Gwen frowned from the front of the room, having just received another group of people. Soren’s burrow wasn’t small, but it also wasn’t intended to host even a quarter of the two hundred people heading this way. “We don’t have time to train her in.”
Holding up a calming hand to her, Soren told me, “I’m sure Peregrin could use help in the kitchen.”
So that was where I went.
I found him scratching the hair by his ram horns with one hand and clutching a wooden spoon in the other. After spinning around his kitchen to grab a knife, he whirled back to cut the bread like a machine, muttering to himself, “What in Samhain were we thinking? We need more food...”
Clearing my throat, I stepped inside. “Soren sent me to help.”
My eyes widened as I took in the rest of the room. People filled the seats on both sides of the table. The rest had found places to sit along the walls or in the middle of the floor.Once again, my eyes flew across them searching for Mom, but she wasn’t here either.
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“Yes, come, take this.” I jumped a little when Peregrin shoved the knife into my hand. “Cut and butter the bread, then pass it out. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
He pulled off his apron, tossed it in the direction of the hook, and was halfway down the tunnel by the time it fell in a heap on the floor.
“Where are you going?” I called after him.
“To get more food!” he yelled back, not slowing down.
And then he was gone.
I swallowed and faced the onlooking humans—people. Wow, when had I started calling them humans like a fae? “Um, okay... Who’s hungry?” I forced a grin and moved to finish cutting the bread. One of the women with a motherly smile came to help me butter it and pass it out. Then a little boy asked for water, and after I found the cups, we passed that out as well, and before I knew it, Peregrin had bustled back in with a whole cart of hot food and plates.
“We paid the royal kitchen to provide this earlier,” he told me quietly, after we’d passed it all out and were taking a minute to each scarf down a plate of our own. “But somehow, they kept having ‘delays’ that prevented it from coming.” He rolled his eyes.
“Ah,” I said around a mouthful of food, then frowned. “Do you think it was intentional?”
Peregrin snorted, and his exaggerated reaction made me giggle.
“There’s a strong possibility,” he finally said once we’d stopped laughing.
“Julian and I are taking the first group now,” Gwen startled us by saying from the doorway. She moved so quietly. “Can you two help Lore find the rest of them a place to sleep? And Soren’s going through the remaining contracts to request corrections, because some of them weren’t signed properly.”
“Probably also on purpose,” Peregrin muttered.
“Agreed.” Gwen sighed, then straightened. “I’ll be back for the next group in under two hours.”
Peregrin stood, picking up his empty plate, and nodded. “We’ll be ready.”
I wanted to ask where they were taking them, but with so many anxious listening ears all around, I decided to wait for a more private moment.
The rest of the night was a blur.
I gave out blankets and helped people find little nooks and crannies to rest while they waited their turn to go wherever Gwen was taking them. When I discovered a family with four little kids, I gave them my daybed. The mom smiled gratefully as she wearily tucked all the children into bed. I gave her an extra blanket and tiptoed away.
What did the fae need little kids for? The more I saw, the angrier it made me.
Gwen gathered up two more groups over the next few hours. Julian shadowed her closely, helping with stragglers.
Soren’s hair was standing up a bit when I found him by the fire, making me hold back a smile. This was the first time I’d seen him disheveled. He dragged a hand across his face and leaned back on the couch.
“Did you eat any dinner?” I asked him softly, keeping my voice down since we were surrounded by sleeping people. I held up a full plate.
It was just after 2 a.m. at this point. After two soft chimes rang out through the hollow, I had checked my phone—which only had 3 percent battery left now—to confirm.
It didn’t look like we’d be getting much sleep tonight with the way the fae continued dropping off contracts and the humans who went with them. But three groups of at least thirty people each had disappeared with Gwen already, and she seemed determined to keep going like it was a race. Actually, they all seemed in a hurry. Probably because they were struggling to house so many people in a space clearly not designed for such large groups.
