Page 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

H arm lit the last candle along the broad throne room and stepped around the guard sprawled on the floor.

While thoroughly bound and gagged, the man was still out after the little tap Grutte had given him. The poor man could probably use a fae healing potion for the head injury he had likely sustained. Harm resisted a wince. He didn’t want to hurt the soldiers, who were just doing their job and loyally serving their king, but a few injuries couldn’t be helped.

With the candles he’d lit casting orange light and deeper shadows across the room, Harm marched to the throne at the far end and perched on it.

Nope, too stiff. He slouched. No, now that was too low-class instead of powerful.

He swiveled on the throne and threw one leg over the armrest, attempting a languid sprawl.

If only he could ask Val for a second opinion. But she was somewhere in this castle with Abelardo and Jesenia, retrieving Gijs. Ignatius, Grutte, and Chela were fetching King Hendrik.

That left Harm with the one job of lighting the candles and sitting on the throne looking powerful. He wore his fee?n clothing, including the leather jerkin and mended shirt, with the fee?n sword buckled at his waist.

The door gave a creak as it began to swing inward. He had just enough time to adjust his expression to something hard, leaning an elbow on the armrest in what he hoped was a confident sprawl, before the door opened the rest of the way.

Grutte had King Hendrik by the back of his nightshirt, the garment hiked to his knees as he was marched forward. It seemed the fee hadn’t given him the chance to grab his dressing gown—or perhaps they hadn’t known such a thing would be considered a courtesy.

Oh, well. Harm didn’t mind that they’d denied King Hendrik that little scrap of dignity. King Hendrik certainly hadn’t cared about such things when he’d bargained with Diego for the fae poison and Harm’s captivity. And who knew what he’d done to Gijs in the last five years, even beyond taking him away from the one family member he’d had left.

Chela and Ignatius marched on either side of Grutte, their weapons still out. The door swung shut with a heavy thunk behind them.

King Hendrik’s gaze lifted to the throne a moment before his face paled.

“Surprised to see me?” Harm smirked, the expression sharp-edged. “After you bargained with a fee to ensure I was taken into their realm, never to be seen again.”

“That fae played me false,” King Hendrik growled as he tried to wrench out of Grutte’s grasp. He didn’t manage it and instead flailed like a hooked fish. “First that brat recovers, and I have to come up with a new plan. Now you somehow return from what should have been certain death.”

“He was a fae. What else did you expect?” Harm raised his eyebrows, trying to mirror Val’s unimpressed look. “And before you get any ideas about bargaining with that fae again, he’s dead. I witnessed his death myself.”

“How inconvenient.” King Hendrik tried to reach over his shoulder to pry at Grutte’s hand. “Will you order your lackey to release me? Or will you continue to treat me with such disregard? I fear that will not win you any favors in our negotiations.”

“No, I won’t order him to release you. First, because he isn’t my lackey. Second, these aren’t negotiations.” Harm tried to put a deeper growl to his voice. “This is quite hostile. I will make demands, and you will comply. Or else these lackeys will do worse than merely abduct you from your bedchamber.”

Grutte lifted King Hendrik slightly higher off the ground, and the king made a choking noise.

He was still choking and clawing at his throat as the door creaked again.

This time, Val marched inside. She met Harm’s gaze and gave a nod before she stepped aside, holding the door open for the person behind her .

A young man crept after her, carrying an orange-and-white dog. The young man’s hair was a sandy blonde slightly darker than Harm’s while his eyes were the same blue as their father’s.

Gijs and his dog Vlek.

Harm gripped the throne’s armrest, his stomach churning. Despite being told five years had passed, Harm had still envisioned his brother as the fifteen-year-old boy he’d been when Harm had left. He’d seen the changes in his father. But the gray hair and weary lines could have been chalked up to the grief he’d suffered. Seeing Gijs as a fully grown man hit the reality home with far more force.

Gijs halted, gaping. “Harm?”

Harm would have leapt up and embraced his brother, but he had to maintain his intimidating pose for a few more minutes.

