Page 20

Chapter Twenty

V al faced the stretch of bare sand dunes ahead of them, the heat shimmer already dancing. She toyed with the new leather cuff around her wrist, her stomach churning more than she’d ever experienced.

One wrong move today, and Harm would die. Perhaps they’d both die.

Harm halted next to her. He, too, wore a leather cuff around one of his wrists while he wore the tattered shirt and bloodstained trousers from his first couple of days in the Fae Realm. Some of the leather of the jerkin he still wore beneath showed through the rips in his shirt, but that couldn’t be helped. He’d need access to the magical pocket, and the ripped shirt worked better than his other, undamaged shirt.

Besides, they were counting on Diego focusing on the blood.

Harm held out his hand. “It’ll be all right. ”

He was far too optimistic about that. And yet Val took his hand, willing to hope right along with him.

They’d survived the perils of the Fae Realm together. Perhaps, together, they could survive the confrontation waiting for them in the Realm of Monsters.

Standing between them wearing her harness and leash, Daisy licked their clasped hands, nuzzling their hands with her nose as she begged for a scratch.

“See? Daisy will take care of both of us. We’ll be fine.” Harm grinned and reached around to awkwardly scratch Daisy rather than let go of Val’s hand.

Val gave Daisy a scratch with the hand that held the dog’s leash, but she couldn’t match Harm’s smile.

Instead, she tugged her hand free of Harm’s, reached into her pocket, and pulled out the threefold cord. She held out one end to Harm. “We’ll need to put this back on.”

“I’ve missed being tied to you with a magical rope.” His grin never wavering, Harm took the end of the offered cord.

“Well, I certainly haven’t trusted you farther than ten feet from me here in the Fae Realm.” Val held up her own end of the cord. “You’re liable to be eaten by a giant sand crab or something the moment my back is turned.”

“Too true.” Harm loosened his end of the cord. “Together?”

“Together.” Val slid the cord over the wrist with the cuff at the same time as Harm did his. She tried to remind herself that they, most likely, could get the cord off again as easily as they had the day before .

But she still couldn’t stop the tightness in her stomach, a guilt she’d never felt before at placing that cord on another’s wrist. Even if he’d placed it on himself this time.

She was done with all of this. Done with holding another person captive. Done with squashing the niggling feeling in her chest that what she was doing was wrong.

It was time she did something right for a change.

“So what happens now?” Harm gestured at the sand dunes stretching before them.

While it wasn’t necessary with the cord stretching between them again, Val clasped his hand again, tightened her grip on Daisy’s leash, and set out down the ridge toward the shimmers and shadows that moved in ripples across the dunes before them. “Now we step through one of those patches of shadows into the Realm of Monsters. The barrier between the realms is thin here. Those shimmers lead to the Human Realm while the shadows are rifts into the Realm of Monsters. It’s why we had such a problem with monsters last night.”

Harm grimaced and sidestepped to avoid the edge of one of the shimmers. “Do the monsters ever get into the Human Realm here?”

“All the time.” Val shrugged as she tugged him around another shimmer. “The desert human kingdoms aren’t as peaceful and monster-free as Tulpenland.”

“Remind me never to travel to a desert kingdom even in the Human Realm. Or, at least”—Harm grinned and swung their clasped hands—“not without you and Daisy to protect me. ”

Val would have come up with a quip back, but a black rift opened up before them. “Time to go. This will hurt a bit.”

Then she dragged Harm into the rift.

Darkness closed around Harm, shredding his skin, his mind, his deepest self, like the claws of some beast. He tried to stumble forward, but he felt as if he was somehow outside of his body, not sure what way to go or if directions even existed anymore in this nothingness of blackness and pain.

Then Val’s grip on his hand tightened, and he was dragged from the darkness into a scorching, gray desert. He dropped to his knees in the dry sand of the Realm of Monsters, gasping and patting at his chest, half-expecting to have his hand come away bloody. But no, the only blood on his shirt was old and dried.

Daisy whined and pressed against Val’s legs, the dog’s tail tucked beneath her belly.

Val let go of Harm’s hand, reached down, and scratched Daisy’s head. “That will be the second to last time we do that, girl.”

“That was…awful.” Harm climbed to his feet and brushed off his trousers, pretending he wasn’t shaken to his core. He touched his arm, checking that the sheath with the iron knife remained safely in place. Iron knives, it seemed, couldn’t go in magical pockets, as iron countered fee?n magic. “Is it like that every time?”

