Page 44 of Ties of Bargains

Harm caught her gaze, his thick blond eyebrows raising. “What?”

She cleared her throat again. The words were somewhat strangled, but at least she got them out. “Thanks. For back there. With the grain sprites.”

Harm shrugged, his broad shoulders pulling the blue shirt tight across his muscles. “I did get us in trouble inthe first place. The least I could do was try to get us out of it for once.”

“Still, I appreciate it.” She couldn’t quite describe the shift. Perhaps it was the crone’s parting words still ringing in Val’s ears. Maybe all the time she’d spent with Harm was going to her head. Or it could be seeing him with that more competent, confident air just did stuff to her heart.

“What would have happened if we hadn’t gotten away?” Harm shot a glance over his shoulder at the wheat field behind them.

“The grain sprites would have chewed the flesh right off our bones until we were picked clean.” Val grimaced and swiped at the drop of blood trickling from one of the scrapes on the back of her hand. Grain sprites were particularly nasty creatures.

Harm swallowed, going even more pale as he held up his arm with the cord. Bruises showed around his wrist. “Even with this?”

“Yes. They could have eaten us. Our skeletons just would have been tied together for all time.” Val didn’t want to think about it too much.

“I’m really growing tired of this realm.” Harm patted his sword’s hilt. “Far too many things want to eat me.”

Val rubbed her aching shoulder. She was from the Realm of Monsters, and right now, even she agreed.

Harm grippedthe knife Val had lent him as he faced her in the light of their campfire. To one side, Daisysnoozed after her grain sprite fighting earlier that day, her stomach full of the leftovers of their supper.

Darkness had long ago fallen over the fall-decked branches of the trees of the Goblin Court. During their walk that day, they passed small clusters of homes tucked into the rocks and trees. Little stone houses with wafts of smoke drifting from the chimneys. Mushroom cottages with red and white tops. Dens formed of caves with little fox-faced people peeking out as they passed.

Despite all the time Harm had spent in the Fae Realm, he hadn’t been able to help his gaping. Everything was just so quaint and not terrifying that he almost couldn’t believe it. There was just something about the villages framed in autumn colors that reminded him of home.

A crisp breeze rustled the leaves overhead, and Harm had to resist a shiver. “Are you sure your arm is healed enough for this?”

Val rolled her eyes, her stance as easy and lithe as ever. “Yes. Now stop stalling.”

“I’m not stalling. I just…” Harm trailed off, not sure how much concern he should express.

“I’m fine. Even with a healing arm, I can still take you.” Val darted forward, slashing with her knife.

Harm stayed light on his feet, but he kept his ground. Val was faster than him. Far better than him. But he had a few inches of height and overall mass on her, and she’d taught him how to use that. He shoved her hand aside, then stabbed with his own knife.

She grabbed his wrist, yanking him to force him off-balance as she aimed her knife for his throat.

He leaned to the side to avoid the knife, bringing up his forearm to stop her arm. He turned his other hand, breaking her hold and getting a grip on her wrist instead. He tried to get a leg behind hers to send her to the ground.

Instead, he lost his own footing. Val didn’t waste a moment. She shoved against him, and the next thing he knew, he was falling backward.

He tightened his grip on her arm, wrapping his other arm behind her back even as he fell. Her eyes widened as she lost her balance, and both of them tumbled to the ground just outside of the ring of firelight.

Harm landed first, his back cushioned by the layers of fallen leaves. But then Val landed on top of him, all solid bones and muscles and weapons, knocking the breath out of him and bruising far more than the ground.

Val pressed the flat of her blade against his throat. “You’re dead.”

Harm tightened his arm around her, the tip of his knife resting against her back over her heart. “But I took you down with me.”

Val huffed, her breath warm against Harm’s face. “Mutual death isn’t going to get you back home to your family.”

Harm tried to think of a comeback to that. But he couldn’t concentrate with Val’s face only inches from his, her dark brown eyes meeting his. Her hand—the one not holding her knife—rested on his chest with only the thin layer of his shirt between their skin. Hisgrip on her wrist had loosened, and he had the strange urge to rub his thumb over the soft skin of the back of her hand.

Could she feel the way his heart thumped harder and his breath caught in the back of his throat?

With a tromping of paws on the ground, Daisy bowled into the two of them, clambering and wiggling and licking, as if utterly overjoyed that they were down at her level. Her spare heads made an appearance, all the better to lick both of them at the same time.

Harm sputtered and dropped the knife to better fend off the dog. He tried to extricate himself, but everything was a tangle of limbs, flailing dog, and the cord wrapped around them.

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