My knees wobbled in relief. “You have?”
He’d gotten me over a dozen feet away before he let go, but I grabbed his elbow. “Please don’t leave!”
“Don’t let the wild ones scare you.” He patted my hand reassuringly and let me hold on. With a congenial smile at the goat-horned attendant, who glared back at us, he added under his breath, “That said, also don’t look them in the eye. It draws their attention.”
Had I done that? “Got it. And what if I... already drew some attention?”
He laughed, stopping to survey one of the buffet tables with a steaming tray of thinly sliced dark meat, scooping up a plate. “It should move on in a bit, don’t worry. They have short attention spans.”
Don’t worry. Ha!I wanted to scoff but held it in because I wanted his protection more. Easy for him to say. He didn’t have a freaking bison stalker. Or maybe it was actually a buffalo—what if I’d somehow offended it by calling it the wrong thing?Don’t be ridiculous, Brynn. You never said the name out loud.
Occupied by these foolish thoughts, I missed whatever Julian had been saying. “Sorry, what?”
“I asked if you’ve eaten.” He held out a clean plate and wiggled it in front of me. “Do you want to join me while you wait?”
“Can we sit far away from here?”
His eyes twinkled. “We can sit anywhere you’d like.”
I snatched the plate from his hands. “Then yes, please!”
We stumbled into Peregrin at the next table, which held bread and cheeses, and he joined us for a very late lunch as loud bells chimed twice.Two o’clock?I couldn’t risk turning my phone on to check.
Though I tried to keep an eye on the royal entrance, I worried that I might not see them come back.
“You won’t miss them,” Julian assured me when I brought up my concerns.
“They like to be announced,” Peregrin added, wiggling his thick eyebrows, making me laugh. Each time I interacted with him, despite the ram horns, he struck me as the most normal of the group.
When Julian had to go, Peregrin stuck around to keep me company. After another hour passed, he stood. “It’s my turn to watch the south entrance. We take turns so that no one is tied to the post, including Soren.”
“I understand.” I smiled wide so he wouldn’t know I was freaking out internally.
Unfortunately, less than fifteen minutes later, as I took my glass to refill my drink, another strange fae creature stalked directly toward me with a menacing growl. He looked like an actual tree trunk, wearing only a loin cloth covering who knew what. His full head of leaves swung dangerously close to a passing fae, but he didn’t slow.
My heart rate picked up, skin growing clammy. Muscles bunching, I got ready to run. I’d knock over a chair between us and aim for the crowds and hope it was enough to lose him.
