I spent a moment considering my options for cutting Ritsu down swiftly. I wasn’t eager to murder the fox in the middle of the woods, even if it would be a convenient place to get rid of the body, but I was ready to do it.

  If only I’d already gotten those recipes out of him…

  Unfortunately, I didn’t think I could wait. Everything about the kitsune’s expression indicated that he had figured out just who and what Kiri was, which meant he had to go.

  The exposure of Kiri’s secrets might actually be worse than my own Court discovering me. From what I knew of Winter, especially regarding that Season’s treatment of her own children, I suspected she would show up in person for a wayward Royal.

  I did not want Winter herself descending upon our little town.

  However, while I was still finalizing my plan to eliminate Ritsu before he could pull off any kitsune trickiness, I took another look at his expression.

  I paused.

  That wasn’t the look of a man scheming about how best to capitalize on the discovery of a Winter Court princess. Instead, his eyes were filled with the same awe I’d experienced when I first saw Alys and her glittering scales (though I hoped I had done a better job of concealing my reaction at the time).

  I honestly wasn’t sure whether that made the situation better or worse. For the moment, though, I chose to dismiss all thoughts of my daggers.

  I jabbed my elbow into the fox’s ribs. He hissed in pain and shot me a startled look.

  “I didn’t hit you that hard,” I whispered, rolling my eyes. “Also, control yourself. Don’t just stand there and stare.”

  Our exchange drew the attention of Nasha and Kiri, who was still holding the food box the beagle had shoved into her arms. I also caught a glimpse of Alys’ expression from the corner of my eye. The dragoness was looking back and forth between me and the fox, clearly trying very hard not to snicker.

  “Ah! I do not believe we have been introduced!” Ritsu exclaimed, a little too loudly. Making an effort to moderate his volume, he continued, “My name is Ritsu, dear customer… I mean, fair lady!”

  The fox gave the Winter fae a rather stilted bow.

  I couldn’t help myself. A grin claimed my face as mischief sparked inside me.

  Releasing Alys’ hand, I stepped up beside the fox and threw an arm around his shoulder. “I can’t believe you haven’t met Ritsu until now, Kiri! You must not have been to the Hall recently. Why, Arandel wants to chase him out of her kitchen!”

  Kiri blinked, then narrowed her eyes at the fox slightly. “Arandel doesn’t like him?”

  I could understand her surprise. Arandel got along well with everyone. Ritsu was the first person with whom I had ever seen the elven cook take issue.

  Said kitsune was now looking a bit panicked. I had known enough members of the Winter Court to interpret the tiny shifts in Kiri’s features. But to an observer unfamiliar with Winter fae, Kiri’s narrowed eyes probably appeared as an expression of suspicious anger.

  “Well,” Ritsu began, stammering. “We… I merely…”

  “It is merely that he has intruded on Arandel’s domain,” I cut in. “Ritsu is a wonderful cook. You simply must try some of the dishes he can make. He and Arandel just got a little… competitive!”

  Kiri tilted her head to the side and said nothing. The fox’s tails lashed about anxiously.

  I pressed ahead. “Being so well traveled, Ritsu, you must have some exciting stories. Why don’t you share a few with Kiri? I am sure she would love to hear them!”

  I gave the fox a little push, startling both him and the Winter fae.

  Ironically, both of them looked at me with mild betrayal in their eyes as they began conversing awkwardly. Ritsu’s glare stemmed from the fact that he was fumbling, and fumbling hard. Of course, this merely stoked the flames of my mischief. It was hilarious to see the confident trickster falter.

  As for Kiri, I knew how reluctant she was to encounter anyone new. Or to interact with anyone at all, for that matter. She visited the Hall only slightly more often than Alys and I did, even though she was already familiar with everyone there.

  I wasn’t pushing them together solely to tease them, however.

  Ritsu must have noticed that Kiri was an actual, full-blooded fae. He had recognized me instantly, after all. Yet though he had seen past my disguise, somehow, I was fairly certain he couldn’t identify my exact Court.

  Kiri, on the other hand, wore the marks of her heritage openly.

  I needed to see how the two would interact, and what Ritsu’s reaction would be afterwards. If the fox showed even a hint of an inclination towards giving away Kiri’s secrets, I would put an end to him. But if he became truly besotted with her and tried to pursue a relationship, then I could relax. One doesn’t typically sell out one’s beloved to that beloved’s murderous Court.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  Meanwhile, the commotion was giving another person present the chance to incriminate themselves further.

  Nasha had been edging away from the duo. From the way her eyes were rapidly darting around, I could tell she was about to try and sneak off.

  “Keep an eye on the lovebirds, will you?” I whispered to Alys.

  “Hrrrrm?” My dragoness didn’t even glance at me. She just kept staring at the fox and the Winter fae, smiling like her favorite play was unfolding right in front of her.

  “Nasha is about to give us the slip. I want to know what she’s being so sneaky about.”

  “Go. I’ll watch these two,” Alys assured me.

  Sure enough, Nasha slunk off less than a minute later. The stealth with which she did so was impressive. If we all had been fully distracted by Ritsu, who was now trying to awe Kiri with the tale of some colorful city that contained ‘thousands of blossoming trees’, we would have missed the moment she vanished.

  Unfortunately for the beagle, I was not fully distracted. When she left, I followed.

