Chapter 44

For a moment, neither of us spoke. I stood frozen under his gaze, refusing to look up at him. Wind trickled to my fingers, reacting to me as it flew in from the open windows.

He inhaled again. "What are you?" His tone wasn't threatening. No...he seemed curious.

I pulled my arm away from him, taking a few steps back. He made no move towards me, and I finally looked up at him. He tilted his head, his movements fluid in a prenaturnal way.

"I'm leaving," I said instead of answering him. I moved closer to the staircase, but he did not move towards me. I could still feel his eyes soaking me in.

"You're hurt. If you go down there, they will smell you just as I did."

I paused, inspecting him closely.

"It's better than sitting up here waiting for someone else to lock me away."

His dark eyes glinted under the moonlight. A slow smile rose to his lips. "I fear I can relate all too well. Very well, continue one then. But, it will be to your own peril. I would know."

I narrowed my eyes but continued. I wasn't sure what to make of this faerie, I sensed something was different about him. His face was half cast in shadows, the darkness clinging to him as if he would turn to smoke and drift away into the sky at any moment. I moved away slower than I should have.

I looked back to the stairwell, trying to focus. I shouldn't pass up the narrow escape. But... it was almost too easy. Unease settled in my stomach. I looked down at my hands, traces of blood still lingering under my nails despite my efforts to hastily scrub it off.

"How can you relate?" I asked turning. "How do I get out of here?"

Along the exposed part of his face, the smile he had worn before flattened. "You don't, not really. Not truly. Sure, you could go down that set of stairs, then continue down another. Perhaps even slip on by the distracted guests that continue to celebrate the death of a long-dead King."

He stepped closer, the last remaining shadows peeling away from his body. Despite how alien he looked, there was something vaguely familiar about him.

As he continued, I wasn't sure it was just me he was referring to, "But then you still must slip by his guards. Personified nightmares that work just as hard to keep everyone here as they do to keep threats out. Still, perhaps, you might even manage that. Then there is a long, torturous climb down from here. Our castle is high above the city so that its fae may dance among the stars. All of this could perhaps be done without being seen."

He turned his head, and I knew he was lost in thought somewhere else, a memory or several where he had tried to achieve the same thing. The jewels on his mask twinkled like stars.

"But?" I asked, urging him.

"But even if you do all of that, there is still an entire city that knows your face better than you do. You could hide, but for how long? You could run, and run, and run, but in doing that, would you every truly be free? Then there is them, eternal, and unrelenting. No, there is no true escape from this world. I am sorry, dear, but I do not know the answer. I have been trying to discover it myself for centuries."

I steadied myself, no longer moving towards the stairwell. I knew very well what he was saying was true. If I made it out of this castle, not only would Ankou and Hekate try to capture me again, but Ronan would too. Even if I managed to run, I would never be able to escape them.

But, there was still a way.

"Who are you?" I asked, daring to step closer, needing to confirm my suspicion.

He didn't answer with words, but instead lifted his mask off his face. His skin was touched with darkness and then splashed with color. It was as if the moon and the stars were embedded in his skin, and it shimmered as it caught the light, shining with a sheen of stardust. But it was his black eyes, glimmering with something like hope as he looked at me that took me by surprise. I barely stifled a gasp.

But I knew right then who he was. I had seen variations of the same features gracing the portraits in the halls. "Prince Oisin."

He bowed his head, confirming my words. "Indeed, it seems I cannot even hide from those that do not know me." He looked back up. "It is only fair that I receive a name in return."

I hesitated. I considered lying at first, but as several different names came to my tongue, I found every one of them disappear like dust. "Heather," I said finally, remembering the priestess's words that half-names did not hold the same power. "My name is Heather."

Oisin smiled, gliding closer to take my hand. A spark ignited, though it was not the same as Ronan. It was lower, less intense. A flicker of something slow and building. Oisin noticed it as well, his eyes widening. His hand gripped mine tighter and he bent his head, pressing a kiss to the back of my hand.

"A beautiful name, much like its bearer," he said, raising his eyes to mine. "But, it seems, you aren't human after all."

He almost sounded disappointed.

