14. The Hunter
Ihadn’t seen much. The princess had been too careful, constantly checking over her shoulder, so I hadn’t been able to track her as closely as I would’ve liked. I saw her pull something out of her pack, but I hadn’t been able to see what it was.
But she didn’t need to know that.
I had heard them speaking of the queen. And Eira’s condition.
She was dying.
The thought sent a confusing array of emotions spiraling through me. Relief, for then I would be free of my bargain with her. Bewilderment, because Frisk was right—why would the queen send me after a dying princess?
And, strangely… sorrow.
If I searched deep within myself, I was full of grief at the thought of Eira dying. And I had no idea why.
Eira clenched a small bundle of fabric at her side, lifting her chin in defiance. “I don’t owe you explanations, hunter.”
“You’ve made that much clear.” I drew closer, and her hold on the bundle tightened. “But if you think you can sneak away without anyone noticing, then you’re more foolish than I thought.”
Her nostrils flared, her eyes blazing with rage. But she said nothing. My gaze dropped to the wrapped object by her side. I could take it from her. It would be easy to wrestle it from her, even if she put up a fight. Even with the fae bond punishing me for harming her. I had disarmed stronger foes before.
But there was something in the princess’s eyes I hadn’t seen before. And it stopped me, freezing me in place.
Fear.
I had never seen her afraid before. Not of me. She’d been afraid of the dark fae, but fiercely so. Ready to fight. To survive at any cost.
But right now, I had the upper hand, and she knew it. My entire livelihood relied on knowing my enemy and what they feared the most.
This woman feared me. She feared me exposing her secrets.
A hard lump formed in my throat, my next words dying. I didn’t know what to say. When I emerged from my hiding spot, I knew exactly what I would do: find the truth.
But right now, staring at this frightened princess and the defiance and ferocity still burning in her expression, I wasn’t sure of anything anymore. This wasn’t the vagabond princess the queen had painted a picture of. She’d been raised to believe she would be queen someday. Instead, she’d been banished and hunted, barely surviving.
And I played a part in her suffering.
Something loosened in my chest, and I exhaled slowly. “Keep your secrets, Eira.” I turned away.
“What?” she blurted.
I threw a grin over my shoulder, amused by her bewilderment. “I said, keep your secrets. Our bargain requires me to bring you to the castle. I don’t need anything else from you.”
“Theron—” She took a step toward me, then faltered.
I turned to fully face her. She stared at me, lips parted and eyes wide, her face slack with shock.
“You aren’t who I thought you were, Snow Princess,” I murmured. “I’m a killer. A murderer. A blade the queen wields for her own will and pleasure. There is blood on my hands. I may be ordered to kill you. To end your life in the queen’s name. But this much I can give you. Keep your secrets and your treasures, Eira. While you can.”
Something burned in her gaze, something new and unfamiliar, but I turned away before I scrutinized it. Before this princess unraveled me completely.
* * *
A strange new silence filled the air between us as we made our way through the woods, each step taking us farther and farther from the Athawood Peaks. I felt Eira’s gaze on me, as if she didn’t quite know what to make of me. As if she didn’t recognize me anymore.
I wasn’t sure I recognized myself.
For years, I had been duty bound to fulfill my contract with the queen. Nothing had stopped me. Nothing could deter me from being free of her, even for just a short season.
My skill in hunting came from my meticulous planning. But now, for the first time in my adult life, I had no plan. I had been determined to kill the Snow Princess and bring the queen her heart in order to buy my own freedom. Now, even if Eira and I succeeded in reaching the palace and nullifying our fae bargain, I wasn’t sure if I could kill her.
I thrived on certainty. And right now, I was filled with doubt. I hadn’t been this lost and confused since my father?—
I shuddered, my steps faltering. My thoughts were so chaotic, spiraling into territories I’d forbidden myself from years ago.
Do not think of it. Never think of it.
“Theron?”
