Page 21 of Ties of Bargains

“No.” He dragged the word out. Tempting as it was to lie, she’d see right through it.

“Then I don’t trust you to do it properly.” Val dipped the rag into the water again and scrubbed at his wounds.

Harm lowered his hand to rest on Daisy’s back again. She had a point, little as he liked subjecting himself to more of her rough ministrations.

Once she finished cleaning the wounds, she set to work spreading the same herbal paste over the scratches and gashes.

She leaned closer to him, her hair only inches from his face. When he inhaled, he caught the faint scent of leather and oil and some kind of spice he couldn’t name. He was all too aware of her hand on the bare skin of hischest and abdomen. Not that her touch was at all romantic or even gentle.

He gave himself a mental shake. She was afee. And if his guess was correct, she was several years older than him. More than that, she held the other end of the cord that kept him here. She was only helping him and keeping him safe from the otherfeeënand monsters in this realm because it was her job.

As if oblivious to his thoughts, Val briskly wrapped his chest with bandages, then cut the slit in his breeches wider so that she could give the cut on his leg the same scrubbing, herbal paste spreading, and bandage wrapping treatment.

Once she tied the knot on the last bandage, she sat back on her heels. “That’s done. We had better get moving. All the death and bloodshed here will attract more monsters.”

“Does this mean I get out of doing the dishes tonight?” Harm grimaced, leaning his head against the root behind him. His wounds throbbed, and a bone-deep exhaustion settled into his body. The last thing he wanted to do was walk more that night.

But she had a point. If predators were attracted by the scent of blood in the Human Realm, then how much more would monsters be attracted to such things in the realm of thefeeënvolk?

“Yes.” Val began stuffing the medical supplies back into her pocket.

Harm glanced to the side where Daisy had left the two rodents and the wolf she’d killed. For a longmoment, he couldn’t spot the bodies, though they should have been obvious on the forest floor.

A few gray tufts of fur poked between a layer of roots and moss that seemed to be growing up and over while the gray plume of a wolf’s tail stuck from the moss. Even as he watched, a chill spreading through him, the ground gave something almost like a gulp and slurped the tail down into the earth.

“The forest ate the monsters!” Harm hugged his injured arm closer again, holding tightly to Daisy.

“Well, yes. What else are the trees supposed to eat?” Val didn’t even look up as she packed away her supplies. She stood, grabbed the pot, and dumped the bloody water out to one side of their camp. With a grimace, she tossed the bloody rag into the forest as well. When it fell, the moss gave a ripple and little tendrils wrapped around the fabric, beginning the process of consuming it.

Harm shuddered, all too aware of the moss and roots surrounding him. “The forest won’t eat us, will it?”

“It only eats dead things.” Val shot him another one of her stern looks. “So don’t die.”

Don’t die or the forest would eat him. If the monsters didn’t give him nightmares, that surely would.

Chapter Eight

Within moments, Val had packed up their camp, scattered the coals of the fire, and turned to Harm.

He’d eased into the remains of his shirt and shrugged on his coat. An odd juxtaposition of bloody tatters and stuffy propriety. Such a strange human.

Using the root, Harm pushed to his feet, swaying for a moment before he steadied. After those injuries, he needed sleep, not a long nighttime hike. The healing potion she’d given him would work best while he was resting.

But she didn’t dare stay here. She’d just have to push the human a little farther and hope they could get far enough before he collapsed entirely.

He took a step, then braced himself with one hand on the root as he stared at his pack at his feet. Amazingly, it hadn’t been smashed in the struggle.

Val sighed. The human was too weak to carry his pack himself. Not to mention, the straps would dig intothose gashes across his chest. If she wanted to make any progress tonight, she’d have to carry his pack for him.

She reached for the pack before he could, though she looked up at him, meeting his gaze, rather than picking it up. “If you trust me to carry it for you, I’ll put it in my pocket.”

Harm’s jaw worked for a moment before he nodded, something in his eyes both hopeful and wary. Once this pack was in her pocket, he would have no way to guarantee he would get it back. She had the power to withhold it from him.

Val picked up the pack, her muscles tight at the heavy weight of it. Harm might not have the warrior’s physique of her fellow mercenaries in the Wild Hunt, but he was tall and sturdy to have carried this around with so little complaint. He had the build to become a formidable warrior with the right training.

She stuffed the corner of his pack into her pocket. The opening to her pocket didn’t seem to get larger, and his pack didn’t seem to get smaller, yet somehow she was able to stuff it inside.

Harm was still looking at her, his mouth opening as if he was preparing to thank her. As if he thought this was a kindness.

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