Page 63 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“There will be no males permitted in this bedroom! Aside from yourselves,” amended Sofia with a deferential nod to Riordan who looked pleased to hear it.

“Fantastic,” muttered Orion as he used his fingers to pile crepes onto his plate until Helena slapped his hand.

“Ilíthios,” she chastised, sliding the serving fork across the table at him.

“I suggest that you see Ergastiri while you are down in the valley,” said Riordan. “I am sure Helena and Ares will have plenty of stories to share about our time there.”

“Indeed,” Helena responded with a snicker.

I smiled at them teasing one another, but I could not help looking at Riordan wistfully.

“I think I would rather see it with you and hear you tell me all those stories,” I admitted, sobering him right away, and then he smiled at me warmly with a nod.

“Then we shall plan for that soon. Perhaps once all the oligarchs are reassured of our—”

He was interrupted when a shadow abruptly obscured the sunlight streaming in through my window.

Orion and Helena were on their feet in the blink of an eye and drew their blades, but it was only Theo landing on the outcropping of stone just outside my floor-length window. He could not pass through the opening because of the wards which Riordan had erected the night before, but he could still speak to us from outside.

“Riordan! Fuath attacked a northern Winter Quadrant village in the night!” he shouted.

Riordan and Orion were moving before I had drawn my next breath.

“Amira, there is no cause for alarm. The northernmost villages are very far from here,” Riordan assured me with a kiss on my forehead before he turned to follow Orion.

“Wait! You have a meeting with—” Helena tried to intervene with their departure.

“The council will have to understand,” Riordan said, wings flaring as he prepared to join Theo outside.

“Riordan Vasilikós, you stop right now!” yelled Helena with a surprising authority that brought the younger males to immediate attention. “You are no longer our general but ourking. You cannot rush off like this,” she insisted more patiently once he looked back at her.

Riordan hesitated, clearly torn, and I knew this was the exact reason that he hated this new role.

“I do not want to be the kind of king who sits back and allows others to do his job,” he told her honestly.

“And that is a commendable aspiration, but the attack is over. You have more important things to attend to now,” Helenainsisted firmly, although her words seemed to only cement Riordan’s intentions.

“Barring my mate and her happiness, what could ever be more important than the lost lives of my civilians who trusted me to protect them? More important than the crops and homes that have been destroyed?” he demanded.

I was awed by his stance and looked at Helena in the hopes that she agreed, but she shook her head sadly.

“Riordan—” she sighed, but the king turned with an apology and followed Orion and Theo across the dais to dive off the end into the air. “Fuck!” snarled Helena.

“Are his priorities wrong?” I asked her in confusion.

“They would seem very noble,” Helena muttered and began to pace the room clenching her sword pommel.

“I don’t understand.”

“I believe Helena is concerned how the king’s enemies on the council will undoubtedly use this absence against him in their meeting. Today was his first day attending his official duties, and he is gone,” Sofia explained.

“But… surely this is understandable—”

“There will be a hundred skirmishes every month,thárrosi.The king cannot attend them all, nor can he drop every other responsibility each time there is any trouble,” Helena tried to explain.

Unfortunately, that made sense to me too.

“Perhaps he will not feel the need to go once he has appointed someone he trusts to go in his stead,” I mused, although Helena did not look convinced. Honestly, I was not convinced of it myself. Riordan had been clear about how he felt about going from an active role to what he considered to be a passive one.

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