Page 1 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom (Faeted Seasons #2)

Vareck

“You’re a godsdamned menace!”

My mate’s voice pierced the hazy fog of sleep that still enveloped me. I frowned, rolling onto my back. Sunlight streamed through the open curtains, and the room was a comfortable temperature. It was perfect for the lazy morning I planned to spend in bed with Meera.

There was just one problem.

She wasn’t here.

“She’s downstairs,” Corvo said as I bolted upright. He loafed in front of the dying embers of last night’s fire, enjoying the warmth. I was so used to him popping in and out, it wasn’t surprising for him to show up here. “Not happy either, by the sounds of it.”

I slipped out of the bed, then paused. My favorite pair of fur-lined leather trousers was already on my body, as was a black shirt with rolled cuffs. I raised a brow in an unspoken question.

“Figured you’d want to go running downstairs, and not everyone wants to see you swinging your junk around like a sad balloon animal.”

My jaw tightened. “Prior to your insult, I was going to say this was oddly considerate of you.”

Corvo’s tail flicked. “Ew, Vareck. Don’t make it something it’s not. Meera bothered me about clothes. I saved myself the trouble when I knew you would inevitably ask for the same favor before chasing after your lady friend.”

“And there’s the asshole we all know.” I rolled my eyes, donning the socks and boots at the end of the bed. A dark cloak lay over the back of one of the chairs. I tossed it on, barely tying the damn thing before I was out the door.

Crash.

My pace quickened as I sped toward the commotion. I took the steps two at a time, then turned toward the hall. My breath halted when my gorgeous mate came into view. Fiery red hair, curvy form, and pissed off glowing green eyes.

“Tell me who hired you,” she demanded, her voice laced with persuasion.

“Stop trying to compel me, lass. It’s just wasting your power.”

“Tell me!”

“I can’t! You know—” The black-haired fae ducked as she threw a dish at his head. If not for his quick reflexes, that would have hit its mark with impressive force. “For fuck’s sake. Can you calm down so we can talk about this like reasonable folk?”

“Calm down?” Meera repeated. She’d gone deathly still.

I winced. He didn’t seem to realize that he’d committed the greatest of sins.

He told a woman to calm down.

I hoped he was praying to whatever god he believed in because he was going to need it.

“My fucking sister is missing, you prick!”

“Now, now, Meera. There’s no need for name-calling.”

I recognized the leprechaun without question, and I could easily understand her wrath considering the circumstances surrounding their last meeting, but his name had escaped me. Larry? Lachlan? No, that wasn’t it.

“Name-calling is the least of what I’ll do to you if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”

Slowly, the bearded man stood to his full height, trying to inch backwards while placating her. “You know I can’t do that?—”

That was also the wrong thing to say.

Meera grabbed a butter knife and chucked it at him. Assassin, my woman was not. However, the knife spun in his general direction before the flat length hit his chest and clattered to the floor.

“Really?” he said, arching an amused eyebrow.

Meera let out a battle cry that more closely resembled a wailing banshee before she launched herself at him.

That was when I decided to intervene.

“Come back here, you coward!” she called when he bolted away with surprising agility for his size.

Unfortunately for the leprechaun, he ran in my direction and realized his mistake too late. I lifted my forearm as he plowed into me, catching him on the throat. Before he could react, I pivoted, slamming him against the hallway wall.

“Logan?” I muttered under my breath. “Luke? No, that’s still not it.”

“ Lucian , you pompous fuck.” He narrowed his eyes at me but valued his life enough to keep his hands up in surrender.

“Ah! That’s it. But she called you Lou.”

They both cast me confused glances before returning to their feud.

“Oh, thank the gods yer here!” another voice said. Farris came around the corner, relief etched on his face. “He showed up an’ she lost it!”

“I’ll handle it from here, friend. My apologies.” I tried to be as diplomatic as possible, and it seemed to give the innkeeper a measure of peace. He grabbed his broom, sweeping broken shards of plates and glass, glancing at us warily.

Meera didn’t spare the other man a glance, her gaze focused on the leprechaun I had pinned to the wall.

“How’d you even find me?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips.

“I suggest answering her,” I said, using my forearm to hold him in place by the throat.

A guilty look flashed across his expression. “The necklace. I put a tracking spell on it. Then I paid a witch for a temporary portal to get here.”

“What the fuck?” we said in unison.

“In my defense, I was only looking out for you?—”

“Tell the truth,” Meera snapped. “Or I’ll have Vareck squeeze the life out of you.”

He tried to twist his neck a little to give him room to breathe, but I held firm, pressing my arm into his throat a fraction more. He exhaled in resignation. “I wanted to be able to find you if I ever needed to.”

Meera clicked her tongue. “How self-serving of you,” she said, acid filling her tone.

“You wouldn’t have known your sister was missing if I hadn’t.”

“You’re right,” she agreed, face still impassive. “And because she’s my sister, I don’t need you or your stupid contracts to find her. Since you didn’t get the hint before, consider this my resignation. I will never take a job from you again.”

“Meera, lass—” he began in a charming, honeyed voice that had no doubt worked on plenty of women before.

The details Meera had told me about her job as a bounty hunter returned to me.

“Contract?” I repeated.

Once I accept the contract, I’m bound to it.

I can’t talk about the job.

That includes who my broker is ...

Then there was the other conversation. The one in the library when Lou had brought the necklace. Her instant animosity toward him.

I had asked if they knew each other, and she’d only answered with, “You could say that.” But she never explained how.

He was a criminal, and she’d even called him one, but Meera still knew him.

While she was a bounty hunter, Meera never gave me the impression that she’d gotten mixed up with the wrong people apart from one person.

Her broker.

My forearm pressed into his throat and then angled upward, lifting him a few inches off the floor while he started to cough and grab onto my arm in the hopes I wouldn’t crush his windpipe. “You’re the one who hired her to kidnap my nephew.”

Meera didn’t confirm or deny, but I didn’t need her to. I knew her contract prevented her from revealing who hired her, even in our current situation. Apparently, inadvertently saying she’d never take a job from him again was a workaround to the magic that bound her to silence.

“Tell me where he is,” I growled, my jaw muscles tensing.

“I don’t know?—”

“Who paid you for him?”

Lou shook his head slightly. “Can’t.” He tried to take a breath but struggled. “Contract.”

I pulled a dagger from my belt, aiming the blade at his gut. “You’d better figure out what you can say, and you’d better do it quick.”

“You really don’t wanna do this,” the leprechaun wheezed through gritted teeth and a slowly shrinking windpipe. Despite the position of power I held over him, he didn’t seem afraid, only wary.

“Oh, I very much do,” I ground out. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t.”

“Because we have dibs on killing the fucker first,” an unfamiliar female voice said, cutting in.

Lou closed his eyes and groaned. Meera and I turned to see a group of crazed redheads that had entered through the front door of the inn, but that wasn’t what caught me off guard.

Meera’s mouth fell open in shock. “Mom?”