“Yes. There’s a reason fae only live in the Realm of Monsters if they are forced to do so.” Val didn’t reach for Harm’s hand. At the moment, they could be nothing but captive and mercenary. “Come.”

A desert similar to the one they’d left behind stretched before them. Except that here the landscape burned far hotter, even though there didn’t appear to be a sun in the charcoal-gray sky.

At least the desert they’d left behind had sun-bleached green brush, deeper green cacti, and roadrunners dashing after skittering lizards, a place bursting with life despite the heat.

The desert before them was truly dead. Any plant life was black and rotting while the only movement was from the occasional monster scuttling through the shadows.

Val stalked into the dead desert, a hand on the hilt of her knife, her other hand gripping Daisy’s leash. Harm stuck close to her side, swallowing back his unease.

After a short trek, they came to the edge of a canyon. Below, a cluster of huts constructed of random bits of wood and animal hides filled the canyon. Gray and black smoke wafted from the various fires while the figures of fee?n mercenaries strode between the shelters.

Val didn’t even seem to hesitate before she strolled down the winding path that zigzagged down the canyon’s face to reach the bottom, her shoulders straight, her back stiff, in that deadly posture she’d worn so often at first. Daisy clambered over the rocks with ease, but Harm picked his way down, falling behind until he was nearly at the end of the ten-foot tether .

Just as well. He appeared more the unwilling captive that way. He tried to add a few extra staggers for good measure, keeping his head down and his shoulders hunched.

At the canyon’s bottom, Val strode between the various shelters. Some of her fellow mercenaries stopped what they were doing to nod to her or offer a stilted wave. Those salutes turned to sneers when their gazes landed on him.

At one fire, a cluster of five mercenaries stood as Val neared, their faces breaking into smiles that seemed to hold more warmth than the others. Val’s comrades, perhaps?

Val halted long enough to nod at them. But then she kept walking, turning her face away as if she were too focused on her task to speak with them.

Harm dropped his gaze back to his feet instead of studying them. But he could feel their gazes pinned on his shoulder blades as he kept walking.

At the far end of the canyon, a throne made of random bits of wood, animal hides, and bones rested among the fallen boulders.

Diego lounged on the throne, his black hair slicked back, the streaks of silver at his temples even more prominent. His thin beard and mustache were well groomed while the leathers he wore over his clothes were well-oiled. A sword rested at his hip while daggers glinted at his belt and in the bandoleer across his chest.

At Val and Harm’s approach, a smile curved his mouth. He lifted a hand. “Valeria! You have returned at last! I see your charge is still in one piece. ”

“Of course. I never lose a package.” Val halted before the throne, her hand on her hip near her dagger. “A package I’m told belongs to you.”

Harm halted a few feet behind her, the picture of cowed submission, or so he hoped.

“Yes, quite convenient, isn’t it.” Diego’s gaze swung from Val to Harm.

Val tugged on the cord, and Harm staggered as if she’d forced him with far more roughness than she had. When she shoved him forward, he made a show of resistance, digging in his heels and squirming in her grip. She halted him at the foot of the throne, as if presenting him to Diego. “Do you accept the delivery of this human?”

Diego’s mouth twisted with even more of a smirk, his dark eyes glittering. “Yes, I do.”

Harm had been so used to the squeezing pressure of the bargain that he hadn’t realized it was there until it was gone, lifting from his heart.

Finally. They’d traveled across seven courts to hear those words. Harm could stop journeying away from his family and at last escape back to them.

If he didn’t die in the next few minutes.

Harm clawed at the end of the rope, ripping it off as if he hadn’t been free the night before, and threw it away from him. “I don’t belong to you.”

“Yes, you do. That was the bargain. Your life is now in my hands.” Diego rose to his feet with all the grace of a hunting lion. He prowled down the rocks from his throne and stalked around Harm, taking him in with a hungry look that was almost reminiscent of Queen Titania’s, though with a different undertone. “You did well, Valeria, in bringing him to me. I knew I could count on you for this task.”

Harm lifted his chin, glaring first at Diego, then at Val, trying to sound hurt and betrayed instead of like he was reciting his lines. “After all we’ve been through, you’re just going to give me to him?”

