Page 100 of Red Ruin

Even more, I need to show them who I’m keepingundercontrol.

After ripping through a blockade of shadow ropes, Vhex flashes into the chair opposite Remy. He wears fire armor low on his hips, flashing his abs, but concealing below the waist.

“Easy.” Before his snarl turns into a growl with fireballs, I give him back the hand that was ripped away. Vhex softens as I stroke his palm.

When his rumbling drops closer to a purr, I turn to Remy with a lifted brow. “Did you want me to feed Vhex? Or does he get his own plate?”

Remy doesn’t answer, but a third tray drops onto the table.

It falls from high up and hits hard enough to knock over the sandwich.

“Ham. Again.” I check my sandwich and find thick slabs of the same ham I ate yesterday—the same ham that I ate day after day on the train north.

“You want something else?” Vhex asks, sliding his chair closer. “Venison? Dragon? I’ll hunt for you.”

“I’m not that picky.” I’d rather eat ham three meals a day than go back to “fine dining” at Kyorgos house. The duchess loves shellfish. She moans when she sucks out their buttered brains.

Nope.“Ham is great.”

I take a bite with no complaints.

It’s the first time I’ve sat quietly for more than thirty seconds since arriving at the Farguard. My fingers twitch, instantly wanting to scroll, but Vhex and Remy hook my attention better than my phone.

Vhex is so clingy, I end up shoving half a sandwich into his mouth to keep him from pulling me into his heated lap.

Tending their silks and trying to balance my attention between them, I turn back to Remy. “How often does the train bring supplies?”And news from outside.

“It doesn’t,” Remy answers. As he tilts his head, his thought pattern shifting to more of a churn. “Or it doesn’t anymore? It stopped. I can’t remember when.”

“That’s concerning.” I swallow another bite. I’ll ask Cherise how the guard runs later. The warden deserves a raise and her own parade for keeping operations going on her own.

I dig in to my second sandwich, rushing to pack in calories while I can. The ham is so salty, Remy winks me a second cup of water, too.

I have to ask. “If supplies aren’t coming in by rail, where are we getting all this ham?”

“I know this one.” Vhex pauses, licking the salt off his fingers. “Gold-tusk boars. They spawned a godsdamned stampede—a few years back? We’re talking hundreds of thousands of car-sized pig-beasts. Epic barbecue. Farguard has cured meats for years.”

“Ah. Yes. We traded the tusks for weapons and crystals.” Remy’s brain-fan slows to normal speeds.

Mine starts to heat. “Wait. Faervaine isn’t funding the Farguard at all?”

“Not in the past decades,” Remy answers. “Now and again, the palace sends us someone to bury.”

“No one comes to us because they want to.” Vhex’s eyes flash berry red. “Except for you, Wife.”

I onlywantedto join the Farguard in the sense that it was my only option.

Remote. Forgotten. Dangerous.

Salary paid in boar.

Altogether, somewhere Alessandra Ashbourne and Calliope Kyorgos would never think to look for me, or chase me if I were found.

I don’t understand what the emperor is thinking, risking the northern border by running it like a misfit dumping ground.

As one of the misfits, I can only protect our corner of the world.

Even if every moment is more fucked up than the one before, at least I’m doingsomething.