Page 19

Chapter Nineteen

H arm dropped the cord, and it fell into a sparkling heap at their feet. He couldn’t help but stare at it. After all this time, the cord had simply…come off. He was free.

“You said love could override bindings.” Harm lifted his gaze back to Val’s, searching the equally dumbfounded look on her face. “I would think wanting to do what is right—what is good—would have the same effect. Especially combined with…”

He couldn’t finish that last bit. He couldn’t be sure she felt the same pull to him that he did to her.

She was so attractively capable. Confident. Deadly. And yet so desperately in need of a chance to relax and smile.

“Yes…that might explain it.” Val rubbed her thumb over his wrist, as if she couldn’t quite believe that the tether was gone.

“Do you think that…” Harm’s heart beat harder. He hardly dared to hope or voice the thought. “Is my ba rgain still in place? Or does the cord coming off signify that the bargain is ended?”

Val’s wondering expression dropped into hopeless lines again. “No, your bargain is still in place. The cord was simply the binding of my mission to bring you to your new master, but that was something outside of the bargain, not truly a part of it.”

“Right.” He knew it had been too much to hope. “Then I still I have to go to the Realm of Monsters. Diego still has a claim on my life.”

“Yes, but maybe we don’t have to go. Maybe we can figure something else out. A way to end the bargain without breaking it.” Val’s dark brown eyes met his, liquid with desperation and pain.

“You said it yourself. I can’t risk breaking the bargain and bringing down the fury of a broken bargain on my duchy.” Harm eased his arms around Val again.

Despite the grim topic, something in him warmed when she didn’t shove away or indicate that she disliked being encircled in his arms. More than that, she leaned into him.

“Besides, if Diego is the mysterious fae who started all of this, then he has information I need.” Harm’s chest squeezed, the warmth disappearing. “Something else is going on, endangering my father, my brother, and my duchy, and Diego is the only one who can tell me what it is.”

He’d started this whole journey through the Fae Realm to save his brother. He had to keep going—no matter the risk—to make sure his family stayed safe. Even if it meant he wouldn’t see them ever again .

“He won’t tell you.” Val shook her head, her mouth pressing into a tight line. “And bargaining with a few pieces of pottery isn’t going to work with him.”

“No, but he will tell you.” Harm tugged her slightly closer, the toes of his boots digging deeper into the sandy gravel. “He thinks you’re still his loyal mercenary. He might not monologue to gloat to the human he plans to kill, but he might show off to the mercenary he used to pull this off.”

“He might.” Val toyed with the ties of his jerkin. “But he will still kill you.”

“He can try.” Harm attempted a grin, but it faded a moment later. He slowly lifted a hand and eased a strand of her black hair behind her tapered ear. “I’ll have you. And I know you won’t let anything happen to me.”

“I’ll do my best, but it won’t be that simple.” Val tilted her head, leaning into his hand as if she didn’t even realize she was doing it. “The Wild Hunt leader becomes the leader by being the strongest, the fastest, the best. More than that, he will have the might of the whole Wild Hunt band at his back. It’s no easy thing to defy one’s Hunt leader.”

“Then we’ll need a good plan.” Harm traced his thumb over her cheek. “We have a fee?n mercenary, a human prince, a sometimes three-headed dog”—who was currently rolling on what looked like the desiccated body of a dead lizard—“and…”

He caught himself before he mentioned the iron knife out loud. Even now, he couldn’t confirm it to Val. Not when she still needed her deniability for facing Diego.

The iron knife. Fee?nvolk were susceptible to iron. Even fee?nvolk like Diego. It was the one thing he couldn’t counteract.

And if…Harm couldn’t help but grin. “I have a plan. Or, well, the beginning of a plan.”

“Then let’s hear it.” Val started to pull away from him, the look in her eyes returning to cold calculation.

“In a moment. There’s something I’d like to do first.” Harm tugged her closer still until she was flush against him. “Would you stab me if I kissed you?”

