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“The farm?” Confusion deepened on his face before he finally caught up.

“You’re her boy, aren’t you? Whatever the fuck was his name?

Of course, you’re grown now.” He ran his pale eyes up and down my frame, stopping at the collar around my neck.

“Right. She sold you to the temple, didn’t she?

I see the Joy Guardians made you one of them. ”

My head was spinning, making it hard to keep a grip on reality.

“What do you mean by sold? Did Mother get money for me?”

“She sure did. A good coin too. I would’ve given you away for free, but everything has its price, doesn’t it?” He sneered.

Was that true? Of all the complicated reasons to give up a child, did my mother have the simplest one? Money ?

Watrat sidestepped me carefully, holding his sword up, ready to strike.

“I told her I’d kill you if she didn’t get rid of you,” he said.

“ I thought she’d finally have more time to look after me and the farm, but getting rid of you only made her more miserable.

She fucking cried all the time, pathetic woman.

” He scowled, giving me a long, measuring stare.

“Who would’ve thought that she loved you so much, a nasty little brat like you were? ”

Watrat was the last person I expected to get any comfort from, but what he said brought me peace.

It finally delivered me from all resentment toward my mother.

Maybe she was weak. Maybe she felt like she had no choice.

But she did her best to protect me, even if it hurt her.

Because of her, I grew up to be what I was.

Watrat lunged at me, slashing with his sword. I leaped aside, evading his attack.

Anger rose in me, hot like the fire in the camp. I gripped my dagger, itching to return every moment of violence this man had put me through in my life. But the camp was aflame. And Ciana needed me.

“Where is the woman who had this dagger before you?” I demanded. “Give her to me, and I’ll let you live.”

“You came for the Joy Vessel? You caused all this?” He jerked his head back at his burning camp. “For a fucking human?”

I’d burn the rest of the world for Ciana in a heartbeat, if only that would help me get her back.

“So you want some of joy riches too, farm boy?” Watrat mocked. “But A Joy Vessel is an expensive plaything. If you want one, you’ll have to pay.”

“She is not a thing to be sold.”

“Oh, but many will be happy to buy her at the auction where she’s headed. A sweet morsel like her will fetch a good price. But the gold will be mine, not yours. Because I’m the one who owns her now.”

“Ciana will never be yours.” I raised my dagger, determined to move past him even if I had to cut him down .

“Except that she’s mine already, to do whatever the fuck I want with. And you can’t do a fucking thing about it, because I’m the one with the sword. ” He swung his weapon again.

I jumped back, tripped in the sand but managed to stay upright. Ducking under his sword, I struck up with my dagger, stabbing him in the stomach. He howled in pain, gripping his sides and dropping his sword. I shoved him into the sand on his back.

“How did my mother die?” I pressed my blade under his chin.

His features distorted in pain, but even that failed to completely erase the hated smirk off his face.

“She tripped and fell on a garden hoe. It got her right between the eyes.”

“That wouldn’t kill a fae,” I snapped, pressing the blade harder.

“Well, I guess the hoe was made of iron,” he croaked.

No one would waste the precious iron to make a garden hoe.

“You killed her.”

He didn’t deny it. There was no regret in his expression, just pure, undulated fear of dying.

“I was acquitted by the queen through my High Lord,” he whimpered.

“But not by me.” I sliced across his throat.

Hot blood splashed on my hand, gushing from the wound in spurts when he attempted to scream.

Lifting the dagger, I sank it into his chest, straight into his heart, inflicting the wound that was not survivable. I felt no remorse. No pity. Just a regret that I hadn’t tracked him down before and hadn’t done this much, much earlier.

“Sakin? Joy Guardian?” Malis climbed up the dune to us. “Is there a fight here? Whom do I stab?”

She brandished my second dagger over her head. Her eyes reflected the fire. The hair knot on top of her head was in a wild disarray, resembling a hedgehog with all its needles up .

“The fight is over.” I pushed to my feet, rising over the dead body.

“Sakin? Are you alright?” She checked on the wounded men.

Sitting in the sand, he moved his shoulder.

“I’ll live. Unlike that guy.” He pointed at Watrat’s dead body that was starting to deteriorate already. Black smoke seeped from both his wounds.

Malis wrinkled her nose in disgust, then bent over quickly, snatching Watrat’s sword from the sand.

“Can I keep this?” she asked, inspecting the weapon.

