Page 21

Chapter Twenty-One

“ Y ou dare to challenge me?” Diego gave that scoff again.

Val held Diego’s gaze, steel settling in her gut. This was it. Either she won, and she and Harm both lived. Or she failed, and they both died. “Yes. In all your plans, Diego, you neglected to take one thing into account. He wasn’t in your hands. He was in mine .”

“And here I thought I’d sent a loyal mercenary on that mission.” Diego’s jaw hardened as he drew his sword.

“Yes, well, I’ve discovered a loyalty to something greater than you.” Val eased a step closer to Harm, her eyes still locked on Diego.

“Him?” Diego pointed toward Harm with another scoff.

“No.” Val didn’t elaborate more than that. Saying she now had a loyalty to all things right and good sounded even more cheesy than saying she was loyal to Harm.

Instead, she forced herself to put her back to Diego as she faced Harm. He’d put his back to the canyon wall as she’d instructed, keeping himself as safe as he could for the coming fight.

With the mercenaries and Diego watching, they couldn’t exchange anything too romantic. But she stood as close as she dared without fully embracing Harm.

“Take care of Daisy.” Val held out the end of Daisy’s leash.

Harm nodded, taking the leash and wrapping the leather around his hand. Then he reached out and clasped her forearm, tugging her even closer. “Take care of yourself.”

As he did so, a weight settled in the hidden pocket she’d added along her thigh the night before, just as they’d practiced so that the move wasn’t obvious. It wasn’t in the magical pocket, and she could still feel the item pressing into her as she turned away, not meeting Harm’s gaze. If she did, she might lose her edge.

She faced Diego and drew her sword from her pocket, then her dagger from the sheath at her side. This was the moment she was likely supposed to say something tough or snarky. Oh, well. She’d rather skip straight to the part where she stabbed that smirk off Diego’s face.

Diego prowled closer and circled her, his movements liquid as a hunting chimera. Without even a flicker in his eyes to give away his intentions, Diego struck, his sword darting forward with all the speed of a snake’s tongue.

Val parried the sword’s blade, knocking it aside enough that it slid harmlessly past her shoulder. Even as she shoved his sword away, she stabbed at his chest with her dagger.

He knocked her dagger aside with his, and he twisted his sword away from hers. He pushed forward, pressing his advantage of height and reach.

Val danced backward and parried his rain of blows. She swiped at his chest, changing the trajectory of her sword to aim at his leg.

Diego jumped back, and the tip of Val’s sword sliced through the fabric of his trousers, even if it didn’t manage to touch his skin.

With a growl, Diego put even more force behind his next blow, forcing Val backward yet again. The back of her ankle struck one of the boulders, and she stumbled, nearly falling.

With her balance off, Diego struck, knocking her dagger from her hand. He kicked her, and she fell, her back crashing into the canyon wall. She caught a ledge with her hand and kept herself semi-upright.

Diego’s sword swung at her head, and she barely managed to get her sword up in time to block his blow. Her arm ached from the impact, and she scrambled to dig another of her knives out of her pocket.

Diego pressed close and grabbed her wrist before she could get her knife out. He pinned her sword to the cliff’s side with his own as he loomed over her. “Valeria. So foolish. You were never a match for me.”

He dragged her forward by his grip on her wrist and tossed her away from him with such force that she tumbled to the ground. She rolled, keeping a hold of her sword. Her back slammed into a rock, and she halted, coughing to catch her breath and spitting the dust out of her mouth.

Diego remained standing near the cliffside instead of pressing his advantage. He shook his head. “All this, and you won’t even save him.”

Before Val could scramble to her feet, Diego whipped around. Their fight had taken him far too close to where Harm stood.

Harm’s eyes widened, and he fumbled as he reached inside the tatters of his shirt for the sword stashed in his magical pocket.

Val rolled to her feet, lunging for Diego. But she was too far away, her movements too slow. She’d never get there in time.

Diego stabbed forward with his sword, aiming squarely for Harm’s chest.

