Page 78 of Ties of Bargains

Jesenia grinned and opened the door. A wrinkle appeared on her brow, the only indication she gave of her concentration.

Moments later, rank after rank offeeënwarriors dressed in leather and festooned with weapons marchedinto the room and arranged themselves along the walls in the shadows, which would keep their faces indistinct.

Considering they were merely a glamour created by Jesenia, that was for the best. She was particularly skilled at glamour, but creating an army of people was difficult. It wouldn’t fool afee. Luckily, the onlyfeeënin the room were on Harm’s side.

With the army of glamoured warriors to add weight to her words, Val sauntered closer to King Hendrik, whipped out her knife, and pressed it to the man’s throat. “Listen well,Your Majesty. My husband might be inclined to grant you and your pathetic kingdom mercy, but I am not. So don’t push me. We will be leaving, and you won’t stop us. If you try to hurt my husband, his brother, his father, or his duchy again, I will return, and I will kill you. If you try to negotiate with a fae again, I will find out, and I will kill you. If you send your army to invade Tulpenland…”

“You’ll kill me.” King Hendrik’s tone didn’t waver, but he couldn’t hide his gulp, which bobbed his throat against Grutte’s tight grip.

“Glad we understand each other.” Val tapped King Hendrik’s chin with the flat of her blade.

How Harm wanted to march across the room and kiss her. He shouldn’t be this attracted to her as she was threatening his enemy with death, but she was particularly gorgeous when she went all deadly and dangerous. Especially now that she was no longer threatening him with her knife.

But kissing would have to wait until they were safelyback on board the Tulpenlander ship anchored in a bay up the coast.

Right now, it was time to wrap this up and get out of here before King Hendrik realized there were only seven of them—well seven plus Gijs, Saskia, Vlek, and a mini dragon—and called out his entire army and navy to go after them.

Val leaned in even closer and whispered something into King Hendrik’s ear that had the king turning white as his nightshirt. She stepped away, waving a contemptuous hand at the king. “Ignatius, bind him.”

That was Harm’s cue. Val had deemed King Hendrik sufficiently intimidated, and it was time to leave.

Harm pushed off the throne and did his best to saunter down the length of the throne room. He halted at Val’s side, resisting the urge to pull her in close for that kiss.

As soon as King Hendrik was bound, gagged, and dumped in the shadows beneath one of the long drapes where it would take his guards a while to find him, the rest of them hustled from the room. Jesenia directed her glamour warriors to march out the door, only dissipating them once they were out of sight of the king, should he manage to peer past both the blindfold and the drapes. Abelardo had Acurru fly around the room and snuff all the candles so that the throne room was plunged into darkness once again.

Within minutes, they had crept through the castle, out the postern gate, and into the shrouding night.

Gijs halted and turned, still holding Vlek in both arms. “Harm, is that really you? I thought…you were…”

“I’m fine. Really.” Harm stepped forward and slung an arm around his brother’s shoulders, careful not to squish the dog. “But look at you. You’re all grown up.”

“You haven’t changed a bit.” Gijs was still gaping, his shoulders hunched as if he wasn’t sure what to do with Harm’s half-hug.

“It was only a little over two weeks for me. Time moves differently in the Fae Realm.” Harm released his brother. “We came to save you from a wedding, but it seems that isn’t necessary.”

“No, it isn’t.” Gijs edged closer to Saskia, sharing a smile with her. “Over the past five years, Saskia and I fell in love. We were actually sneaking out to run away together when your…feefound us.”

He’d hesitated, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to call Val.

Val raised her eyebrows, even as she gave Harm a gentle shove. “It was quite convenient they were already packed and ready to leave. Which is what we should be doing.”

Harm resumed walking, and after a moment, Gijs and Saskia fell into step with the group, even if they kept eyeing thefeeënaround them.

After a moment of silence, Gijs cast a glance from Val to Harm. “Wife? But you said you’d only been in the Fae Realm for two weeks?”

“It’s a long story. Things are different in the Fae Realm.” Harm wasn’t sure he could explain it. For some reason, marrying Val after knowing her only two weeks seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do in the Fae Realm.

Yet now that he was in the Human Realm, he didn’t regret it one bit.

“We fell in love, and we decided to return to the Human Realm together.” Harm reached for Val’s hand, his heart lifting when she clasped his. “Just to warn you, I plan to abdicate my position as heir to you if Tulpenland isn’t ready for afeeënduchess just yet.”

Gijs sighed. “And here I thought I’d finally been released from that. But you might be surprised. After nearly getting subsumed into Suskeny, Tulpenland might be willing to take any alternative, especially since I intend to marry Saskia. Someday, she will be the queen of Suskeny, and I will be her consort. If I’m also heir to Tulpenland, that will mean Tulpenland and Suskeny would be united, as King Hendrik wished. If afeeënduchess is the price of their continued independence, Tulpenland will accept her gladly.”

Harm studied the stranger who was his brother. “When did you get to be so wise and diplomatically canny?”

“I’ve done a lot of growing up in the past five years.” Gijs grinned with a wry tilt to his mouth. “I’m not the only one who has changed. You’re…”

“Less staid and stuffy?” Harm swung the hand he had clasped with Val’s.

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