Chapter 17
Dreamer and Schemer
T abitha wasn’t even surprised when she looked down and saw that the faerie cat had abandoned her. The cat always said that she would leave if it came down to a fight between Tabitha and the Fae Queen. But if that was what this was—a fight—Tabitha was surprised that the Queen hadn’t already struck. Instead, she just stood there. Tall. Regal. Unbending. Just as she had been in Tabitha’s last dream of Tom.
And though Tabitha should have been too overcome by the Queen’s presence to speak, instead it seemed as though she was far too overcome to remain silent. “I saw you before, but it wasn’t your voice that I heard. You weren’t the one who asked me to come.”
The Queen’s hard stare became more of a sneer and when she spoke, the sound of her voice only confirmed that she had not been the one to call Tabitha here. “Why would I have asked you to come? I did not know that you even existed before you had already invaded my realm. Though, now that you are here, I have no reason to allow you to leave.”
The implication of those words filled Tabitha’s heart with dread and a feral desire to flee, but she would not abandon Tom again. She just had to believe that the magic used to threaten her could also protect her. “Tom said you only took strays. It’s your law.”
“Yes,” the Queen said furiously. “It’s my law. My own. I cannot be seen to break it, or I would lose the respect of those I rule. But now that everyone has seen that I was willing to let my human go, no one could blame me if he fails to find his so-called love and chooses to return to me in his grief.”
With all the Queen’s threats, Tabitha still found herself more outraged on Tom’s behalf than her own. But she didn’t think she was devaluing herself in that moment. Death might be preferable to a life ensnared by deceit. “So, you would lie to him?”
“Whatever words I choose to share with him will be true.”
The words would be true, but incomplete. It would still be a lie. The Fae Queen had no reason to care for Tabitha, so it still seemed useless to ask her to spare her. But the Queen should care for Tom. “You know what happens to humans if they stay here. He will die—”
“All humans die.”
“Yes. From illness. Old age. Perhaps even a blade. But if Tom dies because of something you did, would you not regret it?” The voice in Tabitha’s dreams that had called her here hadn’t been the Queen’s. Instead, it must have been a voice from the fates, or a voice so deeply repressed inside of Tabitha that she could no longer see it as her own, but it still seemed that there should be a way for the Queen to understand the necessity of Tabitha’s coming. “And if you must manipulate and deceive him to keep him . . . if you must keep him under you as a thrall. You will never respect him, and his love for you would never be true.”
The Queen was quiet for several moments after that, and her next words were more thoughtful. Almost mournful. “I am queen. There is no man—human or fae—who could possibly be my equal, but I did care for him. I fed him. I let him sleep most days. That’s what humans need, is it not?”
When Biscuit had her last litter of kittens, Bandit was the only one Tabitha had kept. The rest she gave away to eager village children who wanted cats of their own. She remembered one precocious young girl quizzing Tabitha on all the best ways to care for her new pet.
How long will they live? How much should they eat or sleep? Where were their favorite places to be scratched, and how did you know if they were happy?
And that is what she saw now, looking at the Fae Queen. The same innocence—slightly twisted. So sweet and dark all at once. She couldn’t hate the Queen in the way she thought she should, but Tabitha knew Tom.
Even as a cat, he valued his freedom more than anything else. This gilded cage could never be what he wanted, and Tabitha was shamed that she had ever doubted that—even for a moment.
“I understand,” Tabitha said, and the words were true. Though she didn’t understand all the magic and politics involved, Tabitha knew the Queen had also been manipulated by someone in her own family court. It was possible that she wouldn’t have used Tom in the way she had if she had known the whole story. “You did the best you could and loved him in the way you thought was right. You were lied to as we were lied to, and you thought there was no better option for him. But now I am here. And if you care for him at all, you should want him to return home with me.”
When Archie had found the matron’s prophetic story, he had said there would be a sacrifice involved. Tabitha had worried that meant the Fae Queen was planning to harm or discard Tom as part of their Spring Celebration. But could it have meant something else?
Releasing Tom would be a great sacrifice of another kind for the Queen, if only she were willing to let it take place.
Then there would be no reason for them to fight at all.
The Queen shook her head. “And would you love him as an equal? Or even as a prince and your superior? Or did you merely come here for your cat?”
“I came for my friend in whatever form he chooses to take.”
The Queen didn’t seem to believe her. In fact, she looked triumphant. “Well, I suppose we shall see about that—if your love for him is as true as you claim it is. There is ancient magic at play that I can’t break, even if I were so inclined.”
The words were final and vaguely threatening, but before Tabitha could ask what the Queen had meant, the fae waved a hand in dismissal, and everything went dark.