Chapter 4
Iwas getting exhausted just watching Incendis poke his nose into every group of people.
What was he even doing? Leading? Bothering?
Like, he kept going around and around, hitting up the same table over and over again.
I’d counted for a little while, and the max time he’d spent with a group had been almost exactly three minutes.
With some sixty tables—it was hard to see through all the people to the back of the enormous room—that meant he was interrupting those people twenty times every hour.
Maybe he was a valuable member of each team.
He could be giving great advice or imparting knowledge only he knew.
Because if that wasn’t the case and he was being a micromanager, I knew I’d have killed him well before that twentieth visit if it was my table.
These people either needed him absolutely desperately, or they were capable of incredible restraint.
“That damn kid’s going to work himself to death.”
Lars was back.
He had a point. “He looks very busy.”
“Needs to calm down.”
“He does seem very high strung.”
“Mmm…”
Lars thrust a tray at me with a burrito on it.
I looked at the burrito, and then at him. “You have burritos in the fae realm?”
“Humans don’t have exclusivity on literally anything, Mister Snotty-face.
” He thrust the tray at me again, so I took the little plate my breakfast sat on.
“Don’t get too excited about this thing, though, because it’s all mushrooms, seeds, and gourds or whatever-the-hell. Fall harvest kind of stuff.”
That sounded horrific, but I’d only had snacks for dinner last night. I bit into the burrito and discovered strips of steak. I could forgive a lot when given a good piece of meat.
“Good?” Lars asked.
I nodded, happily chewing.
“That’s goat meat, by the way.”
Fuck. I wasn’t sure I could swallow. Which wasn’t something I’d ever been against.
Lars smirked at me. “Beggars can’t be choosers when your whole world is locked in a curse.”
I gulped down that bite because he was probably right. I could believe there were a lot of environmental consequences to being trapped in autumn for three years. Looking back at Incendis, I wondered if maybe that was why him and everyone else looked so stressed.
Interrupting him might not be the way to go here.
“Who cast the curse on the court?” I took another bite of my burrito and definitely didn’t think about the adorable creature that had given its life for my breakfast.
No, I would not have been upset about the cow. Shut up.
Lars clicked his tongue. “A desperate and impulsive idiot with the best intentions who neglected to read the fine print.”
Right then, I got the very weird feeling that Lars was somehow involved. Possibly not directly, but he knew things. I couldn’t quite pinpoint why I thought that, but there was something there.
“Any chance the impulsive idiot might undo his curse?”
“Can’t. He’s tried, of course. But…” He sighed and shook his head like he was disappointed. “Well, he’s merely a shadow of his former self now.”
“I see.” I didn’t, not really, but that little something inside me was still there and pointing at Lars while it screamed, he knows! He knows!
“The timing’s the worst part,” he said quietly while staring into the still-bustling room. “Impulsive, like I said. Didn’t even notice it would take three years.” Tears welled up in his pale blue eyes, and he whispered, “So many people have died.”
I set my burrito down and gripped his arm when he swayed a little. He felt so frail. Maybe the vibe I was getting from him was just great gobs of grief. Some of the dead could’ve been people he knew and loved.
Lars patted my hand and smiled like maybe he was a bit embarrassed, so I let him go.
“Want some of this?” I asked as I picked up the burrito again. Of the two of us, he could use the calories way more than I needed them. “There’s enough to share.”
He shooed me away. “Oh, hush, and eat your baby goat.”
“Ah! What?”
He walked away chuckling. I took back feeling bad for him. The bastard.
My stomach gurgled. It might be threatening to give back the— No. No, there was no way these people were slaughtering baby animals in an economy with low resources. Right? No way.
I looked up when movement caught my eye to find Incendis fluttering over to me. For a moment, I was struck by how lovely he was in his golden clothes with his wings dripping sparks behind him.
But I needed to know what I was eating.
“Zalman,” he said with a big smile. “Good morning.”
I pointed the bitten end of my burrito at him. “Is this baby goat?”
“Baby…” He looked absolutely shocked. “Goodness, no! It’s not goat at all.” He peered at it. “That’s most likely venison.”
“Veni—” I spun around to glare down the hallway where Lars had gone. “That son of a bitch.”
“Who?”
“Lars.”
“Who’s Lars?”
I squinted at him. “He’s one of your… I don’t know. Butlers maybe?”
“Oh.” Incendis peered down the hallway. “Maybe I know him by a different name.”