“That is my job.” Val divested herself of the end of the rope and coiled it with swift movements, her tone and expression so cold it sent a chill through Harm even though he knew better. “You could have saved me a lot of trouble, Diego, if you’d just claimed his bargain from the beginning rather than let me travel across half the Fae Realm with a useless human in tow.”

“I do apologize for the length of your journey. I had intended to bargain with Mab for him but was delayed in doing so. Arranging for more weapons and recalling everyone not on a mission took time, even with traveling through the rifts.” Diego continued to stalk around Harm as if he was prey and Diego the wolf. “It’s just as well. His blood will be all the more potent for the length of time he was traveling with you. I see he’s already shed some along the way.”

Was it Harm’s imagination, or did Diego’s gaze linger on the bloodstains the way one might study a favorite painting?

“Then you intend to use him for blood rites. I wondered, once I realized that you must have arranged all this.” Val tapped her fingers on the hilt of her dagger, all cool indifference and idle curiosity.

“What do you mean? What’s going on?” Harm swung wide eyes from her to Diego, as if realizing the true depth of his peril for the first time. “Blood rites?”

Diego ignored his question, as if he were nothing but a yappy puppy. Instead, the Wild Hunt leader gripped Harm’s shoulder, kicked the back of his knees, and shoved him to his knees.

As Harm struck the rocky ground, pain flared up his legs. He couldn’t help his grunt of pain, little as he wanted to give Diego the satisfaction. He struggled against Diego’s unyielding grip on his shoulder even as he remained hunched on the ground to shield his hands and arm from view.

Diego grabbed a hunk of Harm’s hair and yanked his head back, pain tearing across Harm’s scalp.

Harm ceased struggling, but he inched his right hand up his left sleeve and closed his hand over the knobby hilt of his iron knife.

Diego turned Harm’s head this way and that by his grip on his hair, as if inspecting his neck for the best place to slice. “Others here in the Realm of Monsters have begun experimenting with such things again, and if our Wild Hunt is to survive, we must keep up with the times. This human’s blood will do just that.”

“He’s just one human.” Val’s voice rang with a detached skepticism. “The others attempting blood rites have done it with far more volume of blood.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Harm caught movement as more of the mercenaries drifted their way, drawn by the unfolding drama. They gathered with their arrays of weapons, arms crossed, as they took in the scene .

Harm couldn’t help but tense. At least Diego would chalk up his stiffness to terror. And perhaps it was, but not for himself. Or not only for himself. His breath caught at the sight of Val with so many potential enemies gathered at her back.

“Yes, but he’s the heir to his duchy.” Diego’s smirk slicked even darker. “Even if his younger brother does survive and inherits the throne someday, this human will always be the True Heir. His blood holds sway over his duchy.”

The muscle at the corner of Harm’s jaw flexed as he glared up at Diego. “You’ll never get your hands on Tulpenland.”

Diego snorted and gave a rough tug on Harm’s hair, yanking his head even farther back until Harm struggled to breathe. “You don’t understand, human. Tulpenland is already in my hands because I have you .”

Even more of the mercenaries crowded close, and Diego’s gaze flicked away from Harm long enough to take them in.

Diego’s smirk widened as he tightened his grip on Harm’s shoulder as if to grind him into the stone. “I’m the reason you’re here. When I learned that a human king was seeking a fae poison, I was the one who gave it to him. I bargained with him so that he would poison the younger son, promising him that I would see to it that the heir disappeared. I told Queen Mab to send a fae to bargain with your father, I outlined the terms of that bargain, and I sent my mercenary to bring you from the Human Realm and eventually to me. Your blood has been in my control from the moment your destiny with the Fae Realm was determined, and there is power in such control over another’s life.”

The mercenaries were murmuring now, caught up in their leader’s unfolding performance.

“What king? What enemy of Tulpenland conspired with you?” Harm snarled the words, his neck aching from the angle he was held. His questions were perhaps a little too pointed, but Diego was preening for his audience now.

Diego shrugged, a slick sneer on his face. “Heinrich, Henry, something like that. He’s hardly your concern. Or mine.”

And there it was. The answer Harm had been waiting for. King Hendrik had coveted Tulpenland’s farms and trade for years. He couldn’t take Tulpenland by force thanks to the network of canals, but it seemed he thought he could take it by trickery instead.

Father and Gijs were still in grave danger. King Hendrik must have thought he could swoop in and take over the duchy once Gijs died and Harm disappeared, leaving the duchy without an heir.

