Page 36 of How To Woo A Warrior Orc

“Wild Oak Woods is your home now too,” I tell them, and I mean it.

“Let’s get to work,” Ruby says. “We plan the festival, and then we research the fae queens.”

“We will leave you to it,” Caelan drawls.

Wren sighs.

“Unless you want us to stay, of course, little witch.” The trickster fae takes her hand in his, pressing his lips to her knuckles as the corners of her lips twitch in response. “I am, as ever, at your disposal.”

Wren glances at me, asking if I need them to stay.

Ugh.

I need help, yes, but Ga’Rek probably misses his friends.

“I want you three to put your heads together and decide on a theme for the costume party,” I tell them. “And,” I draw the word out as inspiration strikes, “I want you all to work on finding a place and constructing a few platform stages, with lighting, for performers to use.”

“We could use their input on the queens of the fae,” Ruby says plaintively.

“If we can offer insight on the queens, we will. But,” Caelan mimes locking his mouth shut, “we may not be able to give you information you want without attracting… Her spies.”

Kieran rolls his eyes. “My mother is a cutthroat monster ruled by her desires and her lust for power. I am happy to shed any light necessary on her behavior, but I am sorry to say that I was the spare, and thus not included in any political machinations regarding this realm or the Seelie.”

He inclines his head, his pale, silvery hair falling over his face. The only sign of his discomfort is the slight buzzing of his wings.

“Well, Kieran’s always known exactly how to suck the fun from every situation,” Caelan says with a frown. “But yes, that is the extent of it. The three of us might have been in court, but we were hardly a part of it in any meaningful way.”

“She’s vicious,” Ga’Rek’s voice rings out. “We are well rid of her and the court. And should she show up here, she will learn what it means to reap what you sow.”

Caelan’s devil-may-care expression hardens into something else entirely, something savage and ancient. “We will defend you, and this place, with our very lives. Threatening any of you is the last thing she would attempt.”

Kieran’s gaze lands on Willow, who resolutely stares at the floor.

“She is not one to underestimate,” he adds, and there’s a dark, foreboding quality to the pronouncement. “Farewell, witches of Wild Oak Woods.”

His wings rustle as he turns and swaggers out the door.

My eyes narrow as I study the exiled fae prince, now lurking next to Nerissa’s wolf familiar.

Willow sighs, folding her hands in her lap, gaze flitting to where he stands outside, framed in the red light from the setting sun, and back at her hands.

Ga’Rek strokes one hand down my cheek, distracting me completely from whatever it is that’s bothering Willow. “I will be back later, yes, kal’aki ne?”

“I would like that,” I tell him, and reach for his face.

His lips meet mine, and all I can think is that I can’t wait for later.

Caelan and my orc follow Kieran out of The Pixie’s Perch, and I exhale.

At least I have help now, from my coven, and from the unlikely three from the Underhill.

And so, with a heavy load of things to do weighing on me, I turn to my fellow witches and rub my palms together.

“Let’s get started.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

GA’REK

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