An hour and a half later, and she knocked softly on the lord’s office door. While she now had bargain instilled permission to enter, it went against every ingrained instinct to even attempt that level of casualness.

  “Come in.”

  She entered, closed the door, and bowed lowly as she quickly scanned the room. Just him, his attendant, and her.

  This time, the lord stood at her entrance, immediately stepping out of his chair, around his desk, and towards her. Frozen and wary of this change in him, she stayed bowed until he addressed her.

  Only the bastard did worse.

  He fucking kneeled.

  His deep voice resonated with deep sincerity and just a touch of magical authority. “Athereon. It honors me greatly to say this—on behalf of Everwinter, I thank you for your services.”

  The pledge magic dusted over her, and her eyes slowly lifted to his. “… I beg your pardon?”

  His eyes twinkled with a touch of mischief. “I, Lord Everwinter, owe you a boon.”

  She gave him a hard stare. “… I know what you said. It’s the why and how I’m lost on.”

  He chuckled, the sound devoid of any true humor, his expression darkening as his eyes slid around the room in thought. “… because of your insistence on this journey, because you witnessed the crash, we now know how they are hoping to destabilize this region before they invade.”

  True horror gripped her throat. She rasped, “There were children.”

  Slowly, his eyes drew back to hers. The facsimile of a smile faded, leaving only the dark rage. “… more?”

  Despair gripped her as she whispered, “I found six others.”

  For fey, pregnancy was a rare gift. Squirt had known plenty of fey who tried for children most of their lifetime and were never blessed. Children were practically considered sacred amongst many devout fey, and while she might not personally care for them, the idea of purposely murdering them was still sacrilegious on a deeply primal level.

  It was him that finally broke the silence. “… and one lived. Because of you, Athereon, more than that will be safe. Originally, we had wanted Telos to travel the territory via carriage while he visited the villages, but now he is flying to each one directly to fortify their defenses. Already I am putting together a task force to sweep through the forests and cull the feybeast population. Her highness the Queen will be granting us extra personnel for this task. Because of you, we will be able to keep our people safe.”

  The Queen bit threw Squirt off, as she could have sworn they had a King, but soon disregarded it as a changeover that had likely happened within the last twenty years.

  The rest of the words sounded nice, but Squirt was still left… empty. Haunted. Her eyes unfocused, seeing only the empty eyes of the dead.

  His lips pursed, concern radiating from him as he put away the dark rage that had been on his face. “I am surprised you are here so soon, Athereon. I had expected you to take another day to rest.”

  She blinked, only just realizing she’d been so lost in those memories, she’d forgotten he was in the room. It took her another second to parse the question, and her brow furrowed. “… is that a problem, my lord?”

  His own brow furrowed as he pulled back a bit, looking her up and down, scanning every inch. “… you are still injured?”

  Confused at the abrupt shift and the sheer strangeness of his concern, she responded with a bland, “I’m sore, not stupid, my lord.”

  That surprised a single, breathy laugh from him before he stood. “Come. Did you have the second healing potion that Tobias had left for you?”

  She flinched. No, she hadn’t. It made more sense to save it for when it was actually necessary. She didn’t have the advanced healing of strongly gifted fey, but it would only be a couple more days before she healed naturally.

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  “Hm.” He bent down, scooping her hand before she could stop him, and gently led her over to the couch. She sat as directed, her entire body rigid with discomfort that only grew when he settled himself next to her.

  He’d dropped her hand, thank the gods, and was enough distance away that she didn’t think he was attempting something more intimate. She studied him as she waited warily, accepting the drink that his attendant handed her. Narrowing her eyes at what she thought might be a hint of a smile, she lifted the drink to her lips before freezing at the smell of it.

  Lowering the drink, she glowered at him.

  His amusement was as obvious as the clear, silent command.

  Asshole.

  She drank the potion in the teacup. Poured the damn thing down her throat and cursed him silently.

  Satisfied, he raised a finger, and the attendant exchanged her now empty cup for a large stack of blank parchment. “In preparation for the hunts we’ll be doing, I’d like for you to write up your knowledge on the feybeasts. Strengths, weaknesses, habits, components to gather, anything that might be useful.”