Dropping Daisy’s leash, Harm gave a cry as he drew the sword out of the pocket, the hilt nearly catching on one of the tatters of his shirt. He just about dropped it as he whipped it up with both hands, his movement even more awkward in the confined space. Somehow his blade clanged against Diego’s, directing it to the side just enough that it sliced a cut along Harm’s upper arm instead of stabbing him through the heart.

Before Diego could bring his sword back for another strike, Daisy snarled and leapt, sinking her teeth into Diego’s sword arm and clinging there. Another head appeared and clamped teeth on Diego’s leg.

Diego howled and hopped backward, the dog tenaciously hanging on. He dropped his sword but lifted his dagger, preparing to stab Daisy.

Val yanked the iron knife from the hidden pocket, a burning filling her, though it wasn’t the burn of iron. Perhaps killing wasn’t the action of someone who was truly good. But Diego had hurt Harm, and he was about to stab her dog.

She’d become good another day. This was a day for death. Sometimes, the only way to deal with evil was to dispatch it with extreme prejudice.

Diego tried to turn. Tried to bring his dagger up to block her. But Daisy had him pinned by his arm and ankle.

Val batted his hand aside and stabbed the iron knife down into Diego’s chest.

Diego’s eyes widened, his gaze dropping to the knife in his chest, then up into her face, realization stealing the color from his skin and eyes.

She’d stabbed him with iron. He might have survived a wound made from faerie steel, if he took a healing potion in time. But not one caused by iron.

“Daisy, release.” Val stepped back, yanking the iron knife from Diego’s chest. At her command, Daisy released her hold, and she took up station in front of Harm once again, still growling.

Diego sagged to the ground, a hand pressed to his chest, though the gesture did little to stop the blood. He gasped out a single word. “How…”

Val shoved the leather cuff up her arm, revealing a thin golden line around her wrist. Harm did the same, showing the matching line around his wrist .

Holding Diego’s gaze, Val brandished the iron dagger. “As I said, he was never yours. We freed each other, and in the end, we chose to bind ourselves to each other of our own free will. I’m married to a human, and thus I’m immune to iron.”

Diego’s last breath gurgled from him as he collapsed the rest of the way to the canyon floor.

Val stared at him for another long moment, ensuring that he was truly dead. Then she drew her gaze up to take in Harm where he still stood with his back pressed to the cliffside, a hand clapped over his upper arm, his sword still gripped in the other.

He gave a slight shrug. “I’m bleeding.”

Val heaved an exaggerated sigh as she fished in her pocket for her cleaning cloth. “Again?”

“I didn’t do it to myself this time. And I kept a hold of my sword.” Harm held up the weapon as if presenting a trophy. A wrinkle accompanied his frown. “Though you lost hold of your knife.”

“I was busy trying not to die.” Val wiped down the blade of the iron knife.

“That’s when it’s generally considered a good idea to keep a firm grip on your knife.” Harm’s mouth curved with his grin. “And your sword. I know a certain mercenary who would chew you out and make you run through extra drills for that.”

A cough came from somewhere behind her, accompanied by the clank of weapons. The rest of the mercenaries were getting restless.

“Don’t think this gets you out of knife practice.” Val huffed, stuffed the rag back into her pocket, and returned the iron knife to the hidden sheath she’d rigged up. She retrieved a bandage from her other magical pocket, crossed the remaining distance to Harm, and quickly bound it over the slice on his arm. “That will have to do for now. Don’t want any of these clods getting ideas of blood binding you. It’s a lot harder to do now that you’re married to a fae, but if you keep bleeding all over the place like this, someone will figure out something.”

Harm winced as she tied the bandage to hold it in place. He brushed his fingers over the back of her hand, giving her a slight nod.

He had her back as she tried to get both of them out of this mess once and for all.

Val turned and faced the Wild Hunt mercenaries arrayed before her. She planted her hands on her hips, ready to reach for the iron knife again if needed.

Several of the mercenaries sauntered forward, weapons already gripped in their hands. One—seemingly deemed the spokesman—stepped forward, an ax in one hand. “Do you really think we’re going to take orders from you, now that you’ve married a human? You’re a good warrior, Val, but not that good.”