A young woman with golden-blonde hair followed behind Gijs, one hand gripping Gijs by the arm and the other clutching the handles of a carpet bag. Jesenia and Abelardo followed her with Acurru perched on Abelardo’s shoulder.

Grutte set King Hendrik back onto his tiptoes, and the king twisted around, trying to get a glimpse of the newcomers. His face was suffused red from the choking, but somehow it turned even more mottled. “Saskia?”

The young woman raised her chin. “Father.”

Harm met Val’s gaze across the length of the throne room. Val gave a shrug and a wry smile.

King Hendrik whirled to glare at Harm. “So this is your plan. Kidnap my daughter in retaliation for kidnapping your brother.”

“I’m not being kidnapped. I’m going willingly, Father.” Saskia stepped even closer to Gijs. “What you have done to Gijs in holding him captive and threatening his father these past five years is wrong. More than that, I love him, Father. Because I love him, I want what is best for him. I’m going with him to Tulpenland where he will be free.”

“But you will be a captive! Don’t you see? He’s just using you! They’re all using you.” King Hendrik clawed at Grutte again. He might as well have been trying to move a boulder uphill.

Val crossed her arms and glared at King Hendrik. “No one is being taken against their will or hauled off to captivity. We don’t do that.”

At least not anymore. Harm worked to suppress his proud smile.

“Who are you?” King Hendrik’s sneer curled his mouth. As if he had any right to sneer at anyone, held by the scruff with his nightshirt hiking up his thighs.

Harm couldn’t resist any longer. He let the swelling pride break into a smile across his face and fill his voice. “King Hendrik, I don’t believe you’ve met my wife.”

“Your…wife?” King Hendrik made that choking noise again, even though Grutte wasn’t hoisting him off his feet. “She’s…”

“A f ee . Yes.” Harm gestured to the other five fee?n . “And this is her Wild Hunt. She will be calling them off. Or not. ”

“Don’t you control your wife?” King Hendrik spat the words.

And he wondered why his daughter was running off with Gijs back to Tulpenland rather than stay here.

“We’re allies. I don’t control her. Instead, I’m honored that she fights at my side, as I will fight at hers.” Harm would like to see the man who would try to control Val.

Oh, wait, he had. That man’s body was rotting in the Realm of Monsters. Or, perhaps, consumed by the Realm of Monsters, if that realm ate bodies the way the Fae Realm did.

Saskia leaned closer to Gijs, whispering something to him that had both of them smiling as they gazed into each other’s eyes.

King Hendrik snorted. “I won’t even have to do anything to your kingdom. I can just sit back and watch it fall apart. Your people will never accept a fee as a duchess. Nor will they allow such…attitudes. Your kingdom will dissolve into chaos and ruin. Once it finishes burning, I will step in to take it.”

Perhaps it would. Maybe Harm would find himself tossed out and Gijs put on the throne. But he wasn’t going to debate King Hendrik about it.

Harm met Val’s gaze again, and she tipped her head to Jesenia.

Jesenia grinned and opened the door. A wrinkle appeared on her brow, the only indication she gave of her concentration.

Moments later, rank after rank of fee?n warriors dressed in leather and festooned with weapons marched into the room and arranged themselves along the walls in the shadows, which would keep their faces indistinct.

Considering they were merely a glamour created by Jesenia, that was for the best. She was particularly skilled at glamour, but creating an army of people was difficult. It wouldn’t fool a fee . Luckily, the only fee?n in the room were on Harm’s side.

With the army of glamoured warriors to add weight to her words, Val sauntered closer to King Hendrik, whipped out her knife, and pressed it to the man’s throat. “Listen well, Your Majesty . My husband might be inclined to grant you and your pathetic kingdom mercy, but I am not. So don’t push me. We will be leaving, and you won’t stop us. If you try to hurt my husband, his brother, his father, or his duchy again, I will return, and I will kill you. If you try to negotiate with a fae again, I will find out, and I will kill you. If you send your army to invade Tulpenland…”

“You’ll kill me.” King Hendrik’s tone didn’t waver, but he couldn’t hide his gulp, which bobbed his throat against Grutte’s tight grip.

