“You didn’t sayIcouldn’t sit onyou, right? That wasn’t a rule?” I looked to the group standing back watching, and Fen smiled that smile at me, and I couldn’t help but beam. I felt his pride, and that was the best compliment he could have given me. “Tap out yet?” I asked.
“You’re a fucking beast,” Kai said. “I give. You win.”
“Yay.” Wren clapped her hands.
Greeve came over and offered me a hand up. I took it, and he shoved Kai over with his boot. “I can’t wait to tell Tolero you got beat by a girl.”
“Asshole,” Kai groaned.
“She’s hardly a girl,” Fen said, studying me. I’d never felt so exposed. I immediately started strapping my weapons back on. Naturally.
“I let her win,” Kai said, getting up.
“You’re bleeding and took the fetal position on the ground.” Fen stood beside me. “I’d say she beat you fair and square.”
“Where’d you learn to fight like that?” Lichen asked, the suspicion clear on his face.
“I told you yesterday, I trained with my father. The one I knew. Did you ever meet him?”
“I did, but I never had the pleasure of watching him fight.”
“I bet he was amazing,” Wren said.
“He was,” Fen answered. “Ask my father. He could tell you plenty of stories.”
“He could?” I asked, wishing I truly could ask the elder king.
“My father knew your real father and the one who raised you. They were both amazing. Someday, you should ask him.”
“If I ever go to the Flame Court, I will,” I said.
“Of course you’ll come home with us,” Wren said. “Won’t you?”
“I honestly don’t know.” The high from my win left as quickly as it had come. “I have a lot to figure out, I guess.”
“Speaking of figuring out where we are going, where exactly are we headed from here?” Fen asked Kai.
“I have a map here,” Lichen said, pulling a folded piece of oversized paper from his pack. “We’ve just come clear of the maze forest and crossed this clearing here. You can see the hills we’re in right now. As a point of reference, I think if we traveled straight south, we would reach Hythe in the Marsh Court.”
“Aren’t we going north?” Wren asked.
“Yes, so if we travel through the rest of these hills, we will hit the Wind Court by nightfall and be standing right at the base of the mountain range. We then follow the mountains west until we find the gap. It’s going to get colder than any of us can possibly imagine. I hope everyone is geared up for that.”
“We’ll have to make the best of it,” Fen said. “Kai, take the lead. Ara and I will bring up the back end while we work on her magic.”
“Going to work on her from the back end, eh?” Every tooth Kai could possibly show gleamed as he dodged Fen’s flying fist.
“Go soak your head,” Fen teased. “Be sure to find the deepest part of the ocean.”
“Not an insult to our little sea enthusiast—he’d love that. Let’s not forget his penchant for mermaids,” Greeve chuckled, pulling him into a headlock.
“Don’t even act like you guys aren’t curious. I just want to know where to put it. Still waiting on you to get me that answer,” he said, shoving out of Greeve’s playful grip.
Fen laughed louder than I’d ever heard him. “Kai saved a sea fae when he was a boy. Just a little fish. She gave him something to remember him by, didn’t she, pal.”
“You guys can make fun of me all you want, but someday, I’m probably going to become a sea God and you’ll all be sorry,” he said, flashing the opaque sea glass ring he kept on his little finger.
“Right.” Wren giggled. “And someday I’m going to learn to fly.”
