“Hmm.” I frowned as something occurred to me. “I wonder how they’ll pay for the rum if they find any.”
Maddox exhaled. “Knowing the thief, he’ll steal it.”
“He better not.” I huffed. “I’ll spank him.”
Briar chuckled. “I have a feeling he’d like that too much.”
Probably. Rowan liked when I got feisty. And when I turned into a sad toad. Both sides pleased him equally. The meanie.
“Evan?” someone said from my right. Before looking, I knew the baritone voice belonged to Fane. He stepped from the front door of a shop, holding a basket. His lavender-colored hair was pushed back from his face, and his reddish-brown skin caught the sun’s rays, turning a beautiful sienna. “I didn’t know you’d be in the market this afternoon. I would’ve offered to accompany you.”
“No worries. Seraphina and Borus are with us.” I stepped closer to him, inwardly sighing at the way my men tensed up in response. “Besides, you deserve to have time to yourself without me talking your ear off.”
He smiled, albeit faintly, before glancing at the others with me. Like them, he seemed to be on edge.
“What’d you buy?” I asked, nodding to the basket. Trying to put him at ease.
“Oh.” Fane glanced down at it. “Milord mentioned you wanted coffee beans. Took me a while to find a shop that offered them, but I managed to procure them for you.”
“You did that for me?” My throat tightened. Not sure what touched me more: Fane going through the trouble of tracking them down for me or Lord Onyx asking for him to. “Thank you.”
“It was no trouble.” Fane adjusted the basket on his arm, visibly uncomfortable. Awkward too. “But don’t expect me to make it for you. You’ll need to grind the beans and brew it yourself.”
I fought a smile. “Of course.”
“You can find them in the kitchen come morning,” he said. “For now, I suppose I should be on my way. Cyan and Nina are waiting for me back at the castle.”
“Say hi to them for me.”
“Will do.” Fane’s green eyes moved between me and the knights, who had come closer as we’d chatted. He nodded to us and went down the path, shoulders still tense.
A flash of red-orange hair and a bulky build drew my attention to Koga, one of the other demons I’d met earlier that day. He offered me a polite smile before walking with Fane, fading from sight a moment later.
“Would it kill you to be nice?” I scowled at Maddox. “You made him nervous.”
He gaped. “I did nothing of the sort. I merely stood here.”
“You stood there glaring at him,” I said, then directed my irritation at the other knights, starting with my favorite cinnamon roll. Callum balked under my hard stare. “Fane is my friend. He won’t hurt me.”
“But—” Duke started to say.
“No buts,” I interjected, putting my hands on my hips. “Be nice to him.”
Quincy wiped at his eyes, putting on a show. “Look at ’im giving us orders like a true little prince. Never have I felt such pride.”
Maddox smiled.
Soon, Briar spotted the apothecary and asked to take a look. I went with him as the knights checked out the blacksmith’sshop. Seraphina and Borus accompanied them inside. Probably because they weren’t allowed to carry or handle weapons.
In the apothecary, I kept a casual pace beside Briar as he moved along the shelves gushing over everything, from potion vials to potted plants hanging in the storefront window. I loved his excitement.
“Oh! Look at this.” Briar tapped the cover of a large book. “It’s a grimoire on transfiguration and alchemy. Many of these spells are too advanced for me, but from a research perspective, it can be quite informative.”
I felt my smile turn sad as I watched him flip through the grimoire. Callum missed training as a knight. And Briar missed his clinic. He missed crafting tonics and brewing elixirs. Missed helping people.
That familiar weight of guilt stirred in my chest again, like an old foe who couldn’t be defeated for long. Earlier in the courtyard, he’d said being with me was what he wanted, and I believed him, but it didn’t make it any easier. For any of us.
“Briar?” I focused on a decorative glass vial on the nearest shelf. “Do you think we can ever go home?”
