Chapter 47
The last of Conrad’s group gathers and Varrik gestures up the road. “We’ll catch up with you in a bit. I’m going to show Esti around.”
Conrad waves him off. “Yes, go. I desperately need to meet fae who have more agreeable personalities than you. You’re awful.”
I snort, and Varrik shoots me a look. “You too, blight?”
“Sorry.”
“She’s not,” Conrad chimes in.
Varrik sighs. “Conrad.”
“Yes, yes, I’m going.”
Smiling, I watch Conrad and his group head up the street. “How long have you two been friends?” I ask.
“Too long.”
I laugh at his dry tone as he takes my hand and starts tugging me the other way.
“Unfortunately, I have to stay his friend because I’m loyal.” He glances down at me. “He fought by my side against the Banes.”
My brows lift. “Oh.”
“Yes. That bond made us as close as brothers.” His tone snags on that one word, and my heart aches for him when I think of that sketch in his bedroom and the brother he lost. Then he lets out a sigh, seeming to dispel his heavy thoughts. “Now. What do you want to see?”
I look around the market block, and I point ahead at the offshoot path from the bricked street where I can see people lugging pieces of lumber right in front of a small lake. “What’s that over there?”
“They’re building more houses. For now, some are still in their own sort of barracks, but anyone staying here permanently will get a house of their own.”
“Permanently?”
He nods. “Anyone who chooses to stay can stay.”
“You mean they want to?” I ask with surprise.
His gaze delves. “A burg that treats every fiend with honor and respect instead of disdain or blame? Most have already expressed their desire to stay.”
I nod slowly as this information soaks in. “Oh. Of course.” Because a place like this would be . . . well, life-changing for any fiend I know. So different from things back in Hamelyn. “But if they do choose to leave?”
“Then they may do so as soon as I’ve disclosed our discovery. But I don’t think many will want that. Anyone who desires a house has the option to help build it to get it done faster, and most fiends have chosen jobs to their liking where they receive fair pay.”
I let out a breath. This place really does seem idyllic. Aside from it being small and secluded, he makes it sound like a haven. Somewhere fiends can live without being treated as the Bane-blooded scourge of Brekon. In time, I hope that can be true everywhere, as soon as everyone knows the truth.
“Esti!”
I look over to see Rimona hurrying across the street toward me. Her short black hair is tangled slightly around her brown horns, but her blue eyes are clear, her expression bright. “You’re here!” She turns and feeds her arm through mine. “Let me show you around!”
Varrik doesn’t intervene as she pulls me away. He walks behind us, while Rimona chatters happily like we’re old friends, pointing out the few shops they have and what she’s gotten from the market stalls.
“Is everything okay with you here?” I ask her.
“It is. We’re safe, and not a single person has treated us badly. Well, except for Nell, but that doesn’t count since she’s a fiend too. She’s in my knitting group,” she grumbles. “Always tries to act very superior about her technique.”
“That’s too bad,” I say drolly.
Rimona shrugs. “But there’s plenty of other things to do. I’ve been learning how to basket weave,” she says cheerfully. “Oh, and Kaetir and I have been bat watching.”
I blink. “Bat watching?”
“Yes! Now that we don’t have a curfew, we’re allowed out all night if we like. And there’s a curious amount of bats that live here, which is quite good for keeping down the insect population. I’ve already found three different kinds, but I think there are more.”
“That’s . . .” Gross. “Great,” I manage to say.
“I know! Oh, and I’ve formed the fiend family docket.”
I frown. “The what?”
She leans in like she has a secret. “Now that we’ve had our blood traced, we know which of us share blood and which of us don’t. Some of us are even coming around to the idea that we could have something more than just . . . friendly relationships with each other, if you catch my meaning.”
My eyes go wide. “Oh.”
Rimona laughs and pats me on the arm. “I know. That’s the general reaction from everyone else too.
But—it’s good to know who’s related to who.
That’s why I’m keeping track based on the Plague matches.
” She pauses for a moment, her eyes lifting to the top of my head.
“Look at your veillet! I absolutely love that design to hook on the horns. I’m going to learn to make that. Sewing veillets is next on my list.”
I smile. “You really do like hobbies, don’t you?”
“Of course,” she says, tucking her hair behind her pointed ear. “I like to stay busy.”
A few children race past us, their horns on display, and not a single fae looks over at them with a sneer or a shout.
“I know,” Rimona says as if reading my mind. “Can you imagine walking around like this back in Hamelyn?”
I shake my head.
“Things are so nice here. It’s like a different world.”
Emotion clogs my eyes. “I’m glad.”
She gives me a smile and then spots something ahead. “Look who it is,” she sings, and I follow her line of sight to the fiend with a fishing pole propped on his shoulder. He turns at her voice, and I come face-to-face with Kaetir.
He stops when he sees me, his brown eyes going warm. “Esti, you’re here.” His smile dims when he notices Varrik behind me. “Lordship,” he says around a gulp.
