Steal the Sun (Thieves #4)(83)

It was easier when Lee was the one watching me. He didn’t feel the need to talk or maybe it was that he didn’t have any idea what to say to me. He just sat and watched over me while I slept, and I slept a lot. I kept my eyes closed even when I was awake because Lee might not talk much, but I couldn’t stand the look of pity in his chocolate brown eyes.

I resented all of them.

After a day or two, I didn’t even want to see Dev and Danny. I just wanted to be alone and sleep. My world narrowed to the confines of my bed, and the rest of life seemed a hazy mess I didn’t want to deal with.

When my husbands showed up on the fourth day after the incident, I barely sat up in bed to greet them.

“Sweetheart, are you all right?” Dev knelt at my bedside. He took my hand in his, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

“I’m fine,” I said dully.

Daniel stood behind him looking down on me with a worried expression.

“I’m so sorry this happened,” Dev said, and I could tell he’d been crying. “I would do anything if you didn’t have to go through this.”

“It was my fault.” I just spoke, saying the things I thought I should say, running on a zombie-like autopilot. I didn’t see either one of them. For the last several days, most of my time had been occupied with wondering how life would be if I had made a single different choice. What would things be like if I hadn’t taken that sip of tea? It seemed an insignificant thing, but that one tiny move had changed so many lives.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Z,” Danny said harshly. “You can’t possibly blame yourself.”

But he was wrong. I could definitely blame myself. I’d had a person try to assassinate me in the courtyard of that same tavern. What the hell had I been thinking drinking something I hadn’t even ordered? I shouldn’t have touched anything not made by Albert’s own two hands. I should have been more careful because I was risking so much more than my own life.

“Zoey, it isn’t your fault,” Dev said, kissing my hands fervently. “It’s likely there was a spell on the tea that made it attractive to you. If it hadn’t been the tea, then they would have found another way. It is the Unseelie agent’s fault, and I promise you I’ll do everything I can to see that justice is done.”

Daniel’s face caught my attention. He grimaced when Dev said that. It was obvious they had been briefed on something I hadn’t. I questioned him with a single look.

“Declan and Padric are quite certain that the Unseelie are behind the plot,” Daniel explained, but his face told me he didn’t believe it. Declan would believe the Unseelie were behind an earthquake if they had one here.

“Why?” I finally mustered the will to sit up. If there was actual evidence against the dark court then I wanted to hear it.

Dev looked like he wanted to ignore the question and he gave it a go. “It’s nothing for you to worry about, my wife. We’ll take care of everything. Albert says you have not eaten in several days. You have to eat, Zoey. I know it is painful, but you must keep your strength up. We need you.”

I looked past Dev. I didn’t want to talk about my lack of appetite. “Why are they so certain it’s the Unseelie?” I asked Daniel, who seemed more willing to treat me like something other than a china doll who could break at any moment.

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest and looked serious. “The man Zack caught trying to clear away the table claimed to be an agent of the Unseelie.”

“He has confessed,” Dev stated firmly, and it was easy to see he and Daniel had been arguing about this before. He looked at Danny with a stubborn set to his face. “He knew about the hex bags, too. What more do you want, Daniel?”

“How did he get the hex bag in her clothes, Dev? He worked in the tavern. He’d never been inside the palace, according to the guards. Sarah thinks he was under a spell,” Daniel explained. “We won’t ever know though because he was executed before we had a chance to question him.”

“Not big on fair trials here in Faeryland, huh?” I said bitterly. It was nice that my pain had been an excuse to commit atrocities.

“It was a mob, sweetheart.” Dev spoke softly as if the tone of his voice could make it less horrific. “There were too many of them. The guard had to give him up or they would have overrun the palace. The entire tribe is incensed at what was done to you.”

I rolled my eyes. “They couldn’t care less about me, Dev. They finally have a reason to fight and they’re going to take it. They don’t give a damn about me and they didn’t care about my son.”

“You don’t understand them,” Dev said sadly. “They’re frightened and angry. They thought our baby was a sign that things would get better.”

“Did they string up Herne while they were at it?” I had kind of wondered what had happened to the Unseelie ambassador. I hadn’t seen or heard a word about him since we had gotten back from our adventure with the ogre.

Dev’s face got hard and his eyes were cold as he thought of his former friend. “The Hunter escaped. He fled the palace after you lost the baby. Several of his guards were not so lucky.”

There was something small inside me that was happy he’d escaped. Despite his deeply stupid plan to use me as bait, I didn’t believe he would hurt my child. I wondered if they had killed the goblins I’d shared lunch with. “What other proof do they have beyond a spell-struck faery’s confession?”