“It did,” Lachlan said calmly. “I bought it with my first earnings when I moved away from my mother’s house. Bran?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
Wordlessly, Bran took off the small silver ring he’d been wearing on his pinky.
“Oh, Bran—no!” I exclaimed. “Your mother left you that—it’s a family heirloom.”
“And we are family now,” he said gently. “The three of us are bound together, Emma. I can’t think of a better use for the ring.”
“I feel the same way,” Lachlan said firmly. He took the ring and cupped it with the emerald stud in one hand. He covered it with his other hand and closed his eyes, his face tight with concentration.
I supposed he must be doing some kind of a spell or at least calling on his magic. His left leg was touching my right and I thought I could feel a faint tingling running through him. For a long, breathless moment, he looked like someone who was concentrating fiercely with a single-minded purpose on a very difficult task. Then he opened his hands and showed me what was in them.
The silver ring had been changed into a flat crescent moon about the size of a silver dollar. It had a faint bluish patina that reminded me of Bran’s eyes. From its top tip, on a golden chain, hung the emerald like a pendant or a star.
“Oh…” I whispered, not daring to touch it. “It’s beautiful!”
“Do you have a chain you can wear it on?” Lachlan asked me. “It will work better if you keep it close to your skin.”
“I do! Wait a minute.” I jumped up and ran to my bedroom. I had a simple gold chain my mom had gotten me for my sixteenth birthday. She hadn’t said anything about how much it cost, but I knew she must have saved for months to get it. I brought it back out to the Common Room and Lachlan carefully slipped the crescent moon with its emerald star pendant onto the chain. I lifted my hair and Bran fastened it around my neck.
It settled right in the hollow of my throat and felt as light as a feather.
“Thank you.” I took both their hands in mine and squeezed them. “Thank you both, so much!”
“This is a gift freely given,” Lachlan said, sounding like he was reciting some kind of formal vow. “There is no debt incurred between us.”
“Um, okay. Is that something you always have to say when you give something to someone in the Realm?” I asked.
“Yes.” Bran nodded. “As Lachlan told you yesterday, Fae magic is largely transactional. Unless you state otherwise, if you give something to someone or do some service for them, you’re expecting to be paid for it.”
“Like the life-debt that was between the two of you,” I said, remembering. “You guys never did tell me that story.”
Lachlan frowned, looking uncomfortable, I thought but Bran only shrugged.
“The last time I saw Lachlan in the Realm, before my family went into hiding, he was being attacked by an ogre. I drew my sword and fought it before it could kill him.”
“What, an actual ogre?” I exclaimed. “What do they even look like?”
“Pray you never find out,” Lachlan said darkly. “They are denizens of the Winter Court and one reason the High Sidhe of the Summer Court despise those of us from the Dark Lands.”
“Ogres aren’t going to win any beauty contests,” Bran said frankly. “But at least this one only had two heads.”
“Wait—only two?” I asked. “How many can they have?”
Bran shrugged. “Up to twenty, I believe, in the larger varieties. There’s a legend about an especially huge ogre with twenty heads who captured twenty human princesses and forced them each to rub one of his heads every night before he fell asleep.”
“Ugh!” I made a face. “Poor princesses!”
“Any female captured by an ogre is to be pitied,” Lachlan said in a low voice. For some reason he was looking down at his hands as he spoke. “They are creatures of darkness—unrelentingly evil and abusive.”
I didn’t know why, but what he said touched me—it almost sounded like he was speaking from personal experience. Had someone he loved been captured that way?
“Well, this one certainly shouldn’t be bothering anyone ever again. I wounded it badly—hopefully it died after it crawled off.” Bran frowned at his friend. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t kill that ogre yourself, you know. Your magic is certainly powerful enough. Did it catch you off guard?”
“Something like that.” Lachlan was still looking at his hands. “I was…embarrassed that it bested me so easily,” he said. “Which was one reason I left before you could declare saving my life a gift.”
“I wouldn’t have done that anyway,” Bran said calmly. “I knew that with a life-debt between us, I could call you to me. I was hoping when I did, our friendship could be healed.”