I look up and meet Harlow’s expectant gaze.
“Well?” she asks.
I look at my friends and clear my throat. “There was a breach.”
Harlow stills. “Which gate?”
I shake my head. “They said everything is fine. There were a few deaths and a few injuries and a couple of women missing, but?—”
“Which gate?” Her voice is so calm, but there’s a lethal edge to it.
I look helplessly at Carter and Bryce. I know when I tell her, this rare lightness in her will be gone.
“Henry,” she says softly. “Which gate?”
“North Hold.”
She’s so still, I’m not sure she’s even breathing. Finally, she tilts her chin up to the sky and blows out a slow breath. “The brightest part of the day is in an hour. If we leave soon, then we can arrive in Lunameade a before sunset and?—”
I hold up a hand. “Harlow, we just got married. You’re embroiled in a scandal. We can’t go right now.”
“Why? What will happen? People will talk about me?” Her voice is edged with sarcasm. “I don’t care.”
I lean in close. “Harlow.”
“Henry.” She looks up at me, her eyes pleading. “That’s my sister’s house. I need to see that she’s okay.”
The tinge of desperation and fear in her voice unsettles me.
“Please, Henry?” Her face is soft, her eyes wild, like she’s waiting for me to back her into a corner by saying she can’t leave.
“So youdohave manners,” I say, hoping the teasing will bring back the levity we’ve lost.
This version of Harlow doesn’t feel like a performance. If she’s playing me, she’s just about the best actress I’ve ever seen and her parents sending her here is truly diabolical. But if she’s not pretending, she’s just like me—someone who would do anything to protect her sister.
The only difference is that her sister is still alive. Much as I want to even the score between us, it’s useful to grant her something she wants if it will win her favor in the long term.
“Fine.”
Relief relaxes all the tension from her face.
Before she can speak, I press a finger to her lips. “But there are rules, Harlow. You will do exactly as you’re told when we’re in the woods, and when I say it’s time to come back, you don’t argue with me. I’m doing this at great personal risk.”
She nods and bites the tip of my finger hard. The sharp sting of her teeth sends a jolt right to my cock.
“Yes, sir,” she says, drawing away with a wicked grin on her face.
I wait until she’s disappeared inside the manor with Gaven close behind her before I turn to face my friends.
“What possessed you to do that? Our people will think you’re totally under her finger now,” Bryce says.
“If I try to stop her, she’ll find her own way, and if she gets hurt doing it alone, I promise it will be much worse for all of us,” I say.
Carter sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “Another journey through the Drained Wood for this girl. Naima is going to kill me.”
Bryce runs a hand through his dark copper hair. “Why can’t you just tie her to your bed and fuck her like a normal newlywed?”
“Because normal newlyweds don’t have a familial blood feud,” I counter. “Look, this is a huge risk, and you don’t have to take it with me, but this will be very telling. Her parents don’t protect the sister, but we could. If I can show her that, I won’t need to wrangle her. She’ll want to help us because it would mean getting her sister back.”
