Page 6

Chapter Six

V al stirred the pot of stew bubbling over the fire, trying to ignore the pinching feeling in her chest. At her feet, Daisy gobbled down the shredded dried meat and veggies Val had prepared for her.

Across the way, Harm sat on a raised root that was as tall as a fallen log, his elbows braced on his knees as he stared listlessly into the fire. The picture of a puppy who had endured his first kick and wasn’t sure how to handle it.

She shouldn’t feel this squiggling sourness in her chest. She’d escorted many a package over the years as a mercenary, and she’d always managed to squash the niggling thoughts before.

But there was just something about this particular puppy that brought out…regrets. He should have treated her as his enemy. Lashed out at her at least once or twice.

Instead, he looked at her with trusting blue eyes and acted like they were allies. No one other than her fellow Wild Hunt mercenaries had ever treated her that way.

She couldn’t afford to entertain such inconvenient emotions. Emotions got a mercenary killed.

Worse, she was stuck with this puppy yet again. Her freedom was still restricted. And the walk from the Court of Revels to the Court of Stone wasn’t short. If she was already feeling this uncomfortable, how much worse would it get before the trip was over?

Val wasn’t familiar with the dragon shifter Golbet in particular, but Flight Talonstorm was fairly indifferent to humans. They didn’t defend humans the way Flight Clawstone did, but they also didn’t treat humans as badly as Flight Icewing. Turning Harm over to Golbet should, at least, be better than handing him over to Queen Titania.

Yet he’d still be a captive. And escaping from a dragon was nigh impossible. She should explain that to him with all the ruthlessness of the cold truth. It might even be the kindest thing to do.

But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. At least, not yet. It would be like kicking a puppy a second time in one day.

Perhaps it was that foolish beginning of a conscience that had her opening her mouth and asking, “Are you all right?”

Harm sighed, lifting one hand long enough to drag it through his hair. “I’m fine. I just…” He glanced off into the dark forest surrounding them before he returned his gaze to the fire. “I’m a man. A prince. I’ve never been in… that kind of danger before. I knew what I’d face here. I knew it could come to that. But knowing it and actually facing it are two different things.”

They were. Just like turning a package over to a new master and actually seeing what he would face once she was gone were also two different things. With the one, she could wrap herself in the pretense of ignorance and claim innocence in whatever happened next. But with the other…she wasn’t ignorant and thus wasn’t innocent. And that was…far too uncomfortable to contemplate.

Harm released a long breath and finally lifted his head to look at her, his face smoothing back into that cheerful puppy look. “But I’m fine. Where are we headed next?”

Val shook herself. Yes, right. Far better to get this conversation on a familiar and safer topic. Even if she had to work to keep her emotions buried at the mention of a particular court. “Flight Talonstorm is a clan of dragon shifters in the Court of Stone. The shortest way to get there would be to cut through the Court of Sand, but that court is the most dangerous in the whole Fae Realm. The heat and the shifting sands make the barrier between the Fae Realm and the Realm of Monsters especially thin there. Monsters and rogue fae run rampant.”

The Court of Sand was the easiest way into and out of the Realm of Monsters. As such, she’d been through the Court plenty of times since joining the Wild Hunt.

But that didn’t mean she particularly liked that Court, given her history there.

“That sounds…daunting.” Harm started to reach for hi s ankle before he seemed to remember himself and halted. It was a good thing he wasn’t stuck with one of the other mercenaries or the knife that he had hidden there would have been confiscated long ago.

“It is.” Especially if Val had to cross the court with a human puppy on a leash. “Or we can go through the Tanglewood, across the top of the Court of Knowledge, and through the Harvest Court until we reach the pass into the Court of Stone. It will take longer, but there will be fewer monsters.”

“Not that I get a vote, but the longer route sounds safer to me.” Harm shrugged, resting his elbows on his knees again. “I want to get to our destination as quickly as possible, but I also want to arrive alive.”

“I said fewer monsters, not no monsters. The Harvest Court is rife with nuckelavee and particularly nasty grain sprites.” Val still had the scars from the last time the little biters had gnawed on her ankles. “But it would be somewhat less arduous than crossing the deserts of the Court of Sand.”

Why was she leaning toward the longer option? Sure, she preferred to avoid the Court of Sand, especially anything that would entail coming in contact with one of the warlords. But she faced the Court of Sand nearly every mission, and she’d face it again. She wasn’t a coward who let her past rule her.

Then why did a part of her want the longer option? As if she wanted to delay handing Harm over as long as possible?

It was the regret, that was all. Pesky emotions .

With more time, she could prepare him for survival. After all, why shouldn’t she teach him how to fight?

It wasn’t as if she actually liked whoever she would hand him over to at the end of this. She couldn’t care less about anyone here in the Fae Realm. They’d never done anything but cast her out. So what if they got stabbed? It wouldn’t be her problem, even if she trained the one who did the stabbing. It might not be the best for her mercenary reputation, but who was to know?

“Look. You wanted me to tell you what you needed to know to survive. So here it is.” Val took two bowls and spoons from her pocket, then ladled the stew into them. After setting the pot aside so that it could cool, she held out one of the bowls to Harm. “You need to know about the Laws of Bindings and Bargains that rule the Fae Realm.”

He took the bowl of stew, stirring it with a spoon. “Is that like the Law of Hospitality?”

“Yes, though the Law of Hospitality is a lesser law, not a binding law.” Val held her bowl of stew in her hands, waiting for it to cool. “Right now, you’re under the power of a bargain. It compels you to fulfill it and will enact destruction on you and your home if you don’t. But it also gives you the ability to eat some fae food and to communicate. Even though you’re speaking your language, and I’m speaking mine, we both understand each other.”

