Whet’s Forest didn’t look as intimidating in the morning as it had seemed in the dark.
They had to leave the cart behind, unfortunately. Rey fussed over it for nearly an hour, building a barricade of fallen limbs and vines to make it look as abandoned and useless as possible. Unicorn, for her part, was more than happy to walk placidly into the woods. As one of the wild places where the Green Man liked to travel, most animals tended to find comfort there. Even Rey found his nerves quieting the minute he stepped under the heavy canopy.
Eli, on the other hand, looked warier than ever. He kept a hand near his sword hilt as they walked between the trees, his footsteps light in the sparse underbrush. His gaze kept darting into the shadows, and he stilled at every rustle or hint of movement in the dark.
“It isn’t that far,” Rey said. “Unclench your jaw, Eli.”
“Not possible at the moment,” Eli said. He sounded like he had the second time they met, cold and purposeful, too focused to even smile properly. If he were a submissive, he’d just need afew sharp orders to calm him down, but dominants were tricky. Rey moved a little closer and tilted his head back.
“Would you like to pull my hair?” he asked. “It might make you feel better.”
Eli stared at him for a second. “I must look pretty awful.”
“You rarely use your dominance, I noticed. You used it when you fought that man in the market square, but even when you were chasing me down, you weren’t laying it on as thick as you could have.”
“It feels like manipulation to do that,” Eli said. “My mother—she used her dominance like a tool. She taught me to do it too, to lure people in, charm them, make them feel comfortable with us. Sometimes I use my dominance to calm a submissive down when they come to me for help, and it makes me feel like I just…just used them, or something.”
“This was the mother who…” Rey didn’t want to say it.
“Killed my father. Yes. I didn’t figure that out until after she died, when I passed through her old family lands. I think she hated him. She hated anything to do with him. When I told her I was a boy, I think she hated me, too—like me being a boy was a betrayal of some kind, choosing my father over her.”
“What?” Rey had heard of parents pretending their children were different genders to hide them from enemies, but nothing like this. “That isn’t how it works.”
“Oh, I know that. So did she, I guess, but she was so focused. Nothing could deviate from her plans, and I was a deviation. The first time I was allowed to be a boy was the day I turned sixteen.”
Rey whistled, and the forest swallowed the sound. “I’d say I understood, but the worst that ever happened to me was being thrown into a laundry tub.” It wasn’t, but he could feel Eli teetering on the brink of a dark mood, and he kept his voice deliberately light.
Eli gave him a curious look. “And why were you thrown in?”
“Maybe I dragged someone’s laundry into the mud. They no doubt deserved it.”
“That doesn’t sound like a grand trickster prank.”
Rey put a hand on his chest. “Not everything has to be world-changing. Sometimes, you just play a trick for fun. The worst you can say about it is you don’t make lasting friends that way.”
“Have you ever tried…notselling fake love potions?”
Rey shrugged. “Oh, yes. I sold fake magical soap in the last town. Worry-free soap, for people who needed a boost of confidence.”
“Not what I was suggesting, but sure.” Eli moved a branch out of his face. “But you don’t stick around long enough to get to know anyone?”
“I used to do things like this, sometimes—traveling with people. But we didn’t exactly keep in touch.”
Eli’s jaw was starting to tighten again. “And you’re fine with that?”
Rey frowned. “There’s an old story about me,” he said, after a minute of silence. “One of the oldest. I was a guide for a king through the forest. I tried to trick him into staying three times—on the third, he killed me and wore my skin as a cloak, and left the forest as a man who could turn into a fox at will. My connection with people can be dangerous, even when it’s wanted.”
“So the king became you? Why?”
Rey could still smell the earth of the primeval forest. He’d never had a crown as a minor Starian king, but he’d left his cloak of office behind when he’d surrendered to save his people, and he could no longer see it by the time the fox emerged in the clearing.
Sometimes, he could still feel the blood on his hands as he stripped the fox’s skin and stepped inside, becoming something new.
Rey shrugged. “I suppose the fox was lonely. So was the king.”
“You’re saying that like the fox let himself be killed.”
It’s all right,the fox had said in Rey’s mind, as Rey dug his knife through its belly.Death always comes before rebirth in this place.
