Page 4 of The Enemy to the Living (The Wild Hunt #2)

Asher

I spend far too long watching the space where Quinn was standing. So long, in fact, that Vlad comes out to get me, frowning when he finds me staring at the shadows.

“You said there was no one here.”

“The high fae weren’t here,” I say, though we both know only one of them came this way.

I tear my eyes from nothing and focus on Vlad instead.

He’s got a scratch down the side of his face that is already healing.

He made it past those trolls, if only for a second, which is what had the two fae running in the first place.

Twins. Maybe soulbonded, close as they are—soulbonds aren’t picky as to whether they’re romantic or familial or platonic, as far as I’m aware.

Doesn’t matter. They’re powerful, and they’re using that power to… what? Put on fights?

“Let’s go back,” Vlad says. Worry hangs heavily in his gaze when I meet his eyes again. I sigh and nod. It isn’t like me to get distracted, but I can’t explain the strange horror I felt when I saw Quinn fighting in that cage.

I sure as fuck can’t explain the pride I felt when I saw him holding his own against that troll, either. Or at the way he clearly helped him out of there.

It’s not my business. He’s not my business.

I have to tell Vlad, though; I know that. Quinn isn’t the only wolf who was in there, and I think I spotted a couple of vampires, too.

We walk a fair distance from the pub—Mischief Grant tucks his legs underneath himself but leans towards Vlad all the same. I don’t think he even realises that he’s doing it. “They’re running fights in their pub. Cage fights.”

Maurice frowns. “Why?”

“Who knows,” I say. “But it’s not just fae against fae. There were wolves there, too. And vampires.”

Vlad looks at me. He knows Quinn was there, obviously, but doesn’t know I found him in the alley. I could have stopped him if I’d wanted to. He’s a strong wolf, but he doesn’t have magic.

“Vampires? Which vampires?”

“We didn’t stop and get their names. I don’t know. Might just be vamps passing through.”

Maurice shakes his head. “They’ll still have to be known to the clan.”

“We did not discover anyone’s identity,” Vlad says. “We did not truly intend to engage with the twins at all. They spotted us, despite the fact that we hid our blessings.”

His dark eyes slide to me again and my skin prickles with shame. It’s my fault. My blessing—ever mercurial—slid out of my control.

It happened when Quinn got that troll on the ground. I was too caught up in it. My blessing flared, and the fae noticed.

Now they know that we know where they are.

“I don’t know if they’ll move operations,” I say, thankful when Vlad doesn’t bother to explain how the twins discovered us.

No doubt Maurice knows anyway; he’s got the best control of all of us, witch as he once was.

“They’ve got a good spot and powerful defences.

Most likely they’ll just be on the lookout for us. ”

“And if they do move?” Maurice asks. “How will you find them?”

I think of Quinn again. The way sweat made his dark blond hair curl at his temples brought a healthy flush to his cheeks. In the cage and out of it, he looked nothing like the wolf I saw in the pack house a few weeks ago. That wolf had no fire inside him. He was barely more than a ghost.

Even scared as he was in the alley—and I know he was scared—he had enough wherewithal to get away.

I just fear the mess he may have wandered into without realising it. There is no chance his pack knows what he is doing. They are fiercely protective of him; we all saw that.

“We will have to find someone who was there and have them tell us,” Vlad says, resolutely not looking at me. Grant is. His eyes drift to some spot above my head and narrow.

“Should I look into the vampires, then?” Maurice asks. “If you describe them, I can ask Njáll and his chieftains. If their crai asks for help, they’ll have to do it.”

“Will they want to?” Grant asks, sufficiently distracted.

Maurice shrugs. “Wanting doesn’t matter. They all heard about what happened with Augustine. They’re not going out of their way to get on his bad side.”

He makes it sound as though Njáll killed the troublesome vampire himself. Grant pales, body shuddering slightly. No. The Huntsman did that, while Grant was holding him still. Maurice’s expression softens as he realises, but he doesn’t apologise.

“Tell your crai,” Vlad says, a sharp edge to his voice. That affects Maurice less than Grant’s expression, I’ll wager, but he doesn’t address either. “We would be well-served to get their view of the place even if they cannot help us get the twins.”

“I’ll go now. I assume you two aren’t planning any other excursions tonight?”

Maurice looks pointedly between me and Vlad. I raise my hands in surrender, though the idea of tracking Quinn down and ensuring he made it home safely may have already crossed my mind more than once.

Surely he has. His pack would be up in arms if not—or will be, come the morning. No. He will be fine. He is a young, strong wolf, and I am sure he headed straight home after our encounter.

“No,” Vlad says. “It is not long until sunrise.”

The dismissal is clear, and Maurice sniffs in response but does ruffle Grant’s hair before he heads to the door. There is some greater rift between Maurice and Vlad than him maybe offending Grant, but that’s for them to work out.

Vlad turns his attention immediately to Grant, who is fishing behind himself for a book. I drift out of the room and follow Maurice out of the house.

He pauses on the steps and looks back at me with a raised eyebrow. “You’re not usually one for ominous silences.”

I frown. I’m not one for talking, either.

Maurice rolls his eyes. “Emphasis on ominous , Asher. What’s wrong?”

“Kieran’s pack,” I say, and Maurice shifts his weight, settling in to listen. “You’re still in contact with them?”

“I talk to Sam from time to time. Have you not been to them since…”

He trails off. Since everything changed. Since he, apparently, got his blessing back and was allowed to keep his crai and help the fae in the same breath.

The Hunt was never designed to help the fae. We help humans. We defend them against tricks and worse.

But Maurice… He saw what we’ve all seen, I think, because I do not think any of us are any less compassionate, deep down. Maurice is simply the fiercest amongst us. The only one of us willing to challenge the Huntsman, willing to sacrifice everything for it.

“No. I just—” I don’t want to tell him about Quinn; at least not before I’ve had a chance to talk to him again. “They should be prepared for new members. I think all the fae in the pub were there willingly, but I don’t know about the fighters.”

“The fae who were fighting?”

“Wolves, too.”

Maurice’s face does something complicated, but after a moment, he nods. “I’ll warn them,” he says. “And you should consider dropping by and speaking to them, too. I know you met Kieran when you were watching over Deacon, but it would be polite.”

Have I been putting it off? I know it’s the polite thing to do; Deacon did introduce me to all the alphas under him when I took the assignment to be his bodyguard, but Kieran’s pack is the one taking any fae who want support, bridging a gap we had not considered until very recently.

“I-I’ll go soon,” I say. Will Quinn be there? I can’t turn up without warning him. He might think I am there to reveal to them what he has done.

“All right,” Maurice says. He purses his lips, eyeing me speculatively before he shoves his hands into his pockets. “Don’t worry about me and Vlad, either. We’ll get through it.”

“I wasn’t.”

Maurice hums, the sound amused. “Of course you weren’t, mother hen.”

He walks away as I splutter, but there is no point in arguing with him. And at least he has acknowledged it, so it is something I don’t need to concern myself with.

I might have my own place to stay away from the base, but I let myself back into the house all the same and head upstairs to the room designated as mine.

This is an old townhouse with several floors, and I am above Vlad and Grant’s rooms, which are side-by-side on the first floor.

After our encounter with the twins, staying close will do me good.

So will a few hours’ sleep. I can go hunt for the little wolf later this morning.