Harm nodded, his gaze going distant. After a moment, his forehead puckered. “Then how could my father understand the fae when he made the bargain? And I could understand you even before you put the threefold cord on my wrist.”

“Queen Mab likely sent a fae who could speak your language. It was probably why the fae who told her about your brother’s illness didn’t go himself.” Val tried to ignore the way Harm’s jaw tightened at the mention of the mystery fae who had set this into motion. She didn’t like not seeing the whole picture either, but there was nothing either of them could do about it. “Once the bargain was in place, the magic of the bargain gave all involved the ability to communicate.”

Harm rested his elbows on his knees, his bowl cradled in his hands, but his posture was more relaxed and less hunched than before. “So once I’m delivered and the bargain is complete, what happens then?”

“You’ll then be under a captive binding. You’ll still be able to communicate and eat most fae food, except for faerie fruit. It’ll make you susceptible to commands, though you can resist, and you’ll struggle to go far from your captor.” Val held up her wrist with the sparkling cord attached. “Kind of like this, but a fully magical version wrapped around your very being. In theory, a captive binding is supposed to grant you some protections—your captor can’t kill you and you can’t kill them—but the fae can torture you a great deal without killing you.”

“So I’ve seen.” His tone held a coldly dry note. Perhaps he was remembering the tortured musicians of Queen Mab’s court. His gaze dropped to the bowl in his hands, his grip tightening on his spoon. “If I can’t kill them and can’t go far, then is escape impossible? ”

“You can’t kill them with faerie steel.” Val placed emphasis on the words, flicking a glance at his ankle where she suspected he had an iron knife hidden. But she wouldn’t say anything more pointedly than that. If he couldn’t figure out what she meant, then he wouldn’t have the brains for escaping.

“I see.” Harm drew out the syllables, giving a nod. “What about the captive binding? How do I escape that?”

Val probably shouldn’t tell him. Her fellow fae wouldn’t like that she was educating her package.

But that tight knot was easing in her stomach, and not just because she was satiating her hunger with the stew.

“There are three main ways. You can be rescued by someone else, who returns you to your home and sets you free. That’s the main way humans are freed.” Val hesitated, then decided not to mention the Primrose League, a shadowy organization that existed to rescue humans. That would have been too helpful, especially when they were headed into the Court of Knowledge, the court that allegedly harbored the League’s leader. Besides, if he sought out the League now, he might just get her killed. “You might be able to free yourself, though you would be left in the Fae Realm without the ability to communicate or eat any food whatsoever. The third way is to override the captive binding with an even stronger binding.”

“Such as?” Harm leaned forward, his stew seemingly all but forgotten in his hands.

“Any binding involving love. Most often that is the marriage binding.” Val couldn’t help the curl to her mouth. All such sappy stuff. Anyone in the Realm of Monsters could tell one just how rare such things were.

“Marriage.” Harm raised his eyebrows. “After what we saw today?”

“Hard to believe, I know. But the truly strong marriage bindings involve love, and those are the powerful ones. Supposedly. I’ve never seen it.” Val scraped the last of the stew from the bottom of her bowl. “You’ll need to be wary. Some fae might try to trick you into a marriage binding, hoping you’ll fall in love with them. A marriage with a human—when there is love—makes a fae immune to iron and gives them the ability to lie in the Human Realm. Both things that fae who prey on humans long to achieve.”

“A marriage binding could save or doom me.” He took a bite of the stew, chewing before he swallowed. “Anything else I should know?”

So much, but they’d be up all night if Val tried to explain every nuance of the Fae Realm. Instead, there was only one last thing she’d warn him about now. “Just be careful that your captor doesn’t shed your blood and his or her blood. That would place you under a blood binding. Blood magic is banned here in the Fae Realm, but even then, some fae will still do it. Blood bindings put you fully under the control of your captor. You won’t be able to refuse any command, and escape is nigh impossible.”

Harm set aside what remained of his stew. “Avoid a blood binding. Understood.”

Daisy’s ears perked up at the sound of the bowl clunking against the tree root. She stopped licking her already clean bowl and placed her nose in Val’s lap, giving her the begging eyes.

“All right, I’m done.” Val set her bowl on the ground for Daisy to lick out.

Harm eyed Daisy. “We are washing the dishes, right?”

“ You are washing the dishes.” Val touched the side of the pot. It had cooled enough so she set it next to her bowl for Daisy to lick out next. “Daisy is just helping you out by pre-cleaning everything.”

Harm made a noise in the back of his throat. So ungrateful. She’d only made stew—and its excess of dishes—as a comfort food because he’d looked so disconsolate after their run-in with Queen Titania.

Daisy’s head shot up, her whole body stiffening, as she stared into the forest behind Val. A low growl emanated from the dog’s chest.

Val rose to her feet as she cocked her head to better listen to the forest sounds.

Harm braced himself, as if preparing to stand. “What is—”

Val held up a hand, and he fell silent.

Daisy’s other two heads appeared, her fur rising along her back. She gave one last, low growl before she bolted into the night.

“Monsters.” Val drew her knife, spinning in that direction.

“Should I…” Harm fumbled with his trouser cuff where it was stuffed into his tall boots .

“No, use mine.” Val drew a second knife and tossed it at him.

Instead of catching it, he stumbled backwards, eyes wide, as he let the knife fall to the ground.

Val huffed and turned toward the forest. Yes, she would definitely have to teach him to use a knife. He’d never survive if she didn’t.