Free Fae by Emily White Page A

is
First?"
    He looked at me out of the
corner of his eye, and humiliation pooled like fire beneath my
cheeks. I became keenly aware that this boy did not get laughed at.
His gaze was so sharp and cunning, like the person he was didn't
belong in the body he'd been given.
    "It's my title." He paused
and returned his gaze straight ahead to the wide open corridor. I
looked ahead too, seeing only the same old silver walls, floor, and
ceiling and the same screens every few feet with the Emperor saying
the same thing he'd been saying since the war started, running on a
never ending loop. I wanted to run up and kiss one of the screens
right then and there. For some reason, the Emperor was on my side
and I knew that as long as that remained true, Lastrini couldn't do
anything to me.
    "I'm the Emperor's First,"
he continued. "The first to wait on him, the first to bring him his
meals, the first to stand by him at council, and when he's old and
decrepit, I'll be the first to wipe his butt."
    "That...uh...sounds
pleasant."
    He didn't say anything as
we came up to a set of closed doors. He waved a bright blue pass
beneath the door's sensor and the screen glowed green. The doors
slid to the side and we walked into a corridor I recognized
immediately. It was especially easy to recognize since one of the
many doors on either side of the hall had bright red lettering on
it.
    I took a step forward and
then turned around. I'd lived in this place, memorizing everything
about this corridor in particular, for weeks. I had never seen a
door there before.
    First paused at my side.
"They're not meant to be seen from this side," he said, no doubt
guessing my thoughts from the very confused look I knew I had on my
face. As if to prove his point, the doors slid closed with a hiss.
The seam melted away and all that stood before me was bare
wall.
    "Why?"
    "Because it's the Secret
Place before the Most Secret Place."
    I remembered then what
Lastrini had said about me sleepwalking into the most secret, the
most guarded, of all the places in The Block. How could I have done
that? I didn't even know it was there.
    And how had Cailen known
it was there?
    My stomach twisted at the
thought of Cailen. What was going on with Auru and when would he
get back to tell me? I’d failed in my mission to get answers, but I
don’t think either of us had considered how emotional Lastrini had
become since the start of this war.
    First escorted me back to
my door and it hit me then as I stood with my hand hovering just
out of reach of the scanner’s sensors that I had the perfect person
to question about the Emperor. I wouldn’t get the finer details of
Lastrini’s goals, but I didn’t think I’d have gotten those
anyway.
    “First,” I said, turning
to him and dropping my hand, “As the Emperor’s servant, you must
spend a lot of time in the Royal Wing, right?”
    “Of course. I live
there.”
    “And I’m assuming you see
the Emperor himself quite a bit.”
    He nodded.
    “What’s going on in there?
Why haven’t his people heard anything from him?”
    First gestured to the
nearest screen with the Emperor in all his royal robes and
benevolent smile offering the same encouragement I’d seen a million
times already.
    I shook my head and
sighed. “You know that’s not the same.”
    “It’s enough.”
    I turned my gaze back on
him then. His blue piercing eyes cut through me with the same
intensity as before, another hint that this boy had inherited the
wrong body, and perhaps the wrong employment. And I knew for
certain that I’d be getting nothing out of him. Interrogation
skills I had not, and it seemed as if I was destined for
failure.
    “Okay,” I said, turning
back to my door. “Thanks.”
    First stayed behind me,
his stare practically burning a hole in my back, waiting for me to
walk through the door and into my room. A momentary chill passed up
my spine, leaving as soon as it came. The effect of it, though,
lasted long after I stepped into my room