I stared at him, trying to decipher if I could trust him or not. My mind told me that there was no faerie alive I could trust. All of them would use and manipulate me. But as I looked into his eyes, I couldn't help but have some doubts. His gaze on me was curious with an edge of something more.

A sadness, I realized, one that had no place in a faerie's eyes.

I felt my shoulders relax a fraction, the display somehow putting me at ease.

"I am human."

Oisin continued to hold my hand, his eyes looking down at my arm, the lingering marks from the iron bracelet still sitting there. I noticed something metal glint under his shirt sleeve.

My eyes went wide.

"Not entirely," he replied, pulling his hand away, and adjusting his sleeve, catching where my gaze had traveled. "But it seems, we all have secrets, I have no business asking for yours."

I bit my lip, my gaze flickering again to the stairwell, I needed to escape. But what Oisin had said was true, just getting out of the castle wasn't the answer to my problems. I needed to think a step beyond that if I had any hope of freeing myself.

"You know this castle, right? This world, even?"

Oisin turned his head, a flicker of shadows trying to claim him back. "Yes, but why? What is it you seek?" he asked curiously.

"A way out," I replied. Oisin's lips parted to reply, but I continued before he could stop me. "Of Faerie."

His lips pressed together, and his eyes darted to the side. He closed them and sighed. "I feared as much."

I dared to step closer to him, looking up with the first glimmer of hope I had felt in my heart in a long time. He was a prince, one who had lived centuries. He would know, I knew it in my heart I was right.

"There is a way," he said, but it sounded forced, resigned. "You do not even need to leave the castle, it is out where everyone can see. The portal."

My eyes went wide. "Where? Please tell me."

His eyes flickered over my face, then he looked away. I saw his fists clench. "I don't want to tell you."

When he looked back at me, he took in my pleading expression and shook his head with a look of mourning.

"You have no idea what you are getting into, young one." He focused his gaze back on me. "The portal sits just under my mother's dais." He nodded to the balcony behind me, the one that overlooked the party playing out below. "At the center of my father's revel. One that had been going on a hundred years now with no end in sight."

My heart sank. "Is there no other way?"

Oisin's eyes were strained, his gaze flickering from my face to the wall behind me, growing distant, as if fighting a war with himself. "No, not that I know of. I'm sorry."

I stood still for several long moments, staring down at the ground. But then I fisted my hands and looked up at him.

"How?"

Oisin's lips tugged as he inspected me, as if trying to make sense of this impulsive little girl. His eyes softened.

"There are several rooms that sit empty throughout the castle. Find one and arm yourself with jewels and finery. I believe you will blend in well enough, and wearing faerie clothing and jewels should hide some of your scent so long as you don't let anyone too close. Once you find the portal, you need to call upon your human side to cross. I cannot tell you how exactly, for I have never done it."

I nodded. I considered thanking him, but then I turned. "You have been kind," I said instead. "I hope one day you find a way out as well."

I was curious about this prince, the one Ankou clearly wished to put on the throne for his own gain. Hekate had said he carried a small portion of the long-lost Dream Court bloodline. I couldn't help but relate to the faerie. He may have been eternal, impossibly beautiful, and held the very stars in his hands. Yet, I didn't have to know him to realize he was a prisoner just as much as I was.

"Farewell," he said, his voice lingering, like there was more he wanted to say. I moved, leaving him, considering already making my way back to some of the rooms I had passed, wondering how it was I was going to disguise myself among the inhuman fae. But then Oisin's voice broke the silence.

"Wait."

I stopped, turning to look at him. His arm was outstretched, his face shifting as if he was struggling with something. Then a dark fire caught in his eyes, and his voice turned low and determined. "An exchange. I have given you the knowledge you need to leave Faerie, now you owe me something in return."

The air between us sizzled, and I knew his words alone had already initiated the debt. I swallowed, uneasy, but unable to deny a flicker of interest. What was it he could possibly want from me?

I had nothing to give.

"What is it you want, faerie?" I replied, my voice taking on the cold edge of a knife.

Oisin heard it, but he didn't hesitate. When he spoke his voice was a strained whisper, like he was fighting everything to make this one small request.

"Take me with you," he said. "Take me from this world. Free me from this fate, from Faerie."