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D aisy’s mouth fell open, her eyes frozen on the sight. On the impossible fortune in jewels, just sitting here in Filak’s hands.

There were deep green emeralds. Clear blue sapphires. Bright dazzling red rubies. All of them beautifully cut, flashing with piercing brightness in the firelight. And all just piled into this little chest, as plentiful as if they’d been rocks on a shoreline.

They were so stunning it swallowed Daisy’s breath, and as she stared, there was the desperate, dizzying urge to touch them. To spread them out across the fur, and draw them one by one. To commit them all to paper so she would remember them forever…

The longing flared so strong she couldn’t breathe for an instant, and she could only hear her racing heart, a loud steady drumbeat in her ears. Was Filak — giving these to her? Offering her a fortune? An escape? A future?

It took far too much effort to drag her gaze back to Filak’s face, to his black eyes still boring into hers. Seeing too much, knowing too much, and he nudged the box closer toward her, brushing it against her shaky hovering fingers…

“For you, Daisy ,” he said again, quieter than before. “ ég mun gera hvae sem er til ae halda tér, sólin mín . I am sorry.”

Oh, gods. He really was trying to give these to her. Daisy’s stomach pitched, and too late she snatched her trembling hand away, rubbed it at her hot face. What the hell was this? What the hell was she thinking? She didn’t want this, she didn’t want gifts from him, no matter how beautiful or expensive they were, no …

“No, Filak !” cut in a sharp, disbelieving voice, and when Daisy jerked to look, it was Rosa . And good gods, she’d entirely forgotten about Rosa and Jule , but they were both still sitting there watching this, both looking just as shocked as Daisy felt.

“No, Filak !” Rosa barked again, frantically flapping her hand toward the box of jewels. “ You cannot buy Daisy ! Absolutely not! Nei ! We have talked about this —”

She broke off into the orcs’ language again, her voice rapid and high-pitched and utterly incomprehensible, while Daisy stared blankly at her, and then at Filak . What did Rosa mean? Filak was trying to — to buy her?

But he wasn’t denying it, and he wasn’t even looking at Rosa , either. Instead , his shadowed eyes stayed firmly fixed on Daisy’s face, and he again nudged the box of glittering jewels into her hand, against her shaking fingers.

“ ég vil heyra, Daisy ,” he said, his voice hollow. “ For you, sólin mín . Sálugjald .”

Sálugjald . It sounded… heavy, somehow, strange on his voice, and his eyes on Daisy’s looked strange, too. Glittering sharp and bright, and almost… bleak. As if there was something more to this, as if it meant something else entirely…

Rosa huffed a harsh, exasperated groan, while Jule loudly cleared her throat. “ Could you please translate for us, Rosa ?” she asked. “ What’s a sálugjald ? And what is Filak trying to do with it?”

Rosa grimaced and nodded, and dragged both hands down her face. “ Well , from what we’ve been able to gather,” she began, “the sálugjald — or the mate-price — is an old practice of Filak’s kin in the north. It’s how they find women, and reproduce. They … buy them.”

They buy them ?! Daisy gaped at Rosa , and then at Filak . His people truly bought women, as if they were property ? Permanently ? And now he was trying to do it with her?!

But Filak just kept holding that box, staring back at Daisy , his eyes still so strange and bleak in his sharp pale face. Dredging up the sudden, incongruous memory of that morning after the cave, when she’d first seen him in the sunlight. When she’d left him behind in that tunnel, and he’d collapsed it down between them, crashing it into dust and rock and ruin.

“The northern orcs supposedly hunt and save the jewels for years,” added Rosa’s flat voice. “ It’s supposed to be enough to feed and clothe someone for a lifetime. And in exchange, the woman swears to bear the orc’s sons, and stay with him for years, or even until death. I’m told” — she drew in a deep breath — “the payments usually go to the families, and the women are often counted as lost.”

Counted as lost . Daisy’s shocked disbelief roiled higher, and she clapped her trembling hand over her mouth. “ You mean — those women never come back?” she demanded. “ The orcs — trap them? Or kill them?!”

Oh gods, oh gods, because maybe that explained everything Filak had done. He had fully intended to kidnap her, to entrap her, to keep her in that dungeon forever —

“Well, no, not exactly,” said Rosa’s strained voice. “ As far as we’ve been able to tell, the orcs don’t confine their mates, and they certainly wouldn’t kill them, either. But most of the northern Ka -esh live very deep underground, and there’s often just… no way out.”

No way out . Daisy stared at Rosa , at Filak , and then down at that box of stunning, glittering jewels. Those poor women, their poor families, trading their daughters to a dark orc underworld for priceless boxes of jewels. And here Filak was, trying to buy her too, offering her his own mate-price, paying her to stay. Maybe even trying to bribe her into another horrible dungeon, where she would never escape, never see the sun again…

But Filak was still watching Daisy closely, his brow furrowing — and suddenly his head was shaking, swift and urgent. “ Nei , Daisy ,” he said. “ ég sver ae ég hvorki meiei tig né held tér frá sólinni. Tú getur jafnvel notae tetta til ae yfirgefa mig .”

