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Mor didn’t. He remained lying there with his hands over his face.

“Who wishes to face me first?” Cress demanded.

There was utter silence from the Shadow Fairies, even though they stood there with their sabers drawn and their pearl armour glittering with rainwater.

And so, Cress shouted again, “Who will fight me?!”

Luc wondered why he was experiencing déjà vu. After a second, he snapped his fingers. “David and Goliath!” he realized. “Do you know that human realm story?” he asked Mor again. “That’s what this reminds me of. Cressica is like a menacing giant, and everyone is too afraid to fight him.”

Mor still ignored him.

So, Luc climbed to his feet and stood beside Cress. He cast his former Army companions a sweet, broad smile. “As you can see, I’ve aligned myself with the North Corner of Ever for the time being. Something even the Dark Queene herself was never able to do. So go back and tell that to the Assembly while they bicker like a bunch of childlings.” He took a step forward, positioning himself directly before his former Commander, and to him, he said, “Do not bother me again until after they’ve voted, or you’ll start a war that will end in the same terrible bloodshed that it did the last time we tried to stand up against the North.”

The Commander’s lip curled into a snarl, but he must have understood well enough. He turned on his heel and fled back into an airslip, the rest of the Shadows following close behind. They were all gone in exactly five seconds.

Luc exhaled slowly once the woods were clean, clear, and free of the Dark Corner presence. Even the charcoal clouds in the sky began to separate and disperse, leaving the wet forest gilded in bright light. He turned back to the two who had come to his rescue, but his smile fell when he saw Cress hunched forward and holding his stomach.

“What’s wrong with him?” he asked Mor.

Mor finally lifted his hands off his face and rose to sit. He frowned at Cress. “He ate an entire box of doughnuts before we left the human realm.”

Anentire…. Luc placed a hand over his own stomach.

“Oh dear.” He winced. Then he offered therapist-ing advice: “You should try ice cream. It’s a much lighter option for someone with a binge eating disorder.”

“I donothave a disorder,” Cress snapped at him. “And this is all your fault, you fool!”

Luc pursed his lips and took a voluntary step back. “I don’t really want to ask why you think so,” he admitted, “but I will because I’m a strong and confident nine tailed fox.” He bit his tongue, then he worked his jaw. Then he scratched the back of his head. “Alright, so why exactly is this my f—”

“You made me a promise,” Mor stated. Luc hadn’t even seen him climb to his feet, but Mor stood tall now, looking a tad bit more judgemental than before when he was rescuing Luc and caring and everything.

“Ah, yes. And for your information, Trisencor, I was still planning to keep it,” Luc returned. He slid a lock of his deep red hair out of his eyes, setting it nicely back in place. “You have no patience.”

“No patience?!” Mor growled. “I trusted you, Luc! I trusted that you’d fix this like you said you would. I was crazy for believing you’d follow through and for leaving the people I care for in the hands of a conniving fox who’s always been a risk!” Mor pointed in his face. “I knew you’d only make things worse!”

Luc’s jaw slid to the side. Those nasty words didn’t feel necessary, but he moved on. “I’m still fixing everything,” he articulated. “I’m not finished yet, and you,” he waved a finger up and down Mor’s rigid stance, “are being rather ungrateful.”

It was truly remarkable how Mor was so contained, yet sometimes he looked like he could burst at any moment and half the forest would explode.

“And, for the record, this does not count as the High Court of the Coffee Bean rescuing me. Even though things may have looked grave, I had everything under control,” he promised.

Both Mor and Cress performed a rather excellently in-sync eye roll. They turned and headed into the woods, Cress returning his hood and his sunglasses even though he’d already been ousted to the whole Dark Corner and soon rumours would trickle to the North, South, and East that Queene Levress’s deadly ward had made a return. The stress of that was written all over Mor’s face.

“Where are we going? I can’t go too far,” Luc informed them. “I’m still in the middle of fixing everything, remember?”

Cress snorted at him. A moment later, he said, “We’re fetching Dranian, and we’re going home.”

Luc stopped walking. His feet forgot how to move while he stared at Cressica Alabastian’s broad-shouldered back. Not because returning to the human realm wasn’t an option for him, though he had yet to tell Cress and Mor about that, but because Cress had used that word: “Home.”

Luc lifted a hand to his chest and rubbed over his heart where things got a little warm.

Cressica had used that word in reference to Luc. Like Luc was part of that home. Like he perhaps belonged there with them—like it was home toall threeof them.

It was only when Cress and Mor nearly got lost in the forest ahead that Luc realized he was smiling. He dropped the expression from his face and airslipped forward to save himself the scramble.

“Oh dear. Going back to the human realm isn’t possible for me,” Luc said when he fell into step behind them.

Mor glanced back over his shoulder. “Don’t lie,” he warned.