The Wish Granter (Ravenspire #2)(19)

“Don’t make a wish, Your Highness. It’s not worth it. It never is.” Rahel leaned across her desk, her voice trembling. “There isn’t anything you want that could be worth the pain of dealing with the Wish Granter.”

Ari blinked. “Um . . . I’m not talking about the Wish Granter. I’m not interested in children’s stories. I was talking about a creepy little man named Teague.”

Rahel drew back, straightening parchment on her desk with fingers that shook so much she knocked the parchment to the floor. Her voice was a whisper. “All fae myths are based in fact, Your Highness. Teague is the Wish Granter, and you would do well to stay far away from him.”

Ari frowned. It was difficult to accept that the horrible stories Thad’s nanny, Babette, had told the twins about the Wish Granter were real, but it was clear Rahel believed she was telling the truth. And it was equally clear that Teague had powerful magic and had come to an agreement with Thad.

Maybe that meant Thad had made a wish, though she couldn’t imagine what he’d want badly enough to get involved with a creature like Teague.

Rahel was still waiting for Ari’s reply.

“I’ll stay away from Teague,” Ari said. At least until she was prepared to force him to release her brother from his debt. “Please do order the book for me. When will it be in?”

“Four or five weeks.” Rahel looked past them to the city street outside her door. “You should leave now. Go back to the palace. This isn’t a day for marketing.”

Ari examined the street as she and Cleo left the bookshop and turned right to walk the three blocks to the spice merchant. It was still somewhat crowded, though there were more men than women entering the shops, which was different from their usual market day. Still, Ari saw nothing to explain Rahel’s nervousness.

“She was acting strangely today,” Cleo said, shoving an errant curl out of her eyes as their guards fell in step behind them.

“She obviously knows enough about Teague to be afraid of him.” And she’d unwittingly given Ari a new piece of information—the name Wish Granter. Ari had never actually believed a powerful fae had been exiled to Súndraille and went around granting your deepest desires at a terrible price. But Rahel wasn’t a liar, and Ari had seen Teague’s magic with her own eyes, right after he discussed the bargain he’d made with her brother.

What had Thad wished for? And what was the price he’d agreed to? Dread curled in her belly, heavy and cold.

“Rahel was acting strangely even before you brought Teague up,” Cleo said, interrupting Ari’s thoughts.

Pushing her questions to the back of her mind, Ari looped her arm through Cleo’s as they turned north and picked up their pace. “Maybe because if Mama Eleni finds out Rahel helped us while we were at the market without permission, Rahel will need to go into hiding in Balavata to survive.”

“I concede the point. Now slow down. Not all of us are blessed with legs up to our chins.”

Ari shortened her stride and reviewed the assets she had in her secret battle against Teague. Iron being fashioned into weapons by the new weapons master. A book on order that contained the entire history of the fae and hopefully their weaknesses. Or at least the weaknesses of the Wish Granter. And soon, if her luck held, she’d have some ground bloodflower.

Teague had crossed the wrong family this time.

“There really are a lot of men on the street today,” Cleo said as they turned onto the road that ran by the spice shop. “And they don’t seem to be shopping.”

Ari glanced around. Young men around her age moved in pairs from shop to shop on the street they’d just left behind. They were dressed in a ragtag assortment of patched clothing, and there was a hardness to their expressions that sent a whisper of unease down Ari’s spine. The buzz of customers moving with purpose from one item on their list to the next had fallen silent, though there were still plenty of people on their current street.

“Your Highness!” A man rushed from his spice shop to bow deeply as the girls came abreast of his doorway.

“Edwin, how nice to see you.” Ari beamed at the merchant.

His gaze darted along the street before returning to her. “What are you doing in the market today? Where is Mama Eleni?”

“It’s just us, but we—”

“Come in! No lingering in the streets today.” Edwin all but pulled the girls into the shop. The guards took up their post outside the entrance as Edwin flipped the wooden sign that hung above his display window to Closed and faced the princess.

“What’s wrong?” Ari asked as Cleo made a show of rubbing her wrist as if Edwin’s grasp had hurt her.

“Forgive me, Your Highness.” He glanced at the street again. “But it’s Thursday.”

“That’s what generally happens after you have a Wednesday,” Cleo muttered.

“We’ll only be a minute,” Ari said, despite the chill that was spreading over her skin at the strange way Edwin was acting. She’d gotten away with lying to Mama Eleni and sneaking out to the market once. Princess or not, the chances of that happening again any time in the next decade were slim to none. And she needed the bloodflower poison. She especially needed it without having to explain why to Cleo’s mother, who would undoubtedly try to take on Teague herself for daring to upset her king and her princess.