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While Kipp was occupied with his friend, Thea and Cal drank their mead and listened to the musicians. She told him about her meeting with the king, while he filled her in on how Nobleman Briar threatened to cut off his balls for looking in his daughter’s direction.

‘I mean, you would have looked at her, too. She had a giant wart on her nose,’ he explained helplessly.

Thea laughed so hard that her drink came out her nostrils. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she noticed Cal’s arm rested on the back of the booth behind her, his sleeve brushing her neck. They’d been moving closer together as the music had grown louder and louder, but now his leg was pressed against hers and he was looking at her…differently, his gaze hooded.

‘Cal…’ she said slowly. He was close enough that his warm breath tickled her face, and she could faintly smell the mead they’d been drinking all night.

‘Thea…’ he replied, his voice playful, but her name slightly slurred. Brazenly, he put his arm around her fully now, giving her a gentle squeeze. ‘Don’t you want to see what’s upstairs? I could be atyourdisposal, if you wished it…’

Cal was a handsome man, there was no denying that, and for a brief moment, she let her gaze fall to his mouth, wonderingwhat it would be like to kiss him, to have the stubble of his beard graze her skin. But all the free mead in the midrealms couldn’t get her to risk the friendship they had built over the last few months. And it wasn’t just that… She felt nothing. Her body didn’t sing in his presence. It wasn’t Cal she wanted to kiss; it wasn’t Cal’s hands she wanted exploring beneath her clothes.

Slowly, Thea pushed him back. ‘Bad idea, Cal,’ she said as gently as she could. She braced herself for anger, that was her general experience with men when they didn’t get what they wanted.

But with a sheepish grin on his face, Cal let her push him away. ‘Ah, it was worth a shot, wasn’t it?’

‘You’re an idiot,’ she told him, instantly relieved that things weren’t strained between them.

‘True.’

‘Do we leave Kipp to his own devices? Will he find the inn alright?’

Cal laughed. ‘I don’t think he’ll be joining us.’ He got to his feet clumsily and steadied himself against the table. ‘Let’s go sleep this off and pray we’re not hungover for the journey back. He’ll find us in the morning.’

Arm in arm, Thea and Cal stumbled to the nearby inn, falling into their separate beds, Cal snoring a moment later.

The morning was not Thea’s friend. Her head felt swollen, her mouth tasted like sawdust and the thought of being jolted around in a saddle all day had her grimacing before she’d even tugged on her boots.

Much to her and Cal’s annoyance, Kipp was waiting for them, fresh and bright-eyed in the stables.

‘Didn’t know when to stop, did you?’ he said. ‘You probably didn’t eat enough. Rookie mistake.’

‘Didn’t eat enough? You must be joking,’ Cal groaned.

‘Do you have to be so loud,Kristopher?’ Thea added, adjusting the length of her stirrups.

Kipp gave her a maddening grin. ‘I’m speaking at a normal volume.’

‘Horseshit,’ Cal muttered as he led his horse from its stall. ‘You’re louder than a bloody mountain drake. And must you be so bloody cheerful? You of all people know that a hangover likes miserable company.’

‘Don’t know what you’re talking about. And how can you be miserable? It’s going to be agloriousday.’

As the sun inched its way into the pink and purple sky, with Thea and Cal a little worse for wear, and Kipp in incredibly high spirits, the trio left the city of Hailford behind them.

Throughout the journey back to Thezmarr, Thea and Cal questioned Kipp relentlessly about his relationship with the dark-haired beauty Milla, and Kipp turned the questioning on Cal, insisting that he had a woman somewhere he wasn’t telling them about.

‘Remember that morning you were in that foul mood? I was sure something was going on then,’ Kipp insisted. ‘But then Thea and I got beaten to pulps, and I was so concussed I forgot to ask.’

But Cal refused to divulge any information, claiming that Kipp had only recently deigned to share his real name, so the details of Cal’s love life, or lack thereof, were none of his business.

‘What about you, Thea?’ Kipp asked good-naturedly. ‘We know you were seeing that stable boy —’

‘Apprentice,’ Thea corrected with a groan. ‘He was the stable master’sapprentice.’

‘Right. Apprentice… I got the impression that was over? Is there anyone else —’

Thea shook her head. ‘No,’ she told him firmly. ‘There’s no one.’

Just as they had on the outward journey, the days passed quickly as they headed home to the fortress. They saw no one but the odd merchant on the road and, while the nights had grown cold, the impending winter storms were somehow held at bay.