"What's so complicated, Riel?" I demanded. "The way I see it, we just have to find out what's up with the girls coming here to dance, and then get out of here."
"Oh, well, the first part's easy. I already know that."
That shouldn't set my teeth on edge, and yet here we were. Of course he did. "Do tell."
Riel settled back in the ice throne as he explained what he'd learned. "They love dancing but they're tired of the pressure of dancing on the stage. Their adoptive father never would take a hint, and they stumbled through to here one day, where they rediscovered the fun of dancing. They vowed to continue to dance here for fun every night, a going-on-strike sort of thing, as long as their father continued not to understand." He picked up a glass from a small ice table beside him and swirled the ice cubes in the drink with thoughtful clinks. "That turned into a sort of fae bargain—you know how the fae are—and, of course, they can't tell their father, to get him to understand, because that would be telling about this fae court, which the queen made them promise not to do before they realized what that would mean. So they dance here each night, and while I haven't actually verified if they'd stop if they could, they do seem to like it."
I shifted where I stood, folding my arms, even though he couldn't see me at the moment because of the invisibility cloak I wore over my battered leather jacket. "And the second part?"
"Second part is going to be a lot harder," Riel confessed.
"Why haven't you just gone back?"
"That's the second part." Riel sipped from the glass and eyed the queen, visible across the dance floor at a refreshment table. "Turns out, the fae queen took offense at my trying to get the girls out of here. Something about thieves in the fae court and meddling and trying to break magical agreements." He gave a dismissive shrug. "Anyway, to avoid execution or something nastier, I foolishly agreed to a bargain with her."
I shut my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Riel . . ."
He gave a tense smile. "I know. I knew better. Long story short, I haven't actually cashed in on that bargain yet, but when I do I'll either be dead or belong to her forever. You know the drill."
I sighed another foggy breath. "What about the other would-be rescuers?"
Riel waved a hand around the icy ballroom filled with dancers. "Enchanted, ensnared, or various other fates; none as horrible as mine, though."
"Mm-hmm. Enthroned and sipping drinks and engaged to a beautiful queen is such a terrible fate."
"Hey, come on, now, Sean," Riel protested.
"Complain about it later, once I get you out of it," I said, starting to move down the steps of the ice dais.
He sat up straighter. "Wait, what are you doing?"
"You're not the only spy in the guild, Riel, even if you are the flashiest one."
He grinned and saluted in my general direction.
I paced through the dancers and paused in the shadow of an ice pillar. After pulling off my invisibility cloak, I left it tucked at the base of a northern lights tapestry—which was actually glowing. Because fae magic. I paused a moment, the magic reminding me of the wards around the room of the girls in question. I glanced down at the cloak. I wouldn't need it again if everything went as planned, and it might get in the way, but it was going to reappear back in Mr. King's office come morning, anyway.
That gave me an idea.
I pulled my cell phone from my back pocket—no human cell service here, just fae—and typed something. I slipped the phone into the cloak's pocket.
Then I stepped back onto the dance floor, fully visible, and cut in on the fae man dancing with the eldest of the twelve teen girls. He glided off for drinks and she accepted my hand, smiling curiously.
"You know it's dangerous here, right?" I said.
Her eyes showed only the briefest flicker of surprise before she rolled with my unusual opening. "No more than in any other fae court."
"That's dangerous enough."
She narrowed her eyes. "What do you want?"
"Why do you and your sisters dance here?"
She gave a light shrug of her shoulders. Her shimmering purple dress brought to mind the color of a different girl's eyes . . . I pulled my attention back to my dancing partner as she spoke. "It reminds us of when we were children and could dance free of scrutiny. When you do something you love until it becomes work, you may love it, but it's still work. Father doesn't understand that. There's no pressure here."
"Being trapped in a fae bargain isn't pressure?"
"It was freely entered into."
"But your father doesn't know."
The barest hint of a frown creased between her eyebrows, the only indication that this fact bothered her, but I could see it did, at least a little. She wanted to tell him, and was somewhat displeased that she couldn't.
We danced in silence for a moment across the gleaming icy floor.
"If you could go home and your father would allow you to go back to the life you remember before the stage, would you do it?"
"Of course," she said. "But he doesn't know, and we can't tell him, and nobody else who's come looking for us has done anything about it."
"But would you agree not to come back here?"
"It's beautiful here. Perilous, I know, but beautiful. I think I would miss it," she said, glancing around.
I started to speak.
"But," she went on, "I'd still give it up in a heartbeat if we could all be a happy family again."
"I'll see what I can do," I said, bowed as the dance finished, and stalked off toward the refreshment table, leaving the young woman staring quizzically after me.
