Squirt stared, dumbfounded, into the clearing.

  She hadn’t hurried back the next day, hunting along the way and setting up more traps. By the time she arrived, the sun was directly overhead, shining down on a full, large, beautifully made cabin. The structure of it was built using trees of the area, allowing it to blend into the forest and looking as much a part of it as the trees themselves, complete with a raised, covered deck. Off to the right were an outhouse, a storage shed, and a building with a roof made of glass.

  Glass.

  Her legs were shaky and eyes wide as she started with the storage shed, approaching the door with a second handle sized just for her, seeing enchantments baked into the wood. With her fingers, she traced over the runes, carefully reading each one. Protection. Barriers. Anti-pest. Anti-theft. Anti-rot. Anti-fire.

  She opened the door, and it opened easily despite the size of it.

  Swallowing, she found more enchantments inside. One side for drying and aging, the other to slow time down. To preserve. Even in this, a shed, there were windows. Skylights. It was already furnished with shelves, and as she wandered amongst them, she realized they were movable, easily sliding closer or farther apart, yet were sturdy enough for her to climb.

  It was just a damn shed. She’d known Telos had a lot of magic, but this was…

  The color drained from her face. A mage of this caliber was archmagis level. The combination of raw power and depth of knowledge meant his talents were to serve kings. Not even Lord Everwinter ranked nearly high enough to deserve the services of one.

  What was this? What was their plan? Their damn goal? Did they want a boon from her?

  Well, technically yes, they did, but that wasn’t the point. Nothing about her was worth even this gods damned shed, and she hadn’t even checked the cabin out yet. Fuck, at this rate, she was betting the gods damned outhouse would be too good for her.

  This was too much.

  She fell to her knees as her eyes overflowed.

  What was the trick? What was the plan? Befriend her to what, torture her? To rip it all away? To enslave her?

  She’d signed no bargain. She’d barely been cordial to the man, to either of them. It couldn’t have just been because he could.

  Right?

  Footsteps sounded behind her, two sets—light barely audible steps, and unknowingly loud ones. Tobias and Telos. The two fey stopped by the entrance, and Squirt kept her back to them as she clasped her fingers in her lap, bowing her head. Hoarse and somewhat stuffy from the tears, she whispered, “What do you want from me?”

  There was a pause before a surprised, “We… don’t want anything. Well, I mean, we’d like you to be the official Chief Hunter of Everwinter, but beyond that, Braveheart? We’d just like to make sure you’re happy here.”

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  Starting out the window, despondent, she said, “No you don’t.”

  “I promise you—”

  She stood quickly, turning to yell at him, her hands fisted at her sides. “What? What do you want from me? You want to humiliate me? Bed me for the laugh? Trick me into slavery? Or you want my wings? Just fucking tell me, already—”

  “Braveheart, I told you, I just—”

  She shouted, “Don’t lie!” Tears fell down her face in earnest. “Don’t lie! If it was my happiness you wanted, you would have given me the thing I asked for, the thing that doesn’t indebt me to you, the thing that doesn’t draw attention, the thing that is plain and simple like me!” Angrily she wiped the tears with the heels of her clenched fists to glare up at him, only to stop, stunned, at the tears on his face.

  Quietly, Telos behind him asked, “Why would someone want your wings?”

  Tobias blinked rapidly, seeming to process the implication.

  She deflated a little, swallowing thickly, her voice quiet again. “… no reason.” Her eyes fell to the floor, pain crossing her face, her tone disheartened. “None at all.”

  “… did they take them?”

  She shook her head quickly, fighting more sobs at the gentle anger of his tone. They hadn’t, after all, though they’d gotten close. She wiped more tears with her fists as she tried to regain her breath. Tobias stepped forward and slowly bent down to his knees in front of her, like he was trying not to spook her. Like she was delicate.

  She bared her teeth as she glared at him, only he still had tears in his eyes, stilling her tongue before she could lash out more accusations.

  He gave her the smallest smile, a bit of magic woven into his words. “I swear to you now, by the Goddess of the Hunt herself, that I don’t want anything more than for you to be happy and well cared for while working for my lord, may she smite me down if I lie.”

  Squirt stiffened, rearing back at the sheer insanity of invoking one of the gods directly—

  Only nothing happened. She’d seen others invoke one of the gods before. Had he truly lied just now, he would have died.

  He… he would have died.

  He didn’t die.

  He wasn’t lying.

  He wasn’t lying.

  His smile grew a little tender. “I just wanna be the brother you never had.”

  Her eyes overflowed again, and she muttered, “That’s stupid,” while she wiped her tears. “You’ve already got a sister.”

  “Six, actually. You’d be lucky number seven.”

  “Seven isn’t lucky. Six is lucky.”

  “Yeah, but you’re a trailblazer, anyway.”

  She choked on her tears as she wiped them and muttered, “I don’t owe you.”

  He nodded. “That’s right. You don’t.”

  She glared at him, angry and frustrated that he agreed.

  He gave her a sheepish shrug as he wiped off the rest of his tears. “I got a little competitive and carried away when we were planning. Forgive me?”

  Aghast and disbelieving that he’d lower himself to apologize to her of all people, she slowly shook her head, the tears finally slowing. “Only if you don’t tell the lord I cried.”

  He laughed, his bright grin back in place despite the overbright eyes. Standing and holding out his hand to her, he said, “Ready to see the rest?”

  She stared blankly at his hand, rearing back slightly. Ready to see the rest of the palace they had made her? She’d cry. She knew she would. Maybe that was his angle—he just got a kick out of making her cry… no, that’d be ridiculous. Making her cry because she was moved wasn’t a pastime of a cruel fey, but a kind one.

  ***

  Tobias held his breath, watching her teeter on the decision to trust in his sincerity. Then, slowly, she straightened, no longer leaning away from him, her brows furrowed slightly and softened at the edges as she stared at his offered hand. The tension never fully left her shoulders even as they began to relax just a little. The moment he’d been waiting for finally happened—a tiny, tentative bit of real, vulnerable trust entered her eyes before she slowly slipped her hand into his.

  He beamed at her, and she immediately scowled at him, muttering, “You’re on a short fucking leash, Wolfie.”

  He snorted. “Not my kink,” then he eyed her up and down. “And not my type.”

  Rolling her eyes, he tugged her along behind him, convinced that despite her griping there was a small, telltale quirk to her lips, the beginning of a real smile.