Page 85 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

“Enora?” Maksym got out with a pant, his brows raised. “What an unexpected⁠—”

“Shut up.” I charged right past the bewildered-looking king to his mage and slammed my hands into his chest. “Who. Are. You?”

Jasper stumbled back a step, clearly caught off guard, but he grabbed my wrists as I went to shove him again.

I fought against his hold as I bit out, “Who the fuck are you, mage?”

In one disorienting motion, I was flat on my ass, and Jasper was backing away from me. Wrong. Move.

My roiling ember of anger fully ignited, and I was up in an instant, charging towards him again, but I collided with a wall of dark mist instead. It held me back as I pounded against its ephemeral surface, separating me from the mage just feet away, who still hadn’t uttered a fucking word.

Good thing I had a slew of profanities to hurl at them while I fought against the mist that kept shifting—holding me back and slipping around my wrists, trying to pull them to my sides. The audacity of this fucking man, to treat me like I was in the wrong, when he was the one who’d spent days pretending like he wasn’t harboring secrets.

“Eilir.” In the vicinity behind me, something an awful lot like fear colored Maksym’s voice. “Care to elaborate, or…?”

“I messed up!” they squeaked. “I-I s-said… Well, I-I said that⁠—”

“They said I know you, mage,” I ground out, the wall of dark mist holding me back despite my best efforts to throw my body, or at least a fist, through it. “That I know what you look like. That it’s been a long time. Care to fucking elaborate on that revelation? Or are the two of you just going to continue spinning more goddess-damned lies?”

A bit of tension ticked in Jasper’s jaw, but still, he was silent.

“Oh, good,” came Maksym’s exasperated sigh. “Thank you so much for that, Eilir.”

“It was a mistake,” the sprite whined. “I didn’t mean to!”

“Yeah,” I called back. “They fucked up really goddess-damned badly. How dare they be the only living creature in this cursed keep to have a shred of fucking honesty in them? What a despicable quality amongst such illustrious dark fae, right?”

“Enora,” came Eilir’s disregarded whine.

“Well,” huffed Maksym. “Let’s drag this feral hellcat the rest of the way out of the bag, shall we?”

Finally, the mage uttered his first strained word. “No.”

“No?” Maksym barked a laugh. “I think we’re past simple protests now, my dear friend. Something tells me she isn’t in the mood to take no for an answer.”

She.

They were out to make my blood boil even more than it already had.

“We agreed it was my choice, Max.” Jasper had his attention turned past me, to the king who was closing the distance between them. “My choice, my terms.”

The king cut his mage a sharp glance. “It’s not a choice anymore, Jasper. It’s an honesty thing. We can’t be harboring secrets from each other here, not anymore.”

“A voice of fucking reason,” I ground out, though it was a shock I could hear anything over the rushing of my blood in my ears.

“Maksym,” Jasper warned, and the bite in his voice caught me off guard. It didn’t stop me from still clawing at the shadowy barrier like I had any chance against it. “We discussed this.”

“And things have changed rather dramatically.” It looked like Maksym might slice his mage down where he stood with how intently he stared. “Demergo. The hood, Jasper. Off. Now.”

I wasn’t sure what the word meant, but I had a sickening feeling I understood the purpose of it as the shadowy wall dissipated from in front of me, and Jasper staggered as if he’d been hit.

It wasn’t just a bargain; it was a full-fledged blood oath.

One of the many reasons traditional dark fae practices were outlawed in Odessa, when their darkest versions could see one being indebted to the other so irrefutably, at full beck and call with a single word.

The mage swore, clearly fighting the pull of his muscles as his arms lifted.

“This is ridiculous.” My attention bounced between Maksym and his mage. “Who the hell are you that this is such a⁠—”