“She has already stolen enough from the elves in Hemlit to owe us the rest of her life,” one of the soldiers said.
Nope, I did not want that.Please stay with me, Giant Bear, I thought at the great beast. Nothing could be worse than the elves. What had he called himself? Dyra— Something. Maybe I should go with Cursed Fae instead of Giant Bear…
“You would argue with me?” Cursed Fae ground out.
The soldier drew a sword. Instead of throwing it at the bear’s heart, though, he pointed it at the late afternoon sky, and lightning gathered on its tip.
I shuddered. The elves and their stupid magic.
Cursed Fae roared again, shaking the stones and upsetting the water. This time, I lost my balance and toppled into his leg. His fur fell into my face, smelling of fresh forest and…
And ink? Instead of deciphering the smells, I rushed to straighten. Two seconds later, when I was standing by myself again, I realized that the bear had magic too.
Rays of blue light and swirls of black…something…radiated off the bear and flowed toward the elves. The black smothered the lightning on the sword and pressed closer to the elves. They stepped backward, feeling for the slot canyon behind them.
“Is one thief worth your lives?” the bear snarled at them.
They didn’t answer, but they sheathed their weapons and eased themselves into the slot canyon.
The bear followed them. “You lost your thief. I won her. Will you challenge me again?”
They looked at each other, and then one of them shot a scowl at me before answering. “No, we will not. Good luck with her, my lord. Guard your treasures from her.”
I rolled my eyes at him. Neither he, nor any elf in Hemlit, had ever truly been threatened by me.
They bowed at the bear and slunk away, disappearing into the curving path of the slot canyon.
Once we no longer heard their splashing footsteps, the bear turned to me.
Chapter 4: Bylur
Ifaced the human again. Her wide green eyes held a mixture of awe and fear, but I could not allow myself to be charmed by them, no matter how alluring they were. I gave them a hard stare. “You lied to me.”
She raised her chin and wrapped her arms around herself. “I did not.”
“You said—” I paused, trying to remember her exact words.
Her voice quivered, despite her defiant expression. Or perhaps it was the cold water. “I said that I upset some elves and they were coming to punish me. That is very true.”
I narrowed my eyes, unsure of how the expression translated in a bear’s face. “You upset them by stealing from them.” I meant to make it a question, but the cursed bear’s grating voice lost any lilt I attempted.
She understood anyway. “Yes. I stolefoodfrom them. I—” She dropped her gaze and stared at the stones behind my shoulder. “I’ve been doing it for years.”
“Why not find work?” I didn’t like how my interrogation made her shoulders slump.
She sighed and rubbed her wet arms. “I tried. I took lots of little jobs, did lots of cleaning, ran lots of errands. It was never quite enough. And it never lastedlong. Elves aren’t… fond of humans, and nobody kept me on for more than a few weeks here or there. Stealing was the only way to stay alive.”
That wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. She wasn’t a criminal, then, so much as a victim of circumstance. Unless—
“Can you lie?” My voice sounded deep and accusatory. The bear was far more cruel than I would have been in my natural form, though I would have asked the question either way.
A muscle in her cheek tightened. I couldn’t tell if it was because she was cold or angry. She lifted her chin again, as if daring me to challenge her humanity, but she only said one word. “Yes.”
I cursed under my breath, but it came out as a growl in the back of my throat.
She tensed, but did not shift away. Did that mean she was frightened of me but refused to act on that fear? Or was she too afraid to move?
While I was still trying to figure out her thoughts, she asked her own question. “Canyoulie?”
