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“I am a mighty huntress. You know as well as I, god-touched cannot eat meat.”

“One of the things I love about you, fair Bandrui, is that I learn so much from you. Like just now. I never knew clams weren’t considered meat.” I gave her a teasing, dark grin over my shoulder.

“You fucking ass.” She snorted, her foot gently punctuating her words by colliding with my unguarded ass cheeks. “Since you’re feeling up to jests, I’ll leave you to your fate and let you be swallowed whole by it.”

I snorted a laugh and finished my ablutions as she simply walked through my threshold wards, as if they had never been there to begin with.

My attention darted to the scallop. If I were summoned to court, I would need the strength the dark sister provided. I could not bear the weight of her loss, the weight of my injuries, and the insult of tolerating their company.

I reached for it, already falling into the thick, velveteen cloud of Siur Dobh before I even imbibed her, but the moment my fingers brushed the rough edge of the shell, all of its contents began to rot and molder into grey-green dust. The stone resting atop the box, hidden in the floor, collapsed on itself as the box too rotted away, destroying the last of my hidden stores. Destroying the last of my artificial reprieve.

The gods had chosen well when they granted her the position as Bandrui. Whomever she had been before she took her place in the Temple of the Ascended must have been formidable. Weaving magic to only trigger should I touch an object was impressive, and I hated that my old friend sought to save me from myself.

It was a fool’s errand, of course. I had been a clever beast on the Siur Dobh’s leash, hiding small stashes throughout the palace. Perhaps one had survived the careful administration of the hunts, and I would not need to bear the burden of this abominable gathering without the distance her embrace afforded me.

Chapter 12

Cricket

We rested four days in Havenhome. It was strange to be surrounded by humans who had not a single care in the world. None of them walked with a soft step so as not to be heard. None of them kept their heads on a swivel. All of them just seemed to go about their day, sure in the sun rising the next day, just like any human in Detroit might have.

I didn’t like it. It was uncomfortable and strange to watch. Most of all Rook—who I had found out was absolutely besotted with Cora, not that they had made it a secret—had settled into his place among them. My cautious mentor had grown roots. I was jealous.

They were sitting on matching rocking chairs as I helped one of the fishermen clean the catch for the day.

“Cora, Pops is here,” reported a woman who had come from the front gate on her watch.

Cora pushed up from her rocker and shot a glance over to me and a whistle to catch my attention. “All right, golden girl. Gather up your people. I imagine they’ll want to see this.”

I shot her a nod and began rinsing my hands off. Violet was tasked with helping clean and fill dye pots for the yarn they would weave. Green Man to thatching roofs, and Emerald to the task of chasing after and caring for the small gaggle of children that had been roaming the village. It was nice to see them occupied with tasks that better suited them. Violet seemed to come alive chattering with the weavers as they worked. Green Man had returned to the small cabin with an ease to his usually stiff-branched lope.

Emerald was the one who had come alive the most. At first, I just thought it was the way the sunlight played on her skin. It had been a rare sight at the palace. It wasn’t though. It was happiness that radiated from the very depths of her gem-like body. Where once murky smoke roiled, now was a sunbeam caught beneath her surface, shimmering and casting back light as she ran after the children.

I didn’t want to pull Violet or Emerald from their tasks. Both looked like laughter was bubbling under the surface of every single second. So, I just tossed a rock up at Green Man and hitched my head toward the gates.

Goose fell in beside me as we made our way to the small gathering of humans.

Pops was a Fae. He stood tall and willowy above the stockier and stouter untouched humans. Mushrooms grew from his shaggy brown hair, and butterflies and birds bent wings all around him.

“Cora, beautiful woman. It has been too long since I have been lucky enough to find Havenhome.” Soft russet eyes, split sideways like a fawn’s, cast a sweeping appraisal of the crowd that gathered. “I see your numbers have grown. You are doing well, my old friend. May I come in? I’ve brought wares with me from the Old Teeth to the glittering sea and everywhere between.”

“Have you brought me my payment, Pops?” Cora shot back.

“Do you think I’d have sent one of my other halves to you? Perish the thought, Cora. You wound my pride! It is me, true. So, of course I have brought your payment.”

My face twisted up into confusion. “Yeah, those were definitely words. Some of them even human people words, but none of that made a lick of fucking sense.”

Pops turned his goatlike eyes to me and smiled wide and with pure sincerity. Each one of his teeth were clear as glass. “Tut tut, my dear. I assure you that every single one of them were, in fact, human people words. I pride myself on thoroughly understanding and being able to speak every language in Magh Meall fluently. Accents too. Ooooh, I do the best Canadayan—” his eyes cut to Cora asking silently if he’d said it correctly.

“Canadian,” she corrected pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

“—Canadian accent. But yours is one I am not too familiar with. I will trade you for it.”

I fluttered my eyes wildly and jerked my head. The confusion was not dispelled by any of that. “Listen, strange woodland weirdo. I’m going to need about seventy thousand more explanations as to what the fuck is going on here before I unpick whatever the fuck that was, let alone consider it.”

“Lord above, have mercy on us all,” Cora whispered to the heel of her palm before finally raising her head. “Come in, Pops. Before the new girl goes apoplectic with bewilderment.”

“Ever the gracious host, Cora. Always thinking of others. That’s what I always liked about you, you know.” The Fae was led away from Green Man and I, toward the center of the village.