bear to look at him, afraid of what he might see in my face.
“He is unharmed,” the Erlking said softly, drawing my eyes to him against my will. “Unhappy, but unharmed.” There was sympathy and sadness in those ancient blue eyes, but I didn’t believe it.
“Whenever you’re finished rubbing it in, can we talk about what I have to do to get Ethan back?”
He raised his eyebrows in what looked like surprise. “I’m not ‘rubbing it in,’ as you put it. I was pointing out to you that he is unharmed. That was meant to be comforting.”
I snorted. “Yeah, right.”
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs, holding the delicate black china teacup in his lap. “Believe me or not, as you will. As you are so impatient to begin our negotiations, please do tell me what you propose.”
I took a deep breath, gathering the scattered remnants of my courage. It was vital that I phrase everything just right. Kimber and I both believed whatever agreement I made with the Erlking would be enforced by magic, so I had to be very careful to leave myself room to maneuver.
“My father told me that you and the Faerie Queens were at war once,” I said, starting slowly.
The Erlking cocked his head at me. I supposed he was trying to guess where I was going with this. “We were. But that was a long, long time ago. Our relations have been peaceful for many centuries.”
“Because of the agreement you reached with them. The one that keeps you from hunting the Fae unless the Queens give you permission.”
Understanding dawned in his eyes, and he laughed softly. “You’re planning to offer me an alternative to taking me out into the mortal world, as opposed to negotiating guidelines for my hunts there.”
“Yeah, that was the idea,” I said. Because no matter how bad I felt for Ethan, I still couldn’t unleash the Wild Hunt on the mortal world.
The Erlking nodded and put his teacup down, sitting up straighter. “Tell me exactly what it is you propose.” I couldn’t read the expression on his face. Perhaps it was eagerness, but it might just as easily have been skepticism.
I spoke slowly and carefully when I answered. “One of a Faeriewalker’s abilities is to carry technology into Faerie. My aunt Grace wants to kidnap me so she can use a gun to kill the Seelie Queen and take the throne.”
The Erlking nodded, like that was common knowledge. “Yes. A mortal bullet can kill even a Faerie Queen.”
“What about you?” I blurted, the words completely unplanned.
He smiled at me. “If I could be killed by a mortal bullet, you can hardly expect me to tell you that, can you?”
I felt the color burning in my cheeks. Way to make yourself sound like a moron, Dana.
“But in answer to your question,” he continued, “no, I cannot be killed by a mortal bullet. Many have tried, and yet here I am.”
He could be lying through his teeth, of course. Like he said, if a mortal bullet could kill him, he wouldn’t run around advertising it. Then again, he’d obviously hunted in Avalon before it seceded from Faerie, and it was hard to believe his human quarry had never tried to shoot him, in self-defense if nothing else.
“Your proposal is that you’ll ride with me into Faerie, allowing me to use a gun to kill the Queens and thereby remove the geis they have put upon me. Is that correct?”
I suppressed a shudder and forced myself to meet his eyes with all the sincerity I could project. “Basically.”
The idea was risky in the extreme. If I did this, and the Erlking was freed from his geis, it wouldn’t put anyone in the mortal world in danger, but the Fae would be sitting ducks. Which was why I had to be so careful how I worded our agreement, because I had every intention of making sure whatever gun the Erlking brought with him into Faerie wasn’t in working order. Kimber had assured me that magical bindings were very literal. If I was bound to help the Erlking take a gun into Faerie, then as long as I helped him take a gun, I was in the clear. There was no requirement that it be a working gun.
I was practicing in my head how I was going to phrase my formal offer when the Erlking made it a moot point.
“It’s a clever offer,” he said with a nod of approval. “It requires me to work for my ultimate goal, in a task that would be difficult even with mortal weapons, and if I succeed, it is not your own people who will suffer for it.” He grinned. “The Fae can fend for themselves, eh?”
I raised my chin and tried not to flinch. I knew the offer was going to end up making me sound pretty callous, like I couldn’t care less what happened to the Fae because they weren’t “my people.” But I needed the Erlking to believe I was really that callous so he wouldn’t suspect me of a trick.
The Erlking shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. The answer is no.”
“What?” Of course I’d always known he might refuse, but I thought there’d been at least a chance of success. And I certainly hadn’t expected him to dismiss it without even trying to negotiate.
“I have no quarrel with either Mab or Titania,” he said. “The agreement we three reached was mutually advantageous, even if onlookers cannot guess what advantage I might have gained.”