Jolted from my stupor, I stumbled over a tree root, cursing as I whirled to find Eira watching me, her pale eyes wide with concern. Alongside her were Mauro and Frisk, also gazing at me in curiosity.
“What?” I snapped, loathing the pity in her expression. I would not be pitied.
“Do you need to rest?” she asked.
“No,” I growled.
“Really? Because you seem… off.”
“I seem off? What about you? Where are your quick barbs? Your relentless teasing?”
She smirked. “Are you saying you miss having me torment you?”
I rolled my eyes and turned away from her. I wasn’t in the mood for this.
“Fine,” she called after me. “But if you die of exhaustion before we reach the palace, don’t blame me.”
“He probably needs food,” Mauro said. “I’m always grumpy when I don’t have food.”
“You’re grumpy all the time,” Frisk said.
“Shut up,” I barked. “All of you.”
“He’s not grumpy,” Eira said. “He’s downright foul.”
I closed my eyes. The silence had been so much more preferable, even if it was stilted. My mind refused to settle. If I didn’t get control of this conversation, I would strangle someone.
I had to turn the tables on the princess. To unsettle her, a feral yet harmless royal, was much less dangerous than to unsettle an already unhinged assassin.
“What did the queen do to you?” I asked loudly.
Eira and the creatures’ mutterings died in an instant. A cold, stunned emptiness filled the silence.
“What do you mean?” Eira finally asked, her tone wary.
“She obviously did something to you. Don’t pretend she didn’t. You expect me to believe she politely asked you to leave the palace, and you acquiesced? That there’s no other reason you stayed away, other than to make feeble plans to take the throne?”
More silence. Blissful, beautiful silence. Oh yes, I could do this all day. I mentally prepared more probing questions that would elicit awkward silences from the princess.
“You don’t know anything,” Eira hissed.
“You’re right. That’s why I’m asking.”
“So what, I’m just supposed to bare all my secrets to you just because you asked? Think again, hunter.”
“How about this—a secret for a secret?” The words left my mouth before I could stop them.
Bad idea, Theron.
But it was too late. I couldn’t take them back.
“Another bargain?” Eira asked. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Don’t you want to know something about me as well? I’ll share one of my secrets if you share yours.”
She hesitated. “Not just any secret. You have to answer one question fully. No omissions. No hedging.”
One question. What were the odds she would ask the one thing I didn’t want to answer?
The odds were high. Eira had a tendency to poke in the precise spots I wished she didn’t.
But curiosity burned within me. I did want to know what had happened with Calista. Not just to understand Eira better, but to understand Calista. I hadn’t particularly liked the queen, but I had always believed her to be the rightful ruler of the Winter Court. Now that that perspective was changing, I wanted to fill in the gaps. How far did Calista’s deception go? What else had she been hiding?
“Fine,” I said. “We have a deal.”
“This is a bad idea,” Frisk muttered.
Mauro snorted in agreement.
“Calista didn’t banish me because of my human blood,” Eira said, her voice firm. “She banished me because I stole something from her.”
I frowned. That wasn’t what I’d been expecting. “What did you steal?”
“A magical object that reveals truth. It’s the only thing in the entire realm that can expose Calista’s secrets.”
“What kind of secrets?”
Eira laughed. “That’s another question. Sorry, Theron, but that’s the only secret I’ll share today.”
“No, you have to answer the question fully, princess. How did you escape? Why did you stay away? There’s too much unanswered.”
When she said nothing, I glanced over my shoulder at her. She was chewing on the inside of her lip, her eyes gleaming in a frustratingly familiar way.
She was scheming. Damn her.
“When I stole the object, Calista tried to stop me. Then she tried to kill me. I used fae magic to get away. And I’ve stayed away because I don’t want to risk her taking the object back. It’s the only leverage I have against her.”
Shock rippled through me. Blood and ice, she was telling the truth. Leverage against Calista… That truly could turn the tides in favor of the Snow Princess.
Was this why Calista hunted her? Not to rid the court of her nuisance-of-a-stepdaughter, but to silence her forever? To keep her secrets?
