I was on a roll now, and there was no stopping me. I’d logic my way out of this if it killed me. “Can a heart be broken?”
“Certainly. ”
“Then there can’t be a limit to the number of pieces a heart can be divided into. If my heart can break into a million pieces, surely it can be evenly divided more than once. ”
Aubrey’s face went red.
“And if we’ve proven my heart can be divided as many times as it can be broken, you must also agree the love each piece feels must be equal to that of another. Correct?”
He said nothing, and his cheeks flushed darker.
“Then if all that is true, it must be true that I love each of these men equally, and neither less than the other, and as such the terms you have issued cannot possibly be complied with. You have set an impossible task for me, and the bargain is unfair. ”
Silence filled the room. I wanted someone to stand and give me a goddamn ovation for what I’d just managed to pull out of my ass. I had to settle for the intelligent part of my brain giving a sigh of relief.
“Miss McQueen, a word if I may. ” Aubrey rose from his throne and strode towards me. Not waiting for me to accept his invitation, he grabbed my arm and dragged me behind him with remarkable strength I would not have expected from his lean body.
He ushered me across the room and through a black-wood door that didn’t match the rest of the room. The room was dark inside and very small.
“Did you just pull us into a closet?”
Aubrey looked around, as if only now realizing where he had taken us. “I believe I may have, yes. ”
Nice to know even the fae needed janitorial provisions. No magic mops and buckets here.
“Do you know what you did to me out there?” he asked. His voice was level, so if he was angry, he was hiding it very, very well.
“I out-talked you. ”
“That’s certainly one way to put it. But, no, Miss McQueen. You played me for a fool. ”
“If I was able to, then you set yourself up to be played. The terms were flawed, and I exposed the flaws. I did to your game exactly what you were trying to do to me. Doesn’t feel very good, does it?”
His cheeks flushed again. “No. It does not. ”
“I’m still willing to comply with the arrangement we made. But you need to set real terms. If it’s a trade, it has to be something I can give, and the freedom of another person isn’t mine to barter with. ”
“But we are bartering for someone’s freedom. ”
“Kellen isn’t some fairy lord’s plaything. I know you might not understand that because your people have been kidnapping women since before there was a written record to show it, but you had to figure one day someone might come looking for one of those women. ”
“You aren’t the first, you know. ”
“Yeah, there are plenty of epic poems in my world, believe me. The point is, she’s not a thing, she’s someone’s sister. Someone’s friend. And we want her back. ”
“The girl is nothing to me. ”
“Then let me have her. ” My anger rattled some jars on the shelf and was probably heard outside.
“Shush, shush. ” He held a finger to his lips like that might soothe me. “Times certainly have changed in your world. I remember when a proper lady never spoke above a whisper. ”
“Tough shit for you, then, because I’ve never been a proper lady. ”
“And yet you are a queen. ”
I crossed my arms and shrugged.
“I cannot simply give her to you,” he said once it was apparent I had nothing to add to his point. “It would look weak and even more foolish than you have already made me. I have set the terms as a trade, and so a trade it must be. ”