Val blinked at him for a long moment, as if kissing hadn’t even crossed her mind. Understandable, given they’d been talking about death and hopeless battles. Hardly talk that inspired thoughts of kissing. Perhaps he shouldn’t have mentioned it.

But she didn’t yank out of his arms or pull her dagger either. Surely that was a good sign.

“You want to kiss me?” She rested her hands on his jerkin again, as if she wasn’t quite sure where to put them.

“Yes. But I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t stab me if I did. You were quite insistent about the whole stabbing thing previously and…”

She stretched onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.

He dug his fingers into the silken strands of her hair as he kissed her. Her hands worked their way up his chest to wrap around the back of his neck, pulling him in tighter as if she was desperate to keep him close. That desperation lent an intensity to the kiss Harm hadn’t expected, but he responded in kind.

Something slammed into Harm’s side, claws pawing at his arm.

Val pulled away from him as that same muscular body wiggled between them, licking and jumping. “Daisy!”

Harm laughed, shook his head, and scratched one of Daisy’s heads behind the ears. “Feeling left out, were you, girl?”

All three of Daisy’s heads had their tongues lolling, eyes slightly crazy as she licked their hands.

“I, uh, guess we should keep moving while you tell me this plan of yours.” Val bent, picked up the cord, and stuffed it into her pocket, too pointedly not looking at him. Though her cheeks still seemed a bit more pink beneath her bronzed skin tone than normal.

Not necessarily with discomfort. More with the stiff posture of someone who didn’t quite know how to handle the emotions she was feeling.

As Val marched into the desert as if she was trying to outwalk her feelings, Harm grinned and fell into step beside her, even though he wasn’t bound by the cord to stick close any longer. Daisy loped along before she broke off to chase a lizard, which scurried under a rock before the dog could chomp it.

Harm swung his arms at his sides, feeling lighter than he had in a long time. Perhaps it was the kissing haze, but he wasn’t even all that terrified of the painful bloodshed and possible death in his future .

“So. The plan?” Val kept marching forward with that same ruthless pace.

Harm’s grin widened until his cheeks hurt, though that could have been the sun burning his far-too-pale skin. “Well, I’m not sure if you’re going to like it. It involves more kissing. And being stuck together. And it’s rather permanent.”

Val shot him a quelling look, reaching for her knife as if she was contemplating stabbing him after all. “Then why do you look so happy about it?”

“Because I rather like this plan.” Harm resisted the urge to pull her close and kiss her again.

Though, he probably should do it now, before he told her his idea. Afterwards, she was just as likely to stab him as she was to kiss him.

“That is what has me worried.”

“You will probably get to stab someone. Likely not me.”

Val raised her eyebrows. “You should have led with that.”

“I’d be hurt that stabbing people rates higher than kissing me, but I suppose I’ll just have to kiss you until that changes.” Harm walked close enough that their shoulders brushed. “Or just accept that your stabbiness is one of the things I love about you.”

Val halted in her tracks before she whirled on him. “You…what…”

“I love you. Or, at least, I’m falling in love with you.” Maybe it was that kiss, but Harm wasn’t going to hesitate. Now was a time to be bold. “And I’m pretty sure you’re falling in love with me too. You kissed me without stabbing me, and the tether came off.”

Val huffed, flapped her hands, and made a noise in the back of her throat. She whirled away from him and set out into the desert again. “Fine. Whatever. Yes, I’m falling for you. Don’t let it go to your head.”

Harm’s grin still tugged at his beard as he kept up with her fast pace.

Val shot him a glare. “Don’t keep grinning like that. Clearly it is going to your head. We’re about to face certain death, you’re grinning like your brain just fell out of your head, and I have yet to hear this plan of yours.”

Ah, right. Harm drifted a little farther away from her. Getting out of stabbing range. He might be in a kissing haze, but he hadn’t completely lost his mind.

