Page 65 of Ties of Bargains

They might be married, but she didn’t feel right in speaking for him now. Perhaps she would one day, once they’d been married for more than a few hours and known each other for longer than a few weeks.

But right now, she held her breath as she waited for his verdict.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Harm couldn’t tear his gaze away from the pleading in Val’s deep brown eyes. The rest of her posture remained stiff, the hard expression frozen on her face.

But her eyes betrayed her. She was giving up everything—her home, her Wild Hunt band, her realm—to follow him to the Human Realm. He’d be an utter cad if he asked her to give up her friends as well.

Besides, friends who were loyal enough to follow her to a new realm were the kind they needed on their side. Even better if those friends were armed to the teeth. Especially for when they faced King Hendrik.

“Of course they can come. If”—Harm shot a stern glare at the five mercenaries—“they are willing to follow the laws of Tulpenland and listen to your orders.”

He might be the prince of Tulpenland, but these were Val’s mercenaries. She would be their leader, not him. And he was quite all right with that.

“Val’s our Wild Hunt leader. Of course we’ll follow her orders,” one of the femalefeeënspoke up.

“But I can take Acurru, right? I can’t leave him behind.” The spokesmanfeegestured toward the turquoise dragon at his feet.

Harm resisted the urge to sigh. “Yes. After all, we’ll be taking a sometimes-three-headed dog with us.”

He gestured to Daisy. The movement drew the dog’s attention, and she promptly sat on his foot, peering up at him with her ears slicked back in that particularly cute way of hers. Harm reached down and ran a hand over those soft ears.

“And my pet giant snails?” One of the malefeeënwho hadn’t spoken until then lifted a crate where two snails the size of large cats left green slime marks on the wood.

“The snails too.” Harm pinched the bridge of his nose. The staid Tulpenlanders would have conniptions when he returned.

Oh, well. He’d made his choice when he married Val. If he had to abdicate and Gijs became the duke eventually, then so be it.

Assuming fifty years hadn’t gone by, and Gijs wasn’t already the duke.

“If that’s settled, perhaps some introductions would be in order.” Harm glanced from Val to the five mercenaries. “I’m Harm from Tulpenland.”

He didn’t give his full name nor his official title. They’d learn all of those eventually. But he was learning. Don’t given more information than necessary whenhere in the Fae Realm. Or Realm of Monsters, as the case might be.

The spokesmanfeepicked up his dragon, strode forward, and halted before Harm. He gave a respectful nod. “I’m Abelardo.”

The malefeewith the snails was next. He grinned as he nodded. “Ignatius, but I go by Iggy.”

“Chela.” The first female mercenary stated. The second one nodded to him. “Jesenia.”

The final mercenary trundled closer. Even as tall as he was, Harm had to peer way up at the bare-chested, broad-shouldered malefeeënwarrior. The massive sword the warrior held was over five feet tall.

Harm swallowed. “And who are you?”

The warrior stared down at him for a long moment, leather creaking in the silence. Then he spoke in a resonating bass. “I am Grutte.”

“Nice to meet you.” Harm forced the words out past a polite smile.

“We should leave.” Val gestured back the way they’d come. “The sound of the fighting is dying down. I don’t think we want to still be in the Realm of Monsters once a new Wild Hunt leader is chosen.”

With that, she took Harm’s hand again, and he found himself hauled across the desert. Rather willingly so.

He was less pleased about having to jump into a rift again. But at least this would be the last time.

As Val stepped into the rift, tugging him after her, he barely had time to suck in a deep breath before the squeezing, clawing, ripping feeling tore through him again.

Just when he thought the shreds of his being might disappear into the void between the realms, he was dragged out the other side. He coughed, releasing Val’s hand as he fell to his hands and knees on the burning sand on the other side of the rift. “That was just as—”

---