“Yes,” I said. “Take whatever you want from him and down in the camp. I’ll just need my woman. And this.” I took my dagger from her hand.

“Hey!” she protested but not very passionately, distracted by her newly acquired sword.

“These are mine, and I’m keeping them.” I shoved both daggers in their respective sheaths, then turned to Sakin who was now standing on his both feet, swaying slightly. “Stay with Sakin until he’s better, Malis. He was stabbed by that very dagger you wanted to keep.”

Not losing another moment, I headed down to the camp.

Charred bodies littered the ground here. I counted eleven, which would be twelve with Watrat now decomposing up on the dune. It meant all these pleasure traders were now dead. Raimus had knocked down a half-burned tent and was now digging through its contents.

“Hey, Joy Guardian, do you want some of this?” He shook a burlap sack filled with loot.

“Have you found the humans?” I asked, running past him.

“No. Haven’t seen any. Gefred found some horses though.”

Gefred walked into the circle of light from the scattered campfire, leading two horses by their reins.

“Did you see any humans?” I asked him.

“No, but there are some cages under those rags.” He tipped his chin at the dark mass of rags and boards piled up to the right, away from the camp.

“Cages? Is that how they treated them?” Anger choked my words. I wished Watrat was still alive, so I could kill him all over again. And this time, I wouldn’t be quick.

I ran to the cages and flung the covers off them. Crudely made from sticks and metal, the cages were not wide enough to lay down and not tall enough to stand up. The idea of anyone using these to lock up sentient beings inside made my blood boil.

“They’re empty,” Gefred stated, approaching me with the horses. “They must’ve taken the Joy Vessels elsewhere already. Oh, maybe killed them?”

Blood rushed to my brain. The sound of it running through my veins echoed in my ears, drowning his words.

I was too late.

Ciana was gone.

“Is your woman a human?” Gefred asked suspiciously. “Because you never said that she was.”

“Traders!” Malis screamed, running down to the camp. “They’re sneaking around that way!” She pointed with her sword to the right of the cages.

My anger and despair got a new target. Yanking my daggers from their sheaths, I ran around the cages in search of the traders. Blinded by the urge for vengeance, I slammed into the first one at full speed.

“Ahhhh,” air rushed out of the person’s lungs.

Instead of stabbing, however, my arms instinctively went around the small shape, much smaller than a trader would be.

She screamed, punching my chest and arms, and I didn’t mind the pain.

“Ciana…” I exhaled, burying my face in the familiar pink braids.

Peace descended on me. Sorrow and injustice often reigned in the world, but for this one blissful moment, everything seemed suddenly better. With Ciana back in my arms, I could face anything.

“Hush, sweetheart,” I murmured, comforting her in my embrace. “It’s me. You’re safe now.”

“Kurai?” She paused her fists mid-blow. “Is that really you? You’ve come for me?”

“Of course I have. I’d go to the end of the world and back if that’s what it took to find you.”

Affection warmed her gaze, and I knew exactly how wondrous it’d feel if I still had my tendrils connected to her emotions.

“Did you do all of this?” She tipped her head at the inferno consuming the camp. “Did you burn this whole thing down just to get me out?”

“Ciana, sweetheart, I’d burn down the whole world for you, many times over, just for a smile on your face.”

With a soft whimper, she pressed her forehead to my chest, going completely still, as if absorbing my presence with all her senses.

“You’re alive,” she exhaled, then splayed her fingers on my chest, moving them along my body to assess its condition. “How are you feeling?” She hovered her hands over the wounds in my arms. “I’m so, so sorry, I hurt you. I had to… I just didn’t know how else to save you from them…”

Her fingers touched my arms, and I sucked in a sharp breath at the contact.

“You’re in pain.” Her expression fell.

“I’m alive.” I mimicked one of the comforting smiles that she’d given me so often before.

“And I have you.” I pressed my lips to hers in a quick kiss.

“I love you.” I wanted to shout these words for all the world to hear.

But she had to hear them first, murmured tenderly, just like this, for her alone. “I love you, Ciana. So, so much.”

My heart overflowed with the desperate need to have her close, to protect her, to ward off any harm that could ever come her way.

We weren’t connected by my tendrils anymore, but I still believed my feelings echoed hers.

Maybe because we had shared every emotion for so long, I thought that the longing and the tenderness filling my heart were hers as much as they were mine.

I expected to hear the same three words from her any moment now.

But the silence stretched longer and longer, with not a single word from her in reply.