The fae queen was just turning to leave, a drink in each hand, probably to go back to her throne and Riel.
"Evening," I said, taking one of the glasses unceremoniously from her hand and drinking half of it in one go—after the barest pause to smell whether it was fae or enchanted, which it wasn't.
"I don't believe we've been introduced," she said, her slightly icy tone and cold eyes the only indication she gave of her annoyance.
"We haven't," I said. "Why are those twelve girls dancing here every night?"
She tilted her fair head. "All are welcome to come to my court."
"Not the ones who came looking for them," I said.
She gave a thin, cold smile. "I said all are welcome to come. Not always welcome to leave."
"Here's the thing," I said, hooking my thumbs into the belt loops of my jeans. "I came to get them back to their father, and also to release the others who tried to rescue them and failed, but I don't intend to sneak around like they have. No tricks. I don't step on your toes (figuratively), you don't retaliate, we make a deal, they walk out of here and don't come back, and everyone's happy. I'll do whatever you like. Almost whatever," I amended. "Just let the twelve girls go, and the people who came looking for them, including the pompous clod with the blond hair who's currently lounging on your throne pretending he's important."
I waved a hand in Riel's direction. He saw me pointing and lifted his glass in a sort of wave/salute with a smirk.
"All I wanted was a kiss from him," the fae queen said.
"Well, he's stalling, and he's very good at that, believe me. Anyway, he said it would kill him."
She shrugged. "It would make his heart—and by extension, his life—belong to me, or turn it to ice. One or the other."
Well, that was cold. Literally. "Fifty-fifty chance, hmm?"
She smirked. "It depends on whether his heart already belongs to another. If it does, I cannot truly take it, merely turn it to ice."
I let this information spin around in my head for a moment until it clicked into place. So if Riel, or I, already loved a girl, we'd end up dead. Unless . . .
"And would I be a suitable substitute?" I asked.
She eyed me. "Well, that depends what you have to offer. I don't know you, you see. And I know that Gabriel Kenworth has a large fortune and a good deal of prestige in the human world—fortune and prestige that could be mine."
So she wasn't taken in by his false name. Too cunning for that.
"And who are you that I should care?" she asked.
"My name's Sean," I said stiffly, giving her the least information possible.
"Oh," she said, "you're one of Gabriel's coworkers, then. I've heard of you. Not from him," she added. "But you're an agent, then, like he is."
My teeth clenched.
"Well, this is interesting."
"An acceptable trade? You'd let them all go if I took his place?"
She nodded slowly. "I would. I give my word. Of course, the same rules would apply for you. One kiss. Your heart, one way or another. Still interested in taking his place?"
Here went nothing. "Deal."
The queen gave a slow smile. "Splendid. They're free to go. As soon as you're ready, then." She tilted her head, eyeing me with those ice-cold eyes.
I worked my jaw. "Give me a minute." I set the glass back on the table with unnecessary force and stalked off, back toward Riel.
"So how's that whole plan to rescue me coming?" Riel asked, a teasing tone in his voice to cover the tension beneath.
I blew out a breath. "Look, I'm only here because your sister will kill me if I don't bring you home."
He gave a knowing, sage nod. "Naturally."
I rolled my eyes and rubbed my forehead. "Just take the girls and the would-be fortune seekers across the lake. I'm dealing with it."
"I told you, I can't leave."
"You can now. I dealt with it."
Riel frowned and straightened in his seat. "What did you—?"
"Later. Just—just go."
"Sean—"
"And leave some of the reward for me," I added.
"Hey, I'm the one who solved the mystery," Riel said, grinning.
"Yes, and I'm just the one who saved your sorry hide and made it possible for you to leave. I'm serious. I could really use it to help with some . . . things."
He smirked. "To get those selkie shifters off your back, hmm?"
I sent him a flat look and waved my fingers. "Don't you have something to do? Bye."
Riel pushed himself to his feet, standing from the throne and adjusting the cuffs of his charcoal suit. "Right you are."
I waited until he was occupied apparently talking with the sisters in the midst of the dance floor before I strode around the edge and back to the fae queen.
"One kiss, as promised, my lady," I said stiffly.
She smiled and tilted her face toward me.
Her lips were ice cold on mine for just a moment.
We pulled back. Nothing happened—and then pain exploded through my chest in the general vicinity of my heart.
I staggered back a step with a gasp and gritted my teeth, tossing a look toward Riel and the girls and several others, who were all disappearing together through the exit.
This had better be worth it.
Time to see if my backup plan was going to work out like I planned. If it didn't, I was going to be very sorry or very dead.
Then again, if it did work, I would likely be one or the other, anyway.
I never said the backup plan was a good idea.