Page 52 of Ties of Bargains

“Good. Then you’ve already come to the attention of the Primrose League.” Val returned to petting Daisy. “They might even be plotting your rescue as we speak.”

Harm dropped his gaze from Val’s. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you back then.”

“No, you were absolutely right not to tell me.” Val gave a shrug, as if she wasn’t angry in the slightest that he’d kept something like this from her. Instead, her tone was almost…pleased. “You’re a human in the Fae Realm doing what you need to do to survive. It’s smart never to give information freely, and you should definitely keep as much as you can from your captor. You probably shouldn’t even be telling this to me now.”

“You aren’t my captor.” Harm closed his hand around the flower before he stuck it back in his pocket.

Val held up her arm and pointed at the tether running between them. “Yes, I am.”

“No, you’re not.” Harm gestured at the door. “You’re as stuck in this mess as I am right now.”

“True.” For the first time, Val’s shoulders relaxed. She leaned against the wall behind her, though she had to keep her arm stretched in front of her because she was at the end of the cord. “At least there are two beds this time.”

“Such luxury.” Harm smoothed his hands over the blanket on his bed. Then he met and held Val’s gaze. “I trust your promise, Val. Far more than I trust a random flower given by a stranger in a dark alley of a faerie market. I trustyou. Whatever we’ll face tomorrow in the Court of Sand, we’ll do it together, all right? You won’t have to face a warlord alone, and I know you won’t abandon me there.”

Val looked away from him, focusing on Daisy instead. “You’re far toogoodfor the Fae Realm.”

“I don’t know about that.” Harm sighed and shook his head. “I used to think I was good. I lauded myself forjust how good I was. But it was all a show. The proper dress. The proper cleanliness. The proper appearance of virtue. But acting good andbeinggood all the way down to your soul are two different things. I was the former. But if I was the latter? I don’t know.”

He used to judge good as what someone did to put on the proper, societally accepted method of proving their goodness.

But all of that had been stripped away here in the Fae Realm. All the proprieties and rules he’d lived by were gone.

And yet when all the trappings were taken away and the world turned on its head, good and evil were still the same. Right from wrong still mattered. In the end, it was all a matter of the heart instead of the outward appearance. Why would it matter if he wore all the proper layers of clothing, spoke with due gravity, did all the things expected of him, if he didn’t harbor a shred of love and kindness in his heart?

“You are good, Harm.” Val stroked Daisy’s ears, the dog wiggling on her lap. “I’ve seen plenty of evil here in the Fae Realm. Enough to see when someone is different. When that person is kind and loyal, even to the fae escorting him to his grim fate. Your family and your duchy in the Human Realm are fortunate to have you, and it would be a tragedy if someone like you were to die here in the Fae Realm.”

Harm coughed, looking away from her as the back of his neck burned. That was by far the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him, and he wasn’t sure how to handle it. “Thank you.”

The moment hung between them for a moment before Val cleared her throat. “Don’t let it go to your head. Now, we should get some sleep. It’ll be a long day tomorrow.”

“Aren’t they all?” Harm shook his head, leaned over, and blew out the lamp.

Chapter Eighteen

The next morning, Harm found himself once again clutched in a dragon’s talons, watching the world flash by below. This black dragon—Damig—held them the same way Golbet had, clasped in his front claws without squeezing. There wasn’t any gentleness in the grip, but Harm didn’t fear he was going to be squashed either, leaving him free to enjoy the ride and the view of the Court of Stone passing below.

In the dragon’s other front claw, Val’s dragon ride wasn’t nearly as peaceful as his since she had her hands full with a panicking, flailing dog.

The beat of the dragon’s wings provided a steady, almost soothing rhythm as they soared. The white mountains and dark evergreens blurred as they passed, their shadow keeping pace over the ground. Every once in a while, the shape of another dragon veered across the sky in the distance, glinting in jewel-tones from brightest reds to deepest purples.

Even after all this time in the Fae Realm, Harm couldn’t get over the strangeness of everything. Would his world and life seem boring after all of this? Assuming he ever returned to the Human Realm.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, the dragon carried them over the border, the land beneath them instantly changing from white mountains and dark evergreens to burnt scrub brush, gravel, and sand unlike anything Harm had ever seen before. This high up, he couldn’t feel the change in temperature that would signify crossing from the wintry landscape to the desert.

The occasional village of sandstone homes or a nomadic tribe with their airy tents flashed below. The small figures of people or animals moved between the homes or tents as they passed, a few halting and peering upward at the dragon flying overhead.

At last, a larger cluster of sandstone homes appeared on the horizon. A taller, castle-like fort of stone stood on the hill above the town.

The dragon swooped, banking toward the fort. Harm’s stomach dropped, but his heart soared. He’d likely never experience flight again, and he wanted to savor every moment of the adventure. He climbed to his knees, gripped a talon, and peered between the talons to take in their landing.

The dragon folded in his wings and zipped from the sky at a dizzying speed. At what seemed the last moment, the dragon’s wings flared with awhumpfrom hitting the seemingly solid air. Only Harm’s grip on the talon saved him from tumbling within the dragon’s fist.

The dragon’s rear legs landed with athump. Thenwithout any warning, he spilled Harm, Val, and Daisy onto the sandy ground.

Harm rolled, the sand grinding into his skin and going down the back of his shirt. Bother. He already hated sand.

A few feet away, Val gave a wheeze as Daisy landed on her stomach, then a groan as Daisy shoved off her to scramble away. The dog clawed at the sand, trying to get away from the dragon.

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