It again made no sense whatsoever, but Rosa heavily sighed, and shifted awkwardly on the bench. “ Filak says — he swears not to hurt you, or confine you,” she translated, with a grimace. “ He also says you can even use his mate-price to leave him, if you wanted.”

Really? Daisy could use the jewels to leave him? And though Rosa hadn’t sounded at all convinced by that, Filak’s eyes were still burning into Daisy’s , his hands again nudging the box toward her. Maybe not offering to buy her after all, then, but offering her… freedom. Escape .

Daisy swallowed, blinking down at the box, and she only vaguely heard Jule’s quiet harrumph. “ Well , if that’s the case,” she said bracingly, “it sounds to me like the jewels are more of a mating-gift. And therefore, it’s Daisy’s decision to accept them, or not.”

Daisy’s decision. Her breath juddered out, and she again found Filak’s face, searching his eyes. Seeing how they looked even bleaker than before, his mouth thinning, as he again nudged the box against her quivering fingers.

“For you,” he said again, very quiet. “ I am sorry, sólin mín .”

But Daisy still didn’t take the box, couldn’t take it, because — had Filak really been saving these jewels for years , like Rosa had said? Had he truly meant them as a payment for the woman who would disappear underground with him, forever ? And was that why he looked like this, like every breath was pain, like he was drowning in grief and darkness…

It was too much, too overwhelming, clamping too tight in Daisy’s gut, careening through her thoughts. She should take the jewels. She should accept the fortune Filak was offering her, and run back home to the city, forever. She could buy a little cottage with a garden, draw whatever the hell she wanted, maybe even make her own book someday…

But no. No . The grief in Filak’s eyes, the careful polish on the box, the beautiful little latch. The hard ridges of his ribs, the sun over his heart, the faint tremble of his talons on the box. The poison, the belladonna, dead within the next fortnight, come to kill us all…

Daisy shook her head without even knowing it, and her numb fingers skittered over Filak’s , and shoved the box back toward him. “ Nei ,” she croaked. “ Nei , Filak . It’s yours. I don’t want your bribes, or your gifts, or your mate-price. Nei .”

Filak’s throat convulsed, and he stared back at Daisy for a long, thudding moment, as something complicated passed through his shadowed eyes. Something … surprised, something relieved, something confused and bitter and uncertain.

“ Skilur hún tetta ?” he said, with a brief, searching glance toward Rosa . " Hún veit ae hún getur tekie tetta og farie ?"

Rosa sighed, and said something back that Daisy again couldn’t follow. But it sounded like she was confirming Daisy’s answer, and it again flared in Filak’s eyes, shifted dark and confused and strange. His mouth twisting, his head tilting, his hand briefly flinching beneath Daisy’s touch. And wait, how was she still touching him, why was she still touching him, why wasn’t she pulling away…

But Filak wasn’t pulling away, either. He only kept staring at her like that, as if she was an impenetrable, all-consuming mystery he couldn’t begin to decipher. And maybe she was, stupid, foolish, gift, sólin mín , her fingers trembling against his warm skin…

And in a flash of movement, he was — here . His tall body leaning close and alive over Daisy , his warm steady hand spreading against her face, tilting it swift and certain up toward him. His eyes glinting on hers for a fraction of a breath, seeking permission, seeking his right, yes —

And when his lips crushed against hers, there was no refusing, no resistance. Only Daisy’s mouth willingly opening for him, welcoming him in, with his warm lips and clever hot tongue. So good, so bright, so hot and raw and staggering, his scent his touch his taste. His sól , his light, and he was him again, hers again, he would sweep her off and away, into the reckless raging wonder…

“Filak!” cut in a shrill voice, very far away. “ Nei , Filak ! What the hell!”

But it didn’t matter, it didn’t, it was only this. Daisy drinking him up, gasping into his mouth, inhaling the beautiful scent of him. Needing more, more, more —

Until it snapped away. Gone , lost, and Daisy lurched forward after it, needing it, please…

But the voice was shouting again, Rosa’s voice, and it took Daisy far too long to reorient it, to see the reality unfolding before her eyes. To see Filak , now with both Jule and Kesst gripping at his arms, dragging him backwards, away. But his eyes on Daisy were alight, blazing with hot, feral hunger, with triumph.

Daisy mín. Sólin mín.

Daisy only vaguely heard Rosa’s impressively eloquent string of curses as her hands waved wildly at the door, urging them out. And Filak didn’t resist it, letting Kesst and Jule drag him off toward the door, but his eyes kept blazing on Daisy’s , so bright, almost jubilant. And then they flicked purposefully downward, toward her hand. Toward the…

The ring in her palm. The gold ring, set with a round, glittering yellow stone.

Daisy’s breath choked, and she stared at the ring for an instant too long, its stone bright and dizzying against her skin. When had Filak even given her this? How had he done this? And she didn’t want it, she’d told him no gifts, she should give it back, now —

But when she glanced up again, Filak was gone. Vanished . Leaving her sitting alone in the bed, with his ring in her hand, and the taste of his kiss on her lips.