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‘Wait.’ I narrowed my eyes at him. ‘Did she take theirwingsto bind them?’

‘Wings for males, fertility for females. Yes.’ His grim smile was utterly joyless. ‘So they may very well give in if we can convince them we’ll get those things back to them.’

‘Ifwe can convince them,’ Lyn bitterly interrupted. ‘Which is currently impossible, because we don’t know how to use the gods-damned bindings, and they’re not going to believe us on the basis of our pretty blue eyes.’

‘Creon has his voice back,’ Nenya said, sounding doubtful. ‘That could be evidence of what Emelin’s new magic can do?’

‘Creon is faeandtechnically still bound.’ She tugged a wild red curl behind her ear with a groan of frustration. ‘He’s the very last example they would trust.’

Another silence fell, yet this one no longer seemed nearly so hopeless as the previous ones – it was buzzing with thoughts, with the new ideas bubbling up in me. They came with risks, of course. They came with danger. I would be walking a fine line – but gods, I much preferred that option to not walking at all.

‘What if we had just one example?’ I said.

‘Reading my mind,’ Creon muttered. ‘I’m just wondering how we’ll get Thysandra to talk.’

‘Thysandra is very clearly not planning on talking,’ Tared said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. ‘And if she’s used to dealing with demon magic, I doubt you’re going to be able to torture the information out of her anytime soon.’

Creon’s expression was just shy of an eyeroll. ‘Much as it may surprise you, Idothink about things other than torture every now and then.’

‘I could try to convince her?’ Naxi suggested hopefully.

‘That’s about plan F,’ Lyn said with a groan. ‘Any other ideas?’

Creon shrugged. ‘I’m thinking it will be easier to make her betray the location ofonebinding than the general secret of how to identify them. She has a good memory. If she remembered where mine was, she may know where some of the other important ones are kept, too. So if we can offer her something in return …’

‘Like what?’ Nenya said, chewing her bottom lip with one razor-sharp fang. ‘I don’t feel like offering her much, to tell you the truth.’

‘She might do it for the opportunity to stick a couple of knives through my wings,’ Creon said dryly. ‘Pretty sure she’s been wanting that for centuries.’

I scoffed, my heart skipping a beat more violently than I liked. The sight of those bloodied arrows still hovered far too close to the surface of my mind. ‘Let’s not exploit your self-sacrificial tendencies until we’ve excluded all other options, alright?’

He chuckled. ‘So sensible.’

‘You’re the only person in this room who has ever called me sensible,’ I said sourly. ‘Not sure I want to know what that says about either of us. Naxi, is there anything you think she might value enough to give us the information we need?’

‘She’d do quite a lot to please the Mother,’ Naxi immediately said, blue eyes wide with eager hope – as if Lyn and Tared might change their minds if she was just helpful enough. ‘Then again, she may want tonotplease you even more. So it’s possible she’ll spit in your face the moment you ask for anything.’

I looked at Creon.

Creon looked at me.

Plans seemed to be shaping themselves in the air between us – plans I was strangely, exhilaratingly sure we shared, minds wandering into the same shadowy corners, the same schemes of almost-honesty. I might not be a seasoned general or a warrior with hundreds of battles behind me, but if there was one skill I had honed all my life, it was this one: manoeuvring the opinions of others around me.

He nodded, the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.

‘Alright,’ I said, drawing in a deep breath as I turned back to the rest of the table. ‘Listen.’

And lo and behold, they did.

Chapter 10

The corridor Tared fadedus into was long and narrow, pale alf lights hovering near the ceiling to illuminate the rows of cells on either side. The alf steel plates on the doors hinted clearly at the inhabitants they had been intended for – and had been used for, judging by the occasional scratches and dents in the stone and metal around us. Every now and then, some desperate fae must have attempted to fight their way out.

I shivered. I suspected many of the individuals who’d ended up here had never seen the light of day again.

‘She’s in cell number 104,’ Tared said in a low voice, clearly unhindered by the memories this place must evoke. ‘Don’t tell Naxi, please. Once you’re done, you can walk around that cornerand left again, and you’ll be behind Etele’s quarter. I suppose you can find the way back by yourselves?’

We assured him we could. He pressed the key into my fingers and vanished into nothingness, on his way to Phurys to set the next part of the plan in motion. Leaving Creon and me alone so, so easily – it still felt like a miracle.