Page 77 of Ties of Bargains

“No, I won’t order him to release you. First, because he isn’tmylackey. Second, these aren’t negotiations.” Harm tried to put a deeper growl to his voice. “This is quite hostile. I will make demands, and you will comply. Or else these lackeys will do worse than merely abduct you from your bedchamber.”

Grutte lifted King Hendrik slightly higher off the ground, and the king made a choking noise.

He was still choking and clawing at his throat as the door creaked again.

This time, Val marched inside. She met Harm’s gaze and gave a nod before she stepped aside, holding the door open for the person behind her.

A young man crept after her, carrying an orange-and-white dog. The young man’s hair was a sandy blonde slightly darker than Harm’s while his eyes were the same blue as their father’s.

Gijs and his dog Vlek.

Harm gripped the throne’s armrest, his stomach churning. Despite being told five years had passed, Harm had still envisioned his brother as the fifteen-year-old boy he’d been when Harm had left. He’d seen the changes in his father. But the gray hair and weary lines could have been chalked up to the grief he’d suffered. Seeing Gijs as a fully grown man hit the reality home with far more force.

Gijs halted, gaping. “Harm?”

Harm would have leapt up and embraced his brother, but he had to maintain his intimidating pose for a few more minutes.

A young woman with golden-blonde hair followed behind Gijs, one hand gripping Gijs by the arm and the other clutching the handles of a carpet bag. Jesenia and Abelardo followed her with Acurru perched on Abelardo’s shoulder.

Grutte set King Hendrik back onto his tiptoes, and the king twisted around, trying to get a glimpse of the newcomers. His face was suffused red from the choking, but somehow it turned even more mottled. “Saskia?”

The young woman raised her chin. “Father.”

Harm met Val’s gaze across the length of the throne room. Val gave a shrug and a wry smile.

King Hendrik whirled to glare at Harm. “So this isyour plan. Kidnap my daughter in retaliation for kidnapping your brother.”

“I’m not being kidnapped. I’m going willingly, Father.” Saskia stepped even closer to Gijs. “What you have done to Gijs in holding him captive and threatening his father these past five years is wrong. More than that, I love him, Father. Because I love him, I want what is best for him. I’m going with him to Tulpenland where he will be free.”

“But you will be a captive! Don’t you see? He’s just using you! They’re all using you.” King Hendrik clawed at Grutte again. He might as well have been trying to move a boulder uphill.

Val crossed her arms and glared at King Hendrik. “No one is being taken against their will or hauled off to captivity. We don’t do that.”

At least not anymore. Harm worked to suppress his proud smile.

“Who are you?” King Hendrik’s sneer curled his mouth. As if he had any right to sneer at anyone, held by the scruff with his nightshirt hiking up his thighs.

Harm couldn’t resist any longer. He let the swelling pride break into a smile across his face and fill his voice. “King Hendrik, I don’t believe you’ve met my wife.”

“Your…wife?” King Hendrik made that choking noise again, even though Grutte wasn’t hoisting him off his feet. “She’s…”

“A fee. Yes.” Harm gestured to the other fivefeeën. “And this is her Wild Hunt. She will be calling them off. Or not.”

“Don’t you control your wife?” King Hendrik spat the words.

And he wondered why his daughter was running off with Gijs back to Tulpenland rather than stay here.

“We’re allies. I don’tcontrolher. Instead, I’m honored that she fights at my side, as I will fight at hers.” Harm would like to see the man who would try to control Val.

Oh, wait, he had. That man’s body was rotting in the Realm of Monsters. Or, perhaps, consumed by the Realm of Monsters, if that realm ate bodies the way the Fae Realm did.

Saskia leaned closer to Gijs, whispering something to him that had both of them smiling as they gazed into each other’s eyes.

King Hendrik snorted. “I won’t even have to do anything to your kingdom. I can just sit back and watch it fall apart. Your people will never accept afeeas a duchess. Nor will they allow such…attitudes. Your kingdom will dissolve into chaos and ruin. Once it finishes burning, I will step in to take it.”

Perhaps it would. Maybe Harm would find himself tossed out and Gijs put on the throne. But he wasn’t going to debate King Hendrik about it.

Harm met Val’s gaze again, and she tipped her head to Jesenia.

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