  Was this a gross breach of privacy? Perhaps. But my curiosity and my suspicion both drove me onward.

  The latter had been rising steadily all afternoon. I couldn’t forget that I was still in hiding from a powerful fae king. And though Nasha hadn’t marched into Alys’ home in full Autumn Court regalia, she was acting far too strangely for my liking. I hadn’t survived my training and life at Court by ignoring signs like that. I certainly couldn’t start now.

  Especially when I was no longer the only one in danger.

  It was in that moment, as I began tracking one of the few people I considered a friend, that I realized how strong my protective urges had become regarding Alys. I didn’t want to call it ‘obsessive’, but the feeling now curdling in my stomach definitely qualified. The mere thought of anyone putting her in the crosshairs of trouble was enough to outweigh every other consideration.

  So, I put all qualms about ‘privacy’ aside and followed Nasha.

  The pursuit was easy. Though Nasha was a fierce combatant and thoroughly skilled at sneaking up on people, she wasn’t very adept at dodging a fae inside a forest.

  I couldn’t blame her for that. Thanks to the new trick I’d developed to track Ritsu, every plant constantly gave away the beagle’s position. I didn’t even need to keep her in my sights. I just needed to hang back far enough that there was no chance of her seeing or hearing me, and collect the information the plants were eager to share.

  Had she rushed away, she might have escaped me. I would have had to rely on the damage done to the plants by her passage to approximate her direction. Thankfully, she walked at a moderate pace, probably in an attempt to maintain stealth. When she stopped in a small clearing about twenty minutes later, I was still very much on her tail.

  The next moment, I realized that she wasn’t alone.

  My fingers twitched. My eyes narrowed. I couldn’t tell what the other person looked like using my current method of detection, but there was definitely a second pair of feet walking over the grass.

  Wait. Is there a third?

  I furrowed my brow at the sensation of an additional set of feet landing on the grass and then disappearing, almost like the person in question was flying about the place. An instant later, the feeling was gone, and I sensed only two people standing still beside each other.

  At that point, another thought occurred to me, and I found myself caught between suspicion and mild mortification.

  I might have just stalked Nasha to a romantic rendezvous.

  The additional person was a bit of a mystery. Three wasn’t exactly the ‘standard’ number of participants in such an encounter… but I wasn’t going to judge.

  I stood frozen for several minutes as my need to know fought against my disinclination to intrude on a personal moment.

  Then the worse side of my nature won out, and I resumed my approach.

  I called on my magic and wound it tightly around me, forcing the forest to silence my steps and the breeze to blur my figure. I wouldn’t have used these skills so freely if my target was a fae or any race notable for their mana sensitivity, but Nasha had shown no sign of being more magically inclined than most of her kin.

  With an odd combination of emotions swirling in my gut, I crept up to the edge of the clearing. Then I stood there, blinking in shock and confusion.

  Nasha’s giggling rang through the air as she bat away the probing paws of… I wasn’t sure what I was looking at, actually.

  “No!” the beagle gasped between giggles. “I don’t have any more snacks! I had a lot of food I was bringing to you, but… urgh, I ran into some of my friends, and I had to leave it behind. I’m sure Kiri will give it back to me later, though! And I’ll come back!”

  The female creature let out a huffy mrow and leaned away, giving me a slightly better look at her. She appeared… feline, for lack of a better description. My guess was a lynx of some kind.

  I couldn’t call her a beastfolk. To my knowledge, with the exception of more exotic species like birdkin, the features of beastfolk tended to resemble ‘human’ more closely than their animal heritage. But the features of this particular female leaned heavily towards the animal side. In fact, she was just barely humanoid in appearance.

  As a result, the leathers she was wearing hung a little awkwardly on her, shifting in ways they weren’t supposed to whenever she leaned forward onto all fours and stretched. Nasha giggled every time.

  I wasn’t giggling. I wasn’t amused at all, in fact. Because every time the lynx-person stretched, long, deadly-looking claws popped out of her ‘fingers’ and dug lightly into the ground.

  My mind spun. I couldn’t help comparing those claws to the wounds that had almost killed Nasha. I also couldn’t help recalling what Nasha had said at the time about the source of her wounds.

  ‘Some kind of feline creature’, indeed.

  I let my spells drop and stepped into the clearing, cracking a dry branch on purpose to announce my presence. The attention of both Nasha and the creature snapped over to me, with two very different reactions.

  Nasha was clearly caught off-guard. Her face went instantly pale, and she began wringing her hands. The creature, meanwhile, launched herself between us and hissed at me threateningly, her hackles raised as she crouched on all fours.

  Immediately, Nasha bent over to grip the creature’s shoulders. “No! Wait! Pen, stop!”

  I hesitated. Then, with a sigh, I slowly raised my hands in what I’d always considered the universal gesture of surrender. The feline watched me warily, but Nasha’s attempts to calm her seemed to be working, especially when combined with a lack of any further movement on my part.

  “Thorn!” Nasha called, trying and failing to sound genuinely enthusiastic. “Um… fancy seeing you here!”

  I held her gaze. “Would you mind telling me what’s happening here, Nasha?”

  Her ears drooped while her tail sagged. I didn’t enjoy these obvious signs of distress, but I stood my ground.

  It was time for some answers.