If he thought he’d rile her with insults, he was barking up the wrong canyon. Unlike him, her ego wasn’t so easily bruised.

Val held his gaze, her hand easing toward the iron knife. “No, I don’t expect you to. I release you from your binding to me. I abdicate as the leader of Wild Hunt Grimbrand. To the strongest go the spoils.”

For a long moment, the mercenaries stared at her, as if they couldn’t believe what she’d just done. Then, with shouts and war cries, they lifted their weapons and turned on each other, blades flashing, dust rising.

Val gripped Harm’s arm and tugged him after her. “We should go.”

“Right behind you.” Harm swiped Daisy’s lead from the ground, though the dog remained pressed close to them, all three of her heads still out.

As they hurried to find a way around the melee, Val retrieved her sword and dagger where they lay discarded on the sandy canyon floor. No sense leaving behind good weapons, even if she was headed toward a new, likely very boring and weapon-free life in the Human Realm. She sheathed the dagger but kept a grip on her sword.

She and Harm edged along the canyon’s side to avoid the fighting. She had to shove aside a few mercenaries when they tumbled toward them, but other than that, the Wild Hunt was too focused on brawling to pay attention to them.

At last, she and Harm stood at the end of the canyon, the twilight of coming night closing around them. Somehow during their escape, her grip had shifted from his arm to his hand.

Now he swung their clasped hands. “Ready to go home?”

“You know it won’t be that simple. We need to hop through a rift, walk across a couple of Fae courts, find the right faerie circle, and hope we end up in your duchy in a relatively timely manner.” Val rested her free hand on her dagger’s hilt, her stomach churning .

What would his family think of her? And his duchy? Would she even be able to make a life in the Human Realm?

She’d already made this choice. That didn’t mean she couldn’t be somewhat frightened. Even if she wasn’t about to show her fear.

“And once we get there, we’ll still have to deal with the king who poisoned my brother.” Harm grimaced, his hand straying toward the magical pocket where he’d stowed his sword.

Right. The conniving king. Val’s nerves vanished. “An evil king to vanquish sounds promising.”

“You won’t be leaving without us.” A deep baritone voice spoke from behind them.

Val whirled, tugging Harm behind her as she drew her sword. “Don’t try to stop us.”

Five mercenaries of her former Wild Hunt band stood before her, festooned with weapons, although none of them had them drawn. The three men and two women had nearly identical stances with their arms crossed, their feet braced.

Val’s heart twisted. These five mercenaries were those who had been almost a small family within the larger band. They were the ones she’d actually trusted to watch her back. The ones she actually regretted leaving behind. When she’d passed them earlier, she couldn’t bring herself to do more than glance at them, for fear they’d read her plan in her eyes.

Familiar as she was with them, Daisy’s tail wagged.

Abelardo, the male fae who had spoken, stood in the lead with his small turquoise fleech dragon twining by his feet. “We’re not trying to stop you. We want to go with you. We accept you as our Wild Hunt leader, and we will follow wherever you go.”

“I’m going to the Human Realm. With him.” Val jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at Harm.

“Yes, we gathered that.” Abelardo gave a shrug without uncrossing his arms. “He’s some kind of prince, right? Princes always need more mercenaries.”

Harm made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, but she couldn’t tell if he was protesting or laughing.

“Perhaps some princes. But I’m going to be following his moral compass.” Val pointed at Harm yet again. “And his moral compass points rather true.”

“Well, that’s good.” Abelardo made that shrug again. “Because clearly none of us have one.”

“Yeah, it might be a nice change of pace to try being moral for once.” Chela, one of the female mercenaries, relaxed out of her crossed arms stance.

“Harm?” Val sheathed her sword and half-turned so that she could face him and her fellow mercenaries. “It’s your duchy.”

They might be married, but she didn’t feel right in speaking for him now. Perhaps she would one day, once they’d been married for more than a few hours and known each other for longer than a few weeks.

But right now, she held her breath as she waited for his verdict.