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Helenka didn’t even notice, gaping at me with emerald eyes that grew impossibly wider. ‘You are … how old?’

Not old enough to have lived and met Zera before the War of the Gods ended. We both knew that was the true answer she was looking for, but I bit my tongue and restrained myself to a less pedantic, ‘Twenty-one summers.’

‘The gods …’ She visibly swallowed. ‘They’ve been dead all your life.’

I braced myself. ‘Zera is alive.’

Helenka was trembling now, shaking like a leaf; her gaze wouldn’t stop darting back and forth between Alyra and me, taking stock of the facts she knew. A familiar. My mysterious magic that her spies must have told her about. Only one explanation possible, but it was an explanation that made a lie out of five hundred years of a godless existence, and would she be able to accept that in the little time we had?

‘She’s lost most of her power,’ I continued, my voice steadier than my fluttering pulse. This was not the moment to give her the opportunity to gather her thoughts and decide the miracle was just another filthy fae trick, after all. ‘She’s living in her woods on the continent, where she is mostly protected from the plague. But she is alive, she still hears your prayers.’

Helenka drew in a rough, shivery breath. ‘You found her.’

‘Yes.’

‘She …’ Again she glanced at Alyra. ‘She made you …Vedra.’

I didn’t know the word, but her voice had dropped to a breathless, almost reverent whisper that made questions redundant. ‘Yes.’

A string of syllables fell over her lips – curses or prayers, I couldn’t tell. Her hands shook as she gestured at the woodline behind her; she didn’t follow the direction of her gestures with her eyes, as if even now, even after the battle, even after Alyra, she did not dare to trust the choice she was making.

‘No servant of Zera is denied sanctuary on my island.’ There was a desperate quality to her voice. ‘Walk on, fae girl. Your friends are waiting for you.’

I did not move. ‘And Creon?’

Even through the breathless shock, the repulsion was evident as daylight on her face, and this time she spoke without a shred of doubt. ‘The beast murdered a queen of Tolya. Unless he’s willing to kill me, too, he’s not setting a single foot on my grounds.’

Well.That was a clear enough statement.

And that … that would be it, wouldn’t it? I saw the next few seconds play out before me while I turned to meet Creon’s gaze, exhaustion and defeat heavy on my shoulders – he’d shrug that uncaring shrug he’d perfected over the course of centuries, that gesture that said,it’s not my loss that you refuse to acknowledge the glory and perfection of my existence.He’d smile that beautiful, bone-chilling smile that was somehow a death threat and a promise at once. And then he’d vanish and either take me with him or leave me to deal with the wiles of our maybe-allies – because it was better than vulnerability. Because the Silent Death, nightmare in the flesh, didn’t plead or haggle for access. Because …

Creon cocked his head just a fraction, gaze wandering to me like a compass needle finding its true north. And with quick, nimble fingers, he signed,Offer her a bargain for truth.

Surprise wiped the concept of language from my mind for a good two seconds.

A bargain. For truth –histruth. Which meant … Which meant he was going totry? And risk rejection and failure? The notion seemed so utterly impossible that I found myself blinking owlishly at him in the midday sun, forgetting for a moment to be the godsworn mage who knew exactly what she was doing.

‘Are … are you sure?’

A grin slid over his face, gorgeous like a summer’s day and yet hiding a spark of understanding below that inhuman façade.As long as you have my back.

Good gods.

My laugh was a weak, unconvincing attempt. He’d listened, then, not just today but that night by the fire, too – my secrets, but his inability to make the truth just a little more palatable. And his answer … a bargain for the truth, for a little crack in that impenetrable shield of the Silent Death’s disguise.

I could have cried.

But a shaken nymph queen was watching me, and the future of our alliance might hinge on the very words I was about to speak. So I merely faced her and said, ‘He offers you a bargain for the truth. Whatever questions you have about his motivations and ambitions.’

She blinked – thrown off-balance as much as I had been, as if the abrupt revelation of Zera’s survival had not been enough. ‘A bargain fortruth?’

‘Yes.’

‘In return for what?’ The disbelief in her voice was tangible. She’d dealt with fae before, knew the blades and poisons that could hide below their bargains … and a bargain for truth was a damn powerful thing. Could I blame her for not believing the Silent Death would offer her a look straight into his mind without any hidden intentions?

Creon merely nodded at the forest behind her, not even granting the matter any signs. Access to the island.

Helenka’s laugh was a tad too shrill. ‘That very much depends on your answers, Hytherion. I might reconsider my stance after hearing what you have to say, and that’s the most I’ll bargain for.’