Varrik nods. “I hope you’re settling in well?”
Kaetir visibly relaxes. “Yes, thank you.”
“How are you?” I ask.
“No complaints. I chose a fishing job for now,” Kaetir says, tapping his pole on the bricks. “It’s fair pay, and I get to go out with a few others. We make sure the burg has plenty to eat.”
“Good.”
He nods. “It really is great here, Esti. Nothing like we thought it would be.”
His words lift my lips—and my spirits.
“Rimona!” someone calls, and she looks over that way where a fae man is waving at her in front of a two-story building with timbered walls. “Oh, right. I’m supposed to start my shift to clean the inn. Yesterday was my first day.” She leans in and gives me a quick hug. “See you later?”
I give her a squeeze back. “Yes.”
She reaches over and knocks her knuckles against Kaetir’s horn like she’s rapping on a door. “Don’t be late for bat hour!” she tells him, before she turns and hurries away.
Kaetir shakes his head, watching her flee. “She has way too much energy.”
“Bat watching, huh?” I tease.
He grimaces. “I’m hoping that particular interest wanes very soon.”
I shake my head with a laugh. “Good luck. I’ll let you get to your fish.”
We part ways, and I walk slowly down the street with Varrik. “You know, if I’d been aware that you were going to have a nice, safe place for fiends to live, I might not have taken a needle to all your tunics.”
Varrik snorts. “I don’t believe that for a second. And since you brought it up, you failed to mention that you ‘lost’ that needle in my pillow.”
I suck in my cheeks to keep from grinning. “You found it?”
“Indeed. It nearly stabbed me in my carotid.”
“How fortunate you’ve come away unscathed, Lord Varrik.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” he replies. “You did bite me, remember?”
I feel my face heat, though I won’t deny how much I love this back-and-forth between us. “Yes, well, if you remember, that wasn’t until after you slopped your tongue all over my arm.”
His voice drops down an octave. “Believe me, I won’t soon forget.”
Flustered, I toy with the lacings on my bodice.
“Your nails just turned the color of raspberries,” he notes coyly, and my eyes flick down. “I wonder what that could mean?”
I jerk my hands behind my back. “I’m sure it means annoyance.”
A grin takes over his face, making my whole body sizzle. “Hmm. I look forward to finding out.”
“Stop it,” I hiss, glancing around.
“Why?”
“Because you’re making me blush in the middle of the street!”
He chuckles. “I enjoy riling you up.”
“I can tell,” I retort, watching my nails slowly fade back to a nude luster.
His expression shifts from his teasing roguishness to something more serious. Something more intense. I brace myself as he takes a step closer, his broad chest nearly touching mine. “We started to speak on this last night, but we were interrupted.”
We were, and I spent all night thinking of his words. Thinking about what I would have said in reply if Frid hadn’t come in.
“I want you, and not just because of the latching, but because of you.”
My mouth goes dry. I have to scrape up my tongue to shuck off a reply—a dangerous one. “How do you want me?”
His answer comes cobbled, layered with glue and grit. “I want you on my side.”
I blink in surprise.
He said on his side. Not by it. He doesn’t just want me to stand by him, but to be with him on his endeavor to help Brekon.
Defender. That’s what his stars said. He’s been defending Brekon against Plagues, defending his fellow Core fae—and a little voice in my head wonders if I can trust him to even defend me.
His finger trails over my lips. “I want you in my ear,” he murmurs, before his touch moves up to trace slowly over my brows. “I want you in my sights.”
My heartbeat stipples and spreads, casting all over.
“And make no mistake, I want you in my bed.”
The air in my lungs melts right down to the spot between my legs, liquefying me through. The rest of the street becomes nonexistent.
He raises his hand slowly, like he doesn’t want to spook me as he gently takes a lock of my hair and twists it around his fingers so that the subtle sparkle glitters in the light.
“Every time you speak, I want to hear more of your words. Every time I catch you thinking, I want to know exactly what’s going through your head.
I want to know more about you, as much as you’ll tell me.
” His declaration drums from my ears to my ribs.
“I’m telling you all of this so you know where I stand.
I want you so fiercely that it’s consuming my every thought.
And that was true even before my magic latched, and it is still true after. ”
My breath comes out spinning, a whirling rush of impact that’s making my thoughts go dizzy. “Oh,” I say lamely.
His eyes dance, as if he’s enjoying how much he’s flustering me.
I have to swallow through the rasp in my throat. “I want that too,” I admit, and I hear him suck in a breath. “I just . . . I want to fully trust you. Trust this.”
“You can, Estinya.”
His firm vow fills the cracks of doubts within me, making me stronger for it. Then he leans forward and presses the sweetest kiss against my forehead in a way that makes me feel cherished. Adored.
And I know in this moment that I am in complete danger of losing my heart to a thief.