Page 47 of Held

“Hear that, honey? There go our flower dreams! Ah, well, thanks anyway.” Briar inclined her head and even gave the old woman a little curtsey, hoping she came off as an endearing foreigner unfamiliar with their customs instead of a dangerous idiot stranger who needed to be run out of town as fast as possible.

“Another question, if that’s alright,” Briar continued with a simpering little smile that she brought out when she wanted someone to think she wasn’t a threat. “My husband and I are looking for somewhere to stay tonight. Does this town have an inn? Or even just a room? We’ll only be the one night.”

The old woman stared. Not at her, Briar realized with a start, but at Wick.

Briar wished she could nudge him. Wick was the opposite of non-threatening, looming over everyone, evenwiththe glamor. Even if he didn’t, he was so stiff he set Briar on edge just looking at him.

The old woman’s eyes widened. She pushed her robes off her head and rose, clutching a twisting cane in her unsteady hands as she stared at them.

Briar looked up at Wick, who looked back at her in panic. Could this old woman see past the glamor? Were they about to get found out?

“Or we can just leave,” Briar said, sensing trouble. “If there is no room. You folks probably don’t get many visitors?—”

The old woman cut her off. “My prediction has come to pass!”

The town square stilled. All the townsfolk who had been bustling past with their robes around their faces stopped and stared.

Briar stepped closer to Wick warily. Something brushed her other arm, and Briar forced herself not to react as Wick’s invisible wing closed around her protectively.

“Don’t do anything until I say,” Briar whispered. “There’s a lot of them, we don’t want?—”

The old woman cut her off again, her hands flinging out under her heavy robes.

“The couple who will fulfill the annual ritual has finally arrived,” she cried.

Briar stopped.Thatwasn’t what she had been expecting.

The old woman struggled toward them, every step an effort.

“It has been foretold,” she whispered. “Once a year, the mountain must be appeased. Finally, you come!”

“Ha ha,” Briar said loudly, unable to muster a real laugh yet. “What ritual are you talking about? No virgin sacrifices, I hope?”

“Void, no. Nothing like that.”

Briar sagged with relief. Wick’s wing loosened around her.

“You only have to join together in body,” the old woman continued. “In front of the town. As the ritual commands.”

Huh, Briar thought.Guess I wasn’t joking about the sex magic after all. Could’ve used a bigger heads-up, Marigold.

“Join together in body,” Wick repeated. “You mean we must mate?”

“You must join together until he spills inside you,” the old woman said. “And appease the mountain.”

Briar twisted to see the townsfolk around her. None of themlookedlike perverts who wanted to watch them fuck, but she’d been wrong about that sort of thing before. Briar started, “I don’t think?—”

“You will be richly rewarded,” the old woman said over her. “As the ritual commands.”

“I should consult my husband,” Briar announced.

She dragged Wick away and lowered her voice, all too aware of how many eyes were on them. “What are we thinking? And why do none of these things ever care aboutmefinishing?”

“It is an oversight,” Wick agreed. “I heard you talk to your witch of sex magic. I thought you were joking.”

“Iwas,” Briar hissed. “Marigold just said their magic was ‘intimate!’ That could’ve meant anything!”

She looked around the town again, her skin pricking with goosebumps under her thick robes. She hoped that wherever the ritual happened was heated.

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