Page 16 of Black Hearted
Elida didn’t have until tomorrow night.
The fae scowled at my hand. “How do I know you won’t take my money and leave town?”
He was right to be cautious. “I could leave you with something valuable as collateral.”
He glanced at Nellie, and the look he gave her sent chills down my spine.
“Not her,” I growled and noticed Nellie take a half-step back so that she was a little behind me. I wanted to rip the fae’s head off for the way he looked at the little girl. But I tamped down the desire.
Reaching into my pack, I pulled out Isolde’s faestone daggerand laid it on his table. The blue kyanite stone embedded in the hilt glinted as it caught a beam of light.
His eyes widened, and he gasped as he stared down at the deadly weapon. “You’ve had this in your pack the entire time? There’s no need for you to fight as my champion. I’ll buy this off you—”
“It’s not for sale,” I told him, and he snapped his head up to glare at me.
He studied me with suspicion. “How did you get this?”
“Does that matter? Do we have a deal or not?”
He glanced between me, Nellie, and the dagger, weighing his options.
“Fine. Twenty gold coins, but if you lose the fight, I keep the dagger.” He held out his hand.
“That’s not fair,” Nellie said, outraged, but I held up my hand to stop her.
The dagger was worth far more than a hundred gold coins, let alone the twenty I was asking for. But I didn’t plan on losing any of the fights, so I nodded and shook his hand.
Nellie huffed beside me, clearly unhappy, but it didn’t matter. The deal was done.
With one last look, I handed the faestone dagger over to Mr. Donahue, and Nellie and I left. We went straight back to the healer. After handing over the twenty golds to the fae at the front desk, she led Evander and Elida through the side entrance.
Within ten minutes, Percy, a flamboyantly dressed fae with a flair for theatrics, entered the room. He had them chew on some flowers, then placed his hands over their chests.
Nothing happened for a couple of minutes, but then they bothcoughed out the flowers and expelled more than a cupful of dust from their lungs. It was grotesque to watch, and Nellie looked positively green by the end of it.
“I can breathe,” Elida said as we walked toward an inn on the main row of shops.
Evander grinned, holding his wife’s hand. “I haven’t felt this good since before the curse.”
They both looked ten years younger, and their pace was noticeably faster as well.
“Thank you,” Evander said as I pushed their cart filled with their belongings.
“You’re welcome,” I told him, matching his grin. It felt good to see the two of them well again.
Evander stopped and grasped my upper arm, forcing me to look at him. There was a tenderness in his gaze that made my chest tighten.
“I mean it, son. Thank you.”
At his words, a lump formed in my throat. I hadn’t been called “son” in so many years—since my father died. It reopened an old wound inside of me, but I managed a nod.
“You’re welcome. And I’m out of coin now, so I hope you’ve got money for the inn,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.
Everyone burst out laughing. “Now that I can manage,” Evander assured me, and we made our way to a little yellow building with a bustling tavern beneath it.
It had been a long day, and I was weary. With an even longer day ahead of me tomorrow—when I planned to win those fights—all I could think about now was getting some sleep.
Chapter Six