Harm propped his boots on a rock as he sat on the larger rock next to their firepit.

The fire crackled and popped, a bright light against the blue darkness of the desert around them. Shadows of the cacti and brush danced on the side of the tent. Overhead, a riot of stars blazed across the sky.

Daisy lay next to his feet, though her head was up as she watched Val.

Val stalked around the fire, light and shadows dancing across her face. She kept drawing and sheathing her dagger, as if wishing she had something to fight .

As she stepped over Daisy and past Harm yet again, he reached out and grabbed her arm, halting her. “Val. Why don’t you sit?”

“How are you so calm?” Val turned to him. She didn’t sit, but she also didn’t tug her arm free.

“We’ve already talked over the plan for hours while we walked. There’s nothing more we can plan.” Harm stared up into her eyes, trying to read her expression. “Tomorrow’s troubles will keep until tomorrow. We don’t need to add them to today.”

Val huffed through her clenched teeth, shifting as if torn between sitting and tugging away from him. “But if there’s something more we can take into account or if we missed something in our planning…Harm, if we lose tomorrow, you’ll die.”

“And if we succeed, you’ll lose everything.” Harm tugged her closer. This time, she finally sat on the boulder next to him, so close their shoulders and legs were pressed together.

Val shrugged, staring into the fire instead of looking at him. “Lose what? A life as a homeless mercenary taking missions that involve hurting innocents? There’s not much to lose.”

As there was a good chance he would die tomorrow, Harm dared to put his arm around Val’s shoulders, tucking her close. She didn’t exactly relax into him, but she leaned into him a little. “Still, I’m sorry.”

She remained stiff beneath his arm, her shoulders hunched as she stared down at her hands in her lap. “There’s something else that I should have told you long before now. ”

Harm stiffened. Nothing Val said in that tone of voice was ever good news.

“Time doesn’t move the same way between the Fae Realm and the Human Realm.” Val spoke slowly, her gaze looking everywhere but at him. “When we return to the Human Realm, there’s no telling how much time might have passed there. It might have been ten minutes. Or ten years. There’s no way to know until we get there.”

Oh. Oh . Harm’s breath caught in his throat. “My brother and father are in danger, and I might not get back for years ?”

They’d think he was dead. Or perhaps they’d be dead, killed by whoever had poisoned Gijs in the first place.

“I’m sorry. I should have told you but…” Val shrugged, shaking her head. “It’s not something I’ve had to think about before. I never return my packages. Only deliver them.”

Harm tightened his grip on her shoulders at the note in her voice. “It isn’t something you could’ve helped, even if you’d told me. You’re attractively competent, but even you can’t control time.”

Val rolled her eyes, the stiffness to her spine unbending slightly. “No. But I’ve heard there are those who can. Sort of. For most of us, walking through a faerie circle or a rift is like stepping through a door. A wibbly-wobbly, whirling door that tries to tear you apart for a moment before you get put back together and spit out the other side. But for others, it feels more like a path. They can navigate between the realms to somewhat control where and when they end up in the Human Realm. Supposedly the Wild Fae Primrose is one such fae.”

“Would it be worth trying to track down the Wild Fae Primrose or a fae like him for our return?” Harm’s legs ached at the thought of more hiking through the wilds of the Fae Realm. They already had enough of a journey trying to get back to the Court of Dreams and the particular faerie circle that connected to Tulpenland.

“I don’t think so.” Val sighed and shook her head again. “While the Fae Realm itself runs on the same time, all of the courts interact differently with the Human Realm. If you’d remained in the same faerie court, you would’ve stayed somewhat tied to your own place and time. But now that you’ve journeyed all across the Fae Realm, you’re thoroughly unmoored. I doubt even the Wild Fae Primrose himself could return you exactly to the time in which you left. I just hope you aren’t so untethered that we end up a century out of time in your realm.”

