Page 57 of Ties of Bargains

“I’d be hurt that stabbing people rates higher than kissing me, but I suppose I’ll just have to kiss you until that changes.” Harm walked close enough that their shoulders brushed. “Or just accept that your stabbiness is one of the things I love about you.”

Val halted in her tracks before she whirled on him. “You…what…”

“I love you. Or, at least, I’m falling in love with you.” Maybe it was that kiss, but Harm wasn’t going to hesitate. Now was a time to be bold. “And I’m pretty sureyou’re falling in love with me too. You kissed me without stabbing me, and the tether came off.”

Val huffed, flapped her hands, and made a noise in the back of her throat. She whirled away from him and set out into the desert again. “Fine. Whatever. Yes, I’m falling for you. Don’t let it go to your head.”

Harm’s grin still tugged at his beard as he kept up with her fast pace.

Val shot him a glare. “Don’t keep grinning like that. Clearly itisgoing to your head. We’re about to face certain death, you’re grinning like your brain just fell out of your head, and I have yet to hear this plan of yours.”

Ah, right. Harm drifted a little farther away from her. Getting out of stabbing range. He might be in a kissing haze, but he hadn’t completely lost his mind.

Harm proppedhis boots on a rock as he sat on the larger rock next to their firepit.

The fire crackled and popped, a bright light against the blue darkness of the desert around them. Shadows of the cacti and brush danced on the side of the tent. Overhead, a riot of stars blazed across the sky.

Daisy lay next to his feet, though her head was up as she watched Val.

Val stalked around the fire, light and shadows dancing across her face. She kept drawing and sheathing her dagger, as if wishing she had something to fight.

As she stepped over Daisy and past Harm yet again, he reached out and grabbed her arm, halting her. “Val. Why don’t you sit?”

“How are you so calm?” Val turned to him. She didn’t sit, but she also didn’t tug her arm free.

“We’ve already talked over the plan for hours while we walked. There’s nothing more we can plan.” Harm stared up into her eyes, trying to read her expression. “Tomorrow’s troubles will keep until tomorrow. We don’t need to add them to today.”

Val huffed through her clenched teeth, shifting as if torn between sitting and tugging away from him. “But if there’s something more we can take into account or if we missed something in our planning…Harm, if we lose tomorrow, you’ll die.”

“And if we succeed, you’ll lose everything.” Harm tugged her closer. This time, she finally sat on the boulder next to him, so close their shoulders and legs were pressed together.

Val shrugged, staring into the fire instead of looking at him. “Lose what? A life as a homeless mercenary taking missions that involve hurting innocents? There’s not much to lose.”

As there was a good chance he would die tomorrow, Harm dared to put his arm around Val’s shoulders, tucking her close. She didn’t exactly relax into him, but she leaned into him a little. “Still, I’m sorry.”

She remained stiff beneath his arm, her shoulders hunched as she stared down at her hands in her lap. “There’s something else that I should have told you long before now.”

Harm stiffened. Nothing Val said in that tone of voice was ever good news.

“Time doesn’t move the same way between the Fae Realm and the Human Realm.” Val spoke slowly, her gaze looking everywhere but at him. “When we return to the Human Realm, there’s no telling how much time might have passed there. It might have been ten minutes. Or ten years. There’s no way to know until we get there.”

Oh.Oh. Harm’s breath caught in his throat. “My brother and father are in danger, and I might not get back foryears?”

They’d think he was dead. Or perhaps they’d be dead, killed by whoever had poisoned Gijs in the first place.

“I’m sorry. I should have told you but…” Val shrugged, shaking her head. “It’s not something I’ve had to think about before. I never return my packages. Only deliver them.”

Harm tightened his grip on her shoulders at the note in her voice. “It isn’t something you could’ve helped, even if you’d told me. You’re attractively competent, but even you can’t control time.”

Val rolled her eyes, the stiffness to her spine unbending slightly. “No. But I’ve heard there are those who can. Sort of. For most of us, walking through a faerie circle or a rift is like stepping through a door. A wibbly-wobbly, whirling door that tries to tear you apart for a moment before you get put back together and spit out the other side. But for others, it feels more like a path. They can navigate between the realms tosomewhat control where and when they end up in the Human Realm. Supposedly the Wild Fae Primrose is one such fae.”

“Would it be worth trying to track down the Wild Fae Primrose or a fae like him for our return?” Harm’s legs ached at the thought of more hiking through the wilds of the Fae Realm. They already had enough of a journey trying to get back to the Court of Dreams and the particular faerie circle that connected to Tulpenland.

“I don’t think so.” Val sighed and shook her head again. “While the Fae Realm itself runs on the same time, all of the courts interact differently with the Human Realm. If you’d remained in the same faerie court, you would’ve stayed somewhat tied to your own place and time. But now that you’ve journeyed all across the Fae Realm, you’re thoroughly unmoored. I doubt even the Wild Fae Primrose himself could return you exactly to the time in which you left. I just hope you aren’t so untethered that we end up a century out of time in your realm.”

A century. His father and brother would be long dead by then. What would he even do if he returned to the Human Realm, only to find he had no family left and no home to return to? He and Val wouldn’t even have a home here in the Fae Realm to fall back on. They’d belong to neither realm.

Val’s shoulders heaved with a deep breath beneath his grip. “As you said, tomorrow will keep. There’s nothing we can do about the time of our return now. Why don’t you tell me about Tulpenland?”

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