“What is Calista hiding?” I asked.
“That, dear hunter, is another secret you haven’t earned.”
I exhaled in frustration. “If you have leverage over the queen, why won’t you use it? Keeping her secrets is only serving her. If you spread those secrets, then she won’t be able to silence you.”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“How?”
“Well, for starters, who would believe me?” she snapped, her tone sharpening. “I’m half human. Most of the fae folk believe half-breeds like me can lie. That I would say anything to win back my father’s crown.”
“So you’re waiting for proof,” I guessed.
“Proof. An army. A sure victory. Every piece needs to be aligned when I make my move, or it’s all over.”
She wanted a fool-proof plan. I could respect that.
“Your turn,” she said, her tone cheerful once more.
Shit. Steeling myself, I said, “What’s your question?”
“What were you thinking about when you stumbled just now?”
Damn. Of course she would ask that.
No omissions. No hedging. If I dodged the question, she would call me on it, and the fae bond would pull the truth from me by force.
I would tell her as much of the truth as I could muster. With the answers she’d given me, I owed her that much.
“I was thinking of my father,” I said quietly.
The very air seemed to go still with my confession. I hadn’t spoken of the man since he’d died so many years ago. Since I’d sworn never to think or speak of him again.
“What about him?” Eira asked.
“His death wrecked me in more ways than one,” I said. “He was not a kind man.” I paused. “It’s because of him that I am contracted to the queen.”
The bastard had been Calista’s strongest supporter. Her commander. His greatest ambition was to rid the court of all half-breeds. He believed in a pure seelie fae bloodline.
He wanted to commit genocide to create a perfect utopian fae society.
“Why?” Eira asked. “What does he have to do with the queen?”
I paused. “That’s another question.”
“Bullshit. I answered more than that and you know it. Tell me.”
Fire burned in my blood, and I clenched my teeth against the pain of the fae bond. “Fine,” I bit out. “He was in service to her, and he died before his contract was up. By law, I had to take his debt upon myself.”
“Damn,” Eira muttered. “That’s harsh.”
For some reason, hearing her so casually affirm the cruelty of the situation was more of a comfort than her suffocating pity from earlier. It made the situation light, which was what I needed right now.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Fae law is a bitch.”
She laughed. “So, why were you thinking of your father?”
I pressed my lips together. This was a truth I couldn’t reveal because I didn’t fully understand it myself. “Because my thoughts are a mess right now. And the last time my mind was this frazzled was just after his death when I had no purpose. No plan.”
“Your mind is frazzled?” Eira asked. Something unreadable crept into her tone. Something I’d never heard in her voice before. “Why?”
I was torn between saying, Because of you, and I don’t know. Both were the truth. I stopped walking and turned to look at her. Her ice-blue eyes were wide with curiosity, her expression open and earnest. No hint of scorn or taunting in her face. This, right now, was the true Eira.
Perhaps that was why I felt the need to be honest with her. I probably could have avoided the question, claiming I’d answered enough to fulfill our bargain. But something in her eyes drew the truth out of me.
“I already told you. You aren’t what I expected, princess. And it’s shaken what I thought I knew.”
Her lips parted in surprise, and I held her gaze as understanding passed between us. No hatred, no animosity. No playful banter. Nothing but open acceptance. We still didn’t know everything about each other. There were plenty of secrets we still kept.
But we weren’t enemies in this moment. Perhaps we would be tomorrow. Or even an hour from now. But here in this space, we understood each other.
“I hate to break up this lovely chat, but I have bad news.”
I blinked and turned to find Frisk approaching from the opposite direction. I wasn’t sure when he had disappeared, but wherever he’d gone, he was now out of breath, his dark eyes full of apprehension.
“What is it?” Eira asked.
“I scouted ahead to the outer villages of Taerin,” said the fox. “Ordinarily, it would be easy to sneak through undetected. But the area is crawling with the queen’s soldiers. They caught wind the Snow Princess was nearby. They know you’re here, Eira.”