A century. His father and brother would be long dead by then. What would he even do if he returned to the Human Realm, only to find he had no family left and no home to return to? He and Val wouldn’t even have a home here in the Fae Realm to fall back on. They’d belong to neither realm.

Val’s shoulders heaved with a deep breath beneath his grip. “As you said, tomorrow will keep. There’s nothing we can do about the time of our return now. Why don’t you tell me about Tulpenland? ”

A pang shot through him, but he forced a smile. “Tulpenwerf—that’s the capital city where I live—is all brick roads, brick houses, and tiled roofs, lining the network of canals that we use more than the roads. The countryside is flat farm fields for as far as you can see, and you can spot all the little towns for miles around. Honestly, you’d consider it boring. There’s nothing trying to eat me in Tulpenland.”

“Nothing? Really?” Val nudged her elbow into his ribs, a hint of a smile curving her mouth. “It seems everything we’ve met wants to eat you.”

“Well, pretty sure the grain sprites were trying to eat you.”

“Only because I shoved you out of their way. They would have preferred to eat you.” Val raised her eyebrows.

“Right…” Harm winced, just thinking about all the things that had tried to eat him in the Fae Realm. There was the wolf. The scarecrow. The crone. Queen Titania was certainly hungry for him. It would be quite the relief to get back to Tulpenland where everyone and everything he met wasn’t trying to eat him. “Well, Tulpenland is a lot more peaceful. It’s home.”

“Home.” Val spoke the word as if she was rolling it over her tongue, tasting it. “I’ve never had a home before. At least, not since my family was banished from the Court of Sand.”

Harm hugged her tighter. “You’ll have a home with me. It might be a little boring. Unless the other kingdoms decide to start sending assassins after me. ”

“It wouldn’t surprise me.” Val rested her hand on her dagger again.

“You don’t have to sound so happy about the idea.” Harm exaggerated his grumble.

Val smirked. But after a moment, the look faded. “Harm. Tomorrow, when we…”

“Stop thinking about it. We’ve planned enough for one day.” Harm dug into his magical pocket with his free hand. He retrieved two of his remaining pottery plates, the last of his cheese, and the flask of cassis. “Tonight, we’re going to feast.”

Val took the things as he handed them to her, but she didn’t start unwrapping the cheese. “Are you sure? If we succeed, we’re going to have a long walk back to the Court of Dreams, and this time I won’t have the protection of working for a fae court. We might need your bargaining goods more than ever.”

“We can wash the plates. Aren’t they more valuable here in the Fae Realm if they’ve been used by a prince?” Harm took the cheese, unwrapped it, and used a small knife to slice it. “But I think tonight of all nights is one for celebration, don’t you think?”

Val huffed again, but she didn’t refuse the cheese when he put it on her plate. She picked up a piece and took a large bite. “I rather like this cheese.”

Daisy sat up, placed her nose on Val’s knee, and gave her the big begging eyes.

“When we get to Tulpenland, you can have all the cheese and cassis you want.” Harm reached toward Daisy, a piece of cheese in his hand.

Val caught his wrist. “Don’t give Daisy anything until we’re done. We’ll never have any peace if you give her something now.”

He quickly stuffed the piece of cheese into his own mouth instead.

As he reached for another piece, Daisy’s ears perked, and she looked into the darkness, a low growl rumbling in her chest.

Val set aside her plate. “Monsters. We’re in the Court of Sand. We might not get a lot of sleep tonight.”

Harm sighed, stuffed the rest of his cheese into his mouth, and shoved the plates and flask back into his magical pocket. “Great. I’ll face near certain death tomorrow while sleep-deprived.”

Val drew her sword out of her pocket, twirled it, and pulled her dagger from its sheath with her other hand. “Less talking, more arming yourself if you don’t want to face tomorrow injured.”

Harm faced the darkness where several pairs of red eyes had appeared and drew his sword. He was beyond ready to get this over with and return to Tulpenland. Not having stuff trying to eat him each and every minute would be such a luxury.