Fee’s hair lifted on a wave of static electricity. “She gained unusual abilities afterward. I’d think you’d be curious.”
“I’m in the middle of hunting hybrids.”
“You’re quite capable of multi-tasking.”
Steel lived in the casual comment from the King of the Forest, a demigod who routinely turned trespassers into trees. He pretended to be batty as an escape from Aine. He’d stood on that battlefield in a full suit of ancient armor, swinging a sword as if he weren’t untold centuries old, despite the bowed legs and the unsteady gait when caught off guard. I’d never known him to ask random questions.
He was watching my expression, as if he followed my thought process, and I asked, “What else should I do?”
“What you should have done the minute Anson Salas told you he’d protect that girl. But only if you stayed away. Go and get her.”
“She’s safer in Westvale.”
“That’s the biggest bit of cow I’ve ever heard.”
I raised an eyebrow. “It’s usually the bull, not the cow, and you can say the word shit around me. I won’t faint.”
“It’s your wolf I worry about. He’s a prude who faints at shadows.” Which was another bit of cow nonsense from the man Noa called a garden ornament on more than one occasion.
I snorted, ignoring the surge of power filling the cave and the vines that popped from the stones. Tendrils writhed across the sand like snakes—the result of Fee’s irritation. “You’ll ruin all the comforts you created,” I warned.
“Yes, and then you can sleep in the snow.”
I gave Fee a biting grin. That was the whole point in being out here, hunting ferals and killing them. Letting the punishing weather numb me to the reality.
“What is it you’re worried about, Fee?”
“The Carmag. It corrupts, like those leeches, and my wards Anson remakes all the time.”
“Shrinking nymphs?”
“The corruption affects her when you’re not there.” Fee’s magic flared, zinging around the cave with none of the puppy exuberance he used when Noa was around. I let my power surge, the trace of quelling shadows I’d used to smother Noa’s flames when she was irritated. The shadows snapped at the magic and the magic snapped back.
I surrendered before things escalated. The standoff was pointless, anyway.
Fee had gone back to slurping soup, and he said around a spoonful, “Anson delivered the box you sent.” Filled with Noa’s mementoes, salvaged from Azul. A second small box held Fallon’s pink, sparkly things. I’d included the faille journals on loan from Aine, along with the small book from Set. Amal’s journal. I’d sensed the chilled evil in it, hesitated before including the book. But there might be something important for Noa to discover.
I went back to the soup, while Fee tore off a piece of freshly baked bread, still warm—the benefits of magic.
“They’re keeping the books in the archive,” he said. “I understand Laura’s quite happy with the researching.”
“We have cell phones,” I reminded him dryly. “Mace gets updates.”
“Mace is doing an excellent job. It’s the Christmas season, Grayson. Everyone hibernates.”
“I want her with Leo. With Hattie and Oscar. Her family.”
“You are her mate. Her family.”
I smiled as if I wasn’t asking the gods to spare me from this argument. “I nearly destroyed her, Fee. I won’t be like those kings.”
“You can’t defeat Amal on your own.”
“I won’t risk her life.”
“You won’t have a choice,” Fee said sadly. “But know there is a reason for everything, and while you can’t see it now, you will have to be together before the end.”
My power surged, and the acidic scent of ozone, signaling a lightning strike, filled the cave. I didn’t know if it was my power, or Fee’s.