“Glad we understand each other.” Val tapped King Hendrik’s chin with the flat of her blade.

How Harm wanted to march across the room and kiss her. He shouldn’t be this attracted to her as she was threatening his enemy with death, but she was particularly gorgeous when she went all deadly and dangerous. Especially now that she was no longer threatening him with her knife.

But kissing would have to wait until they were safely back on board the Tulpenlander ship anchored in a bay up the coast.

Right now, it was time to wrap this up and get out of here before King Hendrik realized there were only seven of them—well seven plus Gijs, Saskia, Vlek, and a mini dragon—and called out his entire army and navy to go after them.

Val leaned in even closer and whispered something into King Hendrik’s ear that had the king turning white as his nightshirt. She stepped away, waving a contemptuous hand at the king. “Ignatius, bind him.”

That was Harm’s cue. Val had deemed King Hendrik sufficiently intimidated, and it was time to leave.

Harm pushed off the throne and did his best to saunter down the length of the throne room. He halted at Val’s side, resisting the urge to pull her in close for that kiss.

As soon as King Hendrik was bound, gagged, and dumped in the shadows beneath one of the long drapes where it would take his guards a while to find him, the rest of them hustled from the room. Jesenia directed her glamour warriors to march out the door, only dissipating them once they were out of sight of the king, should he manage to peer past both the blindfold and the drapes. Abelardo had Acurru fly around the room and snuff all the candles so that the throne room was plunged into darkness once again.

Within minutes, they had crept through the castle, out the postern gate, and into the shrouding night.

Gijs halted and turned, still holding Vlek in both arms. “Harm, is that really you? I thought…you were… ”

“I’m fine. Really.” Harm stepped forward and slung an arm around his brother’s shoulders, careful not to squish the dog. “But look at you. You’re all grown up.”

“You haven’t changed a bit.” Gijs was still gaping, his shoulders hunched as if he wasn’t sure what to do with Harm’s half-hug.

“It was only a little over two weeks for me. Time moves differently in the Fae Realm.” Harm released his brother. “We came to save you from a wedding, but it seems that isn’t necessary.”

“No, it isn’t.” Gijs edged closer to Saskia, sharing a smile with her. “Over the past five years, Saskia and I fell in love. We were actually sneaking out to run away together when your… fee found us.”

He’d hesitated, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to call Val.

Val raised her eyebrows, even as she gave Harm a gentle shove. “It was quite convenient they were already packed and ready to leave. Which is what we should be doing.”

Harm resumed walking, and after a moment, Gijs and Saskia fell into step with the group, even if they kept eyeing the fee?n around them.

After a moment of silence, Gijs cast a glance from Val to Harm. “Wife? But you said you’d only been in the Fae Realm for two weeks?”

“It’s a long story. Things are different in the Fae Realm.” Harm wasn’t sure he could explain it. For some reason, marrying Val after knowing her only two weeks seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do in the Fae Realm .

Yet now that he was in the Human Realm, he didn’t regret it one bit.

“We fell in love, and we decided to return to the Human Realm together.” Harm reached for Val’s hand, his heart lifting when she clasped his. “Just to warn you, I plan to abdicate my position as heir to you if Tulpenland isn’t ready for a fee?n duchess just yet.”

Gijs sighed. “And here I thought I’d finally been released from that. But you might be surprised. After nearly getting subsumed into Suskeny, Tulpenland might be willing to take any alternative, especially since I intend to marry Saskia. Someday, she will be the queen of Suskeny, and I will be her consort. If I’m also heir to Tulpenland, that will mean Tulpenland and Suskeny would be united, as King Hendrik wished. If a fee?n duchess is the price of their continued independence, Tulpenland will accept her gladly.”

Harm studied the stranger who was his brother. “When did you get to be so wise and diplomatically canny?”