Was that weird? Should the prince know everyone who worked for him by name?
I wasn’t sure that was possible given there had to be a hundred people in the room behind him.
I’d struggle to remember all their names without making genuine connections.
But it still felt odd that a person who seemed to be in charge of making me comfortable and feeding me was a stranger to his employer.
I shrugged at myself and changed the subject. “So what are you working on in there?”
“Quite a few things, actually.” He turned to look into the room again, went up on his toes and leaned sideways a bit, before looking back at me. “Excuse me. I’ll be right back.”
When he’d been peering in there, I’d tried to figure out what he’d seen.
Had someone waved to him? Was an argument starting?
A delivery arriving? But I hadn’t seen a single thing that made it seem like someone needed Incendis to return to work.
As I watched him walk away, he literally went right back to visiting every table like he had been before.
I noted the time on the big grandfather clock across from me here in the hall and finished my venison and mushroom burrito. It was pretty good. The slightly spicy sauce definitely helped. So did knowing it wasn’t baby goat.
And it was an hour of me standing there and holding up the wall before Incendis noticed me again.
In that time, I’d watched as the people working in there did one of two things when Incendis approached their table—either they ignored him, or they stopped everything to talk to him.
When he was ignored, he stood there gazing at whatever was on the table, listening, and nodding.
When they engaged with him, they did all the talking, making me think they were catching him up on developments.
And regardless of which kind of reaction the people had, once Incendis walked away, they made faces like they were groaning, rolled their eyes, or in some way had me thinking he was getting on their nerves.
It felt like a good time to initiate my plan.
Now, he hustled over, a blush on his face, and apologies falling from his lips, but I held up a hand to stop him.
“Take a walk with me.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the threshold. He stumbled, and I looped my arm through his to keep his momentum going. “You can show me your castle and the grounds. Maybe even the local village? That sounds lovely.”
“Oh, well,” he started and tried to look behind him at all the work he wasn’t needed for.
I started walking faster. I’d drag him outside if I had to.
“Zalman, I’m really rather—”
“No, you’re taking a break. Let them fend for themselves for a while.” I gripped his wrist when he tried to pull away. “Sweetheart, I was watching you run around in there for an hour, and I’m exhausted. You definitely need a break.”
“A break?”
I groaned dramatically. “See? You can’t even comprehend what one is!”
He tsked at me, but I ignored him completely.
After a few more minutes of walking—during which he didn’t try to escape again—I finally found what had to be the grand front doors out of the castle. Two guards very kindly opened both doors, and out Incendis and I went.
Into a blustery fall day complete with a brisk wind and thick gray clouds threatening rain. I liked a good autumn day, but this one seemed a bit threatening. Couldn’t let that stop me, though.
“What a lovely day, hmm?”
“I do believe it’s about to rain.”
“Then we better hurry.”
“Wha—”
I started running, dragging him along with me. There was a village, I could see it up ahead of us. The sign hanging over the closest building made me think they might sell furniture. I aimed for their awning as thunder rumbled behind us.
We made it just as the clouds rolled in and pelted the ground with chilly raindrops. Incendis gestured like he was telling me he told me so.
“Oh, hush.” I snuggled up with his biceps. “What’s wrong with cuddling weather? We’ll just give the rain a chance to pass before continuing on with our day out.”
All of a sudden, his whole body erupted in flames.
Gasping, I almost let him go, but my mind caught onto the fact that the fire leaping from his skin wasn’t hot where we touched. I wiggled my fingers in some of the flames on his chest and the arm I still clutched. It felt like nothing more than warm air.
“Oh, you sneaky thing,” I said on a laugh. “Did you think you’d scare me away?”
He cleared his throat. “Most people think—”
“Darling, I’m never most people.” I patted his fake fire arm and tugged him along. “But you go ahead and keep burning if it makes you feel better.”
Incendis sighed, and the flames petered out. “It used to be quite dangerous.”
“Used to be?”
“Before the curse.”
“Ah. Well, there’s another reason for us to break that thing, hmm?” I reached up and pinched his cheek, getting him to frown at me. “Then you can go back to being a scary fire fairy.”
He clenched his jaw. “Fae.”
“Uh-huh.”
I went back to watching the rain fall, glad my distractions were working. If I couldn’t flirt because of my self-imposed rule not to seduce the virgin prince, I could still annoy, anger, and tie three different kinds of knots.