Page 67 of Ties of Bargains

“Though we aren’t quite up to finishing each other’s sentences.” Tora jabbed her brother in the ribs with a finger.

“Not for lack of trying.”

“All right then.” Val marched forward to Harm’s side. Daisy stuck so close to Val’s heels that she nearly tripped Val several times.

The rest of the mercenaries hung back, as if waiting for Val and Harm to finish the negotiations before they made a move.

When Val halted next to Harm, she laid a protective hand on his arm. “As you can see, he doesn’t need rescuing. So we’ll be on our way.”

“We can help with that.” Taran gestured from himself to his sister. “Unless youwantto walk hours across the scorching hot desert.”

As it was late afternoon, they had several hours of heat remaining before the desert cooled for the evening. Yet even if they walked the whole night through a monster-infested, rift-filled desert, they wouldn’t cross the whole Court before morning.

“We’re fine.” Val’s grip on Harm’s arm tightened, as if she was preparing to drag him across the desert again. She’d gone all prickly and stiff in that way of hers.

“You’re a mercenary. You don’t have access to the Anywhere Doors. We do.” Tora waved from herself to her brother. “That would save you a lot of time.”

Harm stilled, meeting Val’s eyes. “I need to return home as soon as possible. I’ve already been gone too long. And these dragons are with the Wild Fae Primrose. Maybe they can walk the faerie paths.”

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up there.” Tora twirled a section of her hair around a finger.

Taran shrugged. “We don’t know that we don’t have that skill. We did well in training.”

Tora’s gaze swerved away from them. “This is our first mission for the Primrose.”

“It’s actually our parents’ mission, but they got caught up at the Dragon Moot.” Taran met Harm’s gaze with an easy smile. “But we’ve passed all the Primrose’s training.”

Harm resisted the urge to drop his head into his hand. All right, so perhaps accepting help from these dragons wasn’t such a good idea. But what other choice did they have?

He turned to Val. “I’m tired of walking.”

Val heaved a sigh. “Fine. We’ll take the dragons up on their offer.” Her gaze dropped to Daisy, who was trying to curl up on top of Val’s feet. “I suppose Daisy will survive one more dragon flight.”

Without waiting another moment, the twins transformed back into their massive dragon forms. Daisywhined and pressed against Val as if trying to disappear.

Taran lowered his head to inspect first Harm and Val, then the other five mercenaries. “Are all of you coming?”

“Yes, they are.” Harm dredged up the last shreds of his courage to face the dragon’s large, slitted gaze. Even knowing these dragons were friendly, something inside him was shaking. “Val is married to me, and these fae are her Wild Hunt. They’re all coming back to the Human Realm with me.”

“That is…highly irregular.” Tora puffed a cloud of gray smoke down at the cluster of mercenaries.

To their credit, none of them backed up, even as they coughed from the smoke.

“I’m not sure if we’re allowed to turn a Wild Hunt loose on the Human Realm.” Taran tilted his huge head, the horns running down his back winking in the far-too-hot afternoon sun.

“They’re with me. I’ve given them permission to enter my duchy.” Harm struggled to keep his knees from knocking together as both dragons focused on him. It would have been far less intimidating if they’d had this conversation while both of the dragons had been in their fae forms.

“I’m not sure you truly understand what you’re doing.” Taran snorted a cloud of smoke at Harm.

Harm coughed and waved a hand in front of his face. “Perhaps not. But I trust Val. She will keep her mercenaries in line.”

Tora bumped Taran with her tail. “We can clear itwith the Primrose before we escort them all the way to the Human Realm.”

“Good plan.” Taran turned back to Harm, Val, and the mercenaries. “All right, everyone climb on. We’ll be taking you home to our mountain for the night.”

“Climb on? You aren’t just going to grip us in your claws?” Harm shifted closer to Val. “That’s what the other two dragons did.”

“You’re not prey. We’ll at least give you the dignity of riding on our backs.” Tora shrugged as she lowered herself to her belly in the sand, sticking out a leg.

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