“I’ve done a lot of growing up in the past five years.” Gijs grinned with a wry tilt to his mouth. “I’m not the only one who has changed. You’re…”

“Less staid and stuffy?” Harm swung the hand he had clasped with Val’s.

“I was going to say more…sharp-edged? Dangerous? Wild, even. And not just because of the fee?n around you.” Gijs gestured from Val to the others. “A bit fee?n -mad, perhaps.”

Harm just shrugged. If he went down in history as Duke Harmen the Fee?n -Mad, he could live with that. As long as it meant he was free to be genuine as he fought to help others, then he didn’t care what he was called.

“Oh, good. Then all my hard work in training you has made a difference.” Val bumped into Harm with her shoulder. “I wasn’t sure for a while there if it would stick.”

“Yes, the whole wolf incident didn’t inspire confidence.” Harm lowered his voice so that his words were only for her.

“No. Nor did the screeching as I tended your scratches.” Val raised her eyebrows, her smirk definitely flirtatious.

“They were far more than mere scratches.” Harm leaned closer to her. “And I wasn’t screeching.”

Val made an unimpressed humming noise in the back of her throat.

Gijs smirked and hurried to fall into step with Saskia. She wrapped her hands around his arm again, giving a small laugh when Vlek licked her face.

Harm would have to get used to having a brother so close to his own age instead of a decade younger. The Fae Realm might have stolen five years, but perhaps it had given him what could be a closer relationship with his brother.

His hand in Val’s, Harm slowed his pace still further until the two of them were trailing behind the others. “Do I want to know what you whispered to King Hendrik there at the end?”

“Probably not.” Val’s mouth pressed into a line, as if she wasn’t repentant but thought she should be. “I just reminded him that we’ll have his daughter in our care the way Gijs was in his for the past five years. Sure, we won’t harm her or use her that way, but King Hendrik doesn’t know that.”

No, he didn’t. He’d likely assume she was being used as a hostage, given that was the way he thought and acted.

“As long as the threat leaves Gijs and Saskia free to live their lives happily, I don’t mind.” Harm shot a glance to the others, but no one seemed to have noticed yet that he and Val were lagging behind. Harm leaned his head closer to Val’s, murmuring, “Have I told you lately how much I love it when you’re being all deadly?”

“Yes, but I don’t mind hearing it again.” Val halted, tipping her face up toward him.

There was no reason to hold back now. Harm lifted his hand to cradle the side of Val’s face, the moonlight trailing blue and silver highlights in her hair. “Will you stab me if I kiss you?”

“I’ll stab you if you don’t kiss me.” Val’s dark eyes sparkled as she released his hand, only to clasp her hands in the collar of his shirt, tugging him closer.

“In that case…” Harm pressed his mouth to hers, gently cradling her close even as a fire lit deep inside him.

When he’d stepped into the Fae Realm, he’d expected cruelty and torment. He’d never imagined he’d fall in love, especially not with the prickly fee?n warrior woman who had hauled him through the realm with a magical tether .

But he couldn’t imagine returning to Tulpenland with anyone else at his side.

When the two of them finally pulled back a hair’s breadth from each other, Val murmured against his cheek, “We should keep moving. King Hendrik’s men might come after us at any moment.”

“I suppose.” Harm pressed little kisses to her nose.

“And you promised me all the cheese and cassis I could eat and drink.” Val swayed slightly farther away from him, though she didn’t let go of her grip on his collar.

“Don’t forget the stroopwafels, pancakes, and oliebollen.” Harm trailed his fingers through her hair, reluctant to let her go to keep walking.

“Of course not.” Val stepped out of his reach, giving him that eyebrow look, before she turned her back and kept walking. “Besides, your father has been left with Daisy and a crate full of giant snails for a week now. We really ought to rescue him.”

That might as well have been a bucket of sea water tossed over his head. Harm hurried to catch up with her. “Right. We’d better rescue him before Daisy destroys the entire palace.”

They couldn’t return to Tulpenland soon enough.