Page 21 of Acedia

Tilly whimpered a little and I pulled her back to my side so I could scratch her ears, letting us both be led by Soren rather than having her walk up front.

“It’s okay, Tilly. You’re such a brave girl,” I murmured.

“She is brave,” Astrid agreed. “This must be weird for her. And for you,” she added after a moment’s pause.

“A little. It’s quite exciting to go on an adventure, though.”

“I guess,” Astrid replied, though she didn’t soundthatenthused. Based on what Lucas told me, Astrid probably went on multiple adventures each day—undoubtedly, this seemed very boring to her. “We’ve set up a temporary entry to the shadow realm for you—we’re nearly there. Usually, we’d emerge right outside the palace, but Lucas’s note made it seem like you might prefer a quiet introduction to life here.”

“That was kind of you to go to the extra effort.” Though I wished they hadn’t. I was already making more work for people. “What was it about Lucas’s note that made you come back for me? He seemed to think you weren’t very fond of him.”

“Oh, I’m definitely not,” Astrid agreed. “And I absolutely wondered if I was walking into a trap. But there was something about the letter that was compelling, I guess.”

“Did he tell you I was blind?” I asked, wondering if pity had been the compelling factor.

“No. That must have slipped his mind,” Astrid said dryly. “Here we are. Keep hold of Tilly, this might feel a little odd for her.”

I tightened my grip on the handle, but she didn’t try and bolt or anything as we stepped out into a whole new world. There was a gentle breeze and warmth on my skin, and I could hear rustling trees and running water, as well as the faint buzz of what I assumed were insects, though they weren’t ones that I recognized.

“Tallulah, Meera, this is Iris Nash,” Astrid announced. “And Tilly.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” someone said. They sounded worried, and I did my best to be as calm and self-assured as possible when I replied to put their mind at ease.

“It’s so nice to meet you too.”

There was an agonizingly long silence after that, and I tightened my grip a little on Tilly’s harness as I waited. Sometimes, when there were long stretches of no conversation in films, Nana had explained that the characters were communicating with their body language instead. I wondered if that was what was happening now, and wished I didn’t feel so left out.

“What is this?”

Based on the sharp intakes of breath, I wasn’t the only one taken by surprise by whoever this new arrival was. It was a masculine voice—noticeably different from Soren’s. A little brighter. A littlehappier.

It immediately made me feel happier too.

“What a magnificent creature,” the nice voice said.

Me? I supposed that I had come here knowing that I would need to be providing my lust in exchange, so I shouldn’t really be shocked. Perhaps it was just the word “creature” that had thrown me off? It just sounded so unsexy.

“He means Tilly. They don’t have dogs in the shadow realm,” the woman who’d spoken earlier said, hurrying out an explanation. “Prince Damen, this is Iris Nash and her dog, Tilly.”

A prince? My only frame of reference for them was the kind they had in fairy tales. Was he like that?

“My service dog,” I added, needing them to know how crucial Tilly was to me. “I’m blind. Tilly is my eyes.”

“Well, you and Tilly are both most welcome here,” the prince said. He really did have such a lovely voice. It was strong and steady without a trace of anger, and it was something that I didn’t know I liked—I’d never heard anyone speak like that before.

I doubted that I would get to exercise my abundance of lust on him, since he was a prince and all. They probably had important Hunters who fulfilled that role. Perhaps they could send me someone like him, though? Would I get to choose? It took all of my self-control not to reach over and touch him, just to get some idea of what he was shaped like.

No one had brought up the lust thing yet, or mentioned that I would need to contribute in order to stay here. It was all very polite.

“I hope you will find the shadow realm a happy home for both of you,” he continued. “Tallulah and Meera stay in the accommodation that has been set aside for ex-Hunters, but perhaps you would be more comfortable in the palace, Iris? I believe it would better suit you and Tilly.”

The palace? I was hardly palace material. I almost objected on principle—somewhere like the attic would be perfectly suitablefor me. Then again, this was an adventure, and I didn’t want to keep living the life of seclusion I’d always had.

If I was going to do this, I needed to be brave and say yes to opportunities as they arose. “Well, I’ve never been inside a palace before, just heard about them in fairytales. It certainly sounds like the kind of place where anyone could be comfortable.”

“We’ll accompany you over there,” a different feminine voice said.

“Um, we’ll just start walking straight ahead. It’s about two hundred feet away. The path curves a little on the way, but it’s flat.”

---