What had he done once Gijs recovered? Had he attacked? What form had it taken? Another poisoning? A full-scale invasion? Were Harm’s father and brother even still alive?

Harm needed to return home without any more delay.

Diego swung his gaze away from Harm to the mercenaries. He finally released Harm’s hair so that he could gesture grandly, though he kept his painful grip on Harm’s shoulder. “He will soon learn the perils of bargaining with the fae. He wanted Tulpenland for himself, but with this human’s blood, Tulpenland will soon be mine. My Wild Hunt will ride on the duchy and ravage from border to border until the canals run red. It will be a golden age of glory and spoil for Wild Hunt Grimbrand!”

The mercenaries cheered. All except Val, who remained at the front with her arms crossed, her expression stony. She’d give them away if she remained so unenthusiastic for her leader’s planned Wild Hunt ride.

Instead, she met Harm’s gaze and gave a single small nod.

Harm tightened his grip on the iron knife hidden beneath his sleeve, eased his weight onto one knee, and struck without giving in to the urge to take a deep breath, which would only give away his intentions.

He swept out a leg, knocking Diego’s legs out from under him, even as he reached up and gripped the hand that had been clutching his shoulder. As Val had drilled into him, he dragged Diego down, yanked his arm behind his back, and pinned him to the ground with a knee.

Diego’s face mottled. Perhaps angry at being bested by a human. Or embarrassed to be so bested in front of his Wild Hunt. Harm had only succeeded because Diego hadn’t been expecting an attack from his captive human.

In a blink, Harm drew the iron knife and had it pressed to the Wild Hunt leader’s throat. The scent of burning skin filled the air, and Harm gritted his teeth to resist the urge to stay his hand. Any sign of weakness or shirking from doing what needed to be done would be exploited.

A few of the mercenaries stepped forward, hands going to their weapons.

Harm pressed harder against Diego’s throat with the iron knife, causing a louder sizzling sound. “Stay back, or your leader dies.”

Beneath Harm’s knee, Diego twisted to glare at Val. “Didn’t you search him for weapons?”

“Yes. I’m not incompetent.” Val huffed, as if it was all Diego’s fault he was currently pinned beneath Harm. “He had no weapons on his person when I searched him.”

Harm resisted the urge to grin at her very careful answer. Instead, he jabbed Diego in the throat again with the knife. “My father passed this knife to me after she searched me. I’ve kept it hidden ever since.”

Diego’s body shook as he chuckled, his face smoothing back into that controlled sneer. “What is your plan now, human?”

“A life for a life. That was the original bargain, and it’s the bargain I offer you now.” Harm refused to flinch at the blackened mark that spread beneath the Hunt leader’s jaw. “I hold your life, and you hold mine. I’d prefer if we each held our own lives in our own hands.”

“Very well. A life for a life. You are free of the binding to me.” Diego spoke almost too lightly, as if releasing Harm didn’t mean giving up all his plans. As if being pinned to the ground was all just a part of his plan after all.

Harm sucked in a breath as something twanged deep in his chest. The captive binding breaking as he was released.

He was free. No more bargain to be fulfilled. No more captive binding holding him here in the Realm of Monsters.

Harm stood and backed away from Diego, keeping his back to the canyon wall, the iron knife still gripped in his hand.

Diego pushed to his feet, brushing off his clothes with nonchalant flicks of his fingers. “What do you think you’ve accomplished by that little display, human? You’re still stuck here in the Realm of Monsters. Even with that iron knife, do you think my Wild Hunt will let you simply pass through their ranks?”

Harm swallowed, taking in the horde of mercenaries crowding into the space before the throne, leers on their faces as they toyed with the hilts of their weapons. If he’d been alone, he never would have survived this escape.

But he wasn’t alone, even if he didn’t dare look at her.

“Perhaps we’ll hold a Hunt. The fire of crushed hope and utter terror will add potency to your blood when I shed it to tear into your realm.” Diego spread his hands wide, as if Harm’s escape had been a part of the plan all along.

More cheering, accompanied by the shush of blades being drawn from their sheaths .

Then Val stepped forward, her dark brown eyes blazing, her hand on her knife’s hilt. At her back, Daisy growled as she faced the crowd of mercenaries. When Val spoke, her voice rang strident and clear over the noise. “No. There will be no Hunt. Diego, I challenge you for the leadership of Wild Hunt Grimbrand.”