“Verdant’s place,” I said. “The Paragon told me her home was the closest when we were dragging everyone out here.”
Rigel nodded. “She’s on the west side of town.”
“Great. Just tell me when I need to turn.” I started backing up and blinked when I heard a terrible crash that sounded suspiciously like two fae crashing into the sides of my truck.
Twisting in my seat, I owlishly peered through the back window, into the bed of the truck.
It glittered in the dim light, and it looked like the floor of the bed had been covered with a thick coat of ice.
I laughed. “I guess Rime holds grudges.”
“Do you want to bring them in here with us?” Rigel asked.
“Heck, no. I don’t mind if they get a few bruises to remember the night by!” I finished backing up, then took the corner more sharply than necessary, eliciting more thuds from the bed.
It was dark by the time we reached the Spring Queen’s home. I couldn’t see much of her house—not because of the lack of light, but because the place was covered in vines, flowers, and enough plants to outfit roughly ten city parks.
Verdant was singing at the top of her lungs when I helped her out of the truck. She landed on top of me—and let me tell you, for a petite fae she had a lot of muscle, because wowza did she hit me like a rock!
I righted myself in time and helped her up the winding sidewalk. “No, Verdant. No air guitars. You have to figure out how to get inside—AH!”
I screamed when three white deer stepped out of the thick underbrush.
“Babies!” Verdant cheered. She let go of me and flung herself at the nearest stag. She scrambled up its back, and hung over its shoulder. “Thanks, Leila!”
“Um, yeah. Goodnight?”
The stag and a doe walked off, leaving the last stag with me.
It nosed my arm, and it took me a moment to realize it was the same stag I had saved from the hunt. “Are you happy to be home?” I scratched its forehead, ducking when he swiveled his head and nearly took me out with his antlers.
The stag flicked his tail, then followed his brethren.
I shook my head and jogged back to the truck.
“Who’s next?” I asked Rigel.
“Summer is the next closest.” Rigel watched as I scrambled into my seat.
“Then summer, here we come!”
Birch’s place was less than fifteen minutes south, and was an easy drive.
Rather than pull up to his house, we got stopped at these massive gates and had to wait for a car to come pick him up.
The gate guard seemed to think I was going to steal all of Summer’s valuable artifacts if they let me in, based on the way he was suspiciously eyeing me.
I didn’t mind—I was just happy he wasn’t having a massive heart attack because his distinctly ruffled monarch was cruising around in the bed of my truck!
When the sent for car finally arrived, I lowered my truck tailgate. “Come on out, Birch. This is your stop.”
Birch—frost in his hair from the ice—groaned and turned away from me.
“What happened to your good cheer and happy songs? Come on!” I climbed into the bed of the truck and grabbed Birch by the ankles.
Rigel got out of the truck. “Do you want help?”
“Nah. I’m just going to let him fall since none of his people seem inclined to help.” I sat on the side of my truck and shoved Birch off the back with my heels.