  Her entire expression flattened. Wonderful. She’d do just that in all of her glorious, excessive amounts of free time.

  His eyes grew solemn. “You will be excused from other hunter duties beyond training, tinkering, and writing. We must give our full attention to this feybeast problem, and until it is solved for the entire territory, it must be where I direct your focus.”

  She huffed. “… yeah, okay. The others will be able to manage the traps, which will at least significantly reduce the issue here.”

  He nodded. “Yes. Further, her highness has sent some other hunters along. I would like them to stay with the trainees and to hear your assessments of them five days from now.”

  Her expression flattened and shoulders hunched. “… I suppose I knew the cabin—”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Was and still is yours. They will camp.”

  She gave him a hard stare. “… you fucker. You still intend to have me as your Chief Hunter? When her highness sent you hunters personally?”

  He smirked but did not answer.

  She grumbled to herself. “You know this will breed resentment. And that clearing was not meant for this many people. I picked the spot to live in a little ramshackle tiny house big enough for me to lie down in comfortably, and now I have six other members of the guard, a random pixie man and child to house, and now you want me to add some group of hunters sent by the gods damned Queen?”

  His eyes twinkled as he nodded. “Yes.”

  He watched as she conceded, her indignation morphing to resigned acceptance. “… as you wish. But why are you having the two I rescued stay with me?”

  His expression turned thoughtful and solemn again. “… they have told their story and have sent out messages. While they wait for trusted allies to pick them up, in the wake of their kidnapping and attempted murder, I want to minimize the amount of people who know they are here. Those unfamiliar with the area will have a difficult time finding them even if they somehow hear of their rescue, and they have both offered to help you with whatever you need in exchange for your protection.”

  She gave him the driest, flattest, most disbelieving look yet as she dragged out, “Really. My protection.”

  He chuckled. “Protection for their identities. He will provide protection for you.” Then he studied her more seriously. “… this bothers you.”

  She crossed her arms and muttered darkly, “The man is a damn menace.”

  The lord sputtered out another accidental laugh before he regained control over himself. His eyes practically twinkled as he said, “Ah. He is rather… vibrant in personality.”

  “More like gaudy and ostentatious.”

  Visibly biting his lip to hold back on more laugher, he chuckled, “Sure.”

  Narrowing her eyes and studying his laughter, she said, “… I fucking knew it. He is titled.”

  He barked out a laugh, shaking his hand. “Yes and no. His family is.”

  Ugh. She could gag on the privilege. “And you know him.”

  “I’ve met him before, yes.”

  Growling, she muttered out, “As you wish. But I want the clearing warded.”

  He nodded. “I will have Telos do it once he returns.”

  Good. They could at least ward the clearing so that the noise and power from so many didn’t interrupt the forest. In the event of a surge, they could run to the earth tree sanctuary and be safe since both the little girl child and the pixie alone would be a bigger draw for feybeasts than she would have been.

  Nodding to himself, he said, “Before you leave today, Instructor Hawke would like to speak with you about setting up a training schedule.”

  “Wonderful. Let me just add training at the castle as something to do during my copious free time.”

  “He has offered to train you two days a week at your cabin directly and wishes to give you exercises to practice outside of that. Further, during the week of intensive training, at no point were we able to accurately gauge your actual fighting ability. You avoided any direct confrontation. We need a more accurate assessment.” His expression darkened again with something akin to guilt.

  She sighed. “As you wish.” Besides. As much as she hated to admit it, the blade the instructor had insisted on gifting her did save her life. Knives were not as useful as a sword against a rampaging stampede of feybeasts.

  He nodded. “Excellent.” Then he gestured to the table, where the attendant laid out freshly poured tea and little dark cubes. “Fudge?”

  Lowvyn then handed her a box tied up neatly with a handkerchief, the woman’s red eyes twinkling in bright mischief.

  She accepted the treat from the attendant without fuss even as she never stopped glowering at the lord next to her.

  Unconcerned, he leaned back, his arm over the back of the sofa and one leg crossing the other. “So. Do you have anything to add to your report?”