Both Behrvyne and Walgar rumbled growls. While many thought beast fae were the most monstrous of the dark fae, we adhered to strict rules about protecting our females. No matter what crime she might have committed, we would never treat them ill or hunt them down like dogs.
“She had done nothing wrong,” I informed them. “Except to go against her father’s wishes of marrying a bastard who wanted to use her for her magick.” I turned to face them. “That’s all beside the point. I tell you this only to explain how I came to travel alone with her through the woods back to Vanglosa. I’d traveled this same path countless times over the years and stayed in a cave I was familiar with. Jessamine stepped away to relieve herself and a dryad stag attacked her.”
“What did she do to him?”
“Nothing. He was infected somehow. When we encountered the grimlocks, I smelled the same foulness on them as I did the dryad. This sorcerer who created the golems has the power to infect other fae creatures. So be forewarned.”
We were silent again for some time. Then Behrvyne said something unexpected.
“Word has it that your skald fae female used her magick and saved the children from the golems.”
Grinning, I took a sip of ale. “She did. Without her, they’d all be dead by now.”
“Hmm. She is different than what I expected of a light fae royal,” said Walgar.
“In what way?”
“She is…genuine, but also seems fierce in a way.”
“She is both,” I agreed proudly. “And more.”
“She also seems to be smitten with your ugly face,” said Behrvyne.
I grinned. “She is.”
“More than his face,” added Walgar suggestively.
Growling, I shot them both a warning glare which made them laugh.
“Walgar!” shouted one of the other clan lords from the table behind us. “Come tell us about that barga you killed last summer.”
“I suppose we should rejoin the others and be sociable.” Behrvyne stood with his goblet. “I’m out of ale anyway.”
The three of us sighed almost in unison as we rejoined the table, regaling stories we’d told more than once before. It was difficult to force myself to stay, but I was glad I did.
There were many smiling faces by the night’s end. And when one of the chief’s mates asked about the wraith fae boy and the two shadow fae children at the feast, Behrvyne explained before I could that they had also been captured with Bes and Saralyn by the golems. He added that it was Jessamine who had saved them. When many turned surprising looks at me before the conversation changed, I subtly raised my cup to Behrvyne.
When the fires finally began to burn down and nearly all had gone to bed, I said goodnight, Behrvyne and I walking away from those who still lingered. A thin line of gold on the eastern horizon lightened the early morning sky.
“It ended better than it started,” I told him as we weaved between tents and onto the path near the rockface. “Though I’d hoped to have Jessamine at my side for longer.”
“They’ll come around.”
“I’m surprised you so easily welcomed her,” I admitted.
“That’s the beauty of being a young chief. I don’t carry the old ideas around in my head like the rest of you.”
I chuckled. “Are you calling me old?”
“You’re lucky you already discovered Jessamine is your mate, old man, or I’d fight you for her.” He shot a teasing smile at me, but it made me growl all the same.
Then the sound of a wolf whimpering caught my attention. A second later, Wolf bounded toward us.
“What’s the matter, boy?”
He whined and yipped, stomping his forelegs in front of me before hurrying back the way he’d come. Behrvyne and I glanced at each other then ran after him, halting suddenly when wesaw Mishka still as stone on the ground in a small niche of the rockface.
Falling to my knees beside her, I felt for a pulse and put my palm in front of her nose. “She’s alive.”
