Page 130 of Wanted: Rogues and Bards

“You knew he was going to do this,” Fenric muttered under his breath.

“We’re villains,” Malfas reminded Maxie for what had to be the hundredth time.

“Yes, I know, but we can’t leave them. This isn’t their fault. They’re innocent in all of this. And Fenric said you had a code not to hurt children and helpless women. There have to be women and children in the village who would be hurt by our not even trying to save them.”

As one, all his companions turned their heads to glare at Fenric, who attempted to dart behind Lirion and hide. Fuck him and his mouth.

“Pleeeeaaaassseeeee,” Maxie wheedled.

And then he pulled out his biggest, deadliest weapon. The eyes.

Somehow, his golden eyes doubled in size as he stared up at each one of them. Tears gathered and trembled, on the cusp of spilling down his cheeks. His bottom lip jutted out.

Fenric would have rather taken a knife to the gut than say no to those eyes.

Instead, he punched Lirion in the arm.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“That is all your fault!” Fenric shouted and pointed at Maxie, refusing to look at him for another second. “You taught him how to do that. Now you have to tell him no.”

Lirion stared hard before ripping his eyes away again. “I can’t,” he whispered.

Hapi huffed loudly. “Look, dawn is but a few hours away. We’re all exhausted, and no one is thinking clearly. Let’s just shut the gates and barricade ourselves in the manor. We’ll get some sleep and eat some food. The servants have all run for the village and won’t bother us. We can rest and then see if we can come up with a plan to deal with the finfolk that won’t get us killed.”

Fenric nodded, and Maxie let out a whoop.

Yeah, Fenric agreed with Hapi on the food and the sleep. He was highly skeptical about the odds against the finfolk, but that was a tomorrow-him problem.

Despite the somewhat difficult trek to Dunley and the fact Maxie had nearly died, Fenric had to admit he enjoyed one of the best sleeps he’d had in a long time. And not just because he had his mother’s treasure box back. No, he also had a sexy incubus stretched out next to him in a ridiculously comfortable bed. When he finally awoke properly, the midday sun was peeking through while a nice breeze stirred the curtains. Golden light cascaded down the elegant curves of Lirion’s bare back and shone on his adorable pink hair. It even glittered on the treasure box resting on the nightstand beside him. Fenric stretched and let out a satisfied sigh. Even if it was only for a day, it was good to feel like a king. He and Lirion had taken their sweet time rousing from bed, only venturing to find food when Fenric’s stomach had let out a petulant growl.

It also didn’t hurt to find the servants who’d run off had come back at dawn and made them a sumptuous meal from the overstocked larder Lord Mire had maintained to the detriment of his people.

What they hadn’t counted on was that the late breakfast came with a rather lively old lady who greeted them all with an expression of pure determination.

She stood next to the table, dressed in a raggedy-looking brown skirt with a muted green shawl tied around her shoulders and waist. If she was younger than seventy, Fenric would eat his boots. Her hair was pure white in its plait over her shoulder, and she had enough wrinkles to have mountain switchbacks.

“I’m Jessamine, the town’s ombudswoman.”

Manners Fenric didn’t know he still had kicked in. “A pleasure, ma’am. I’m Fenric. What can I do for you?”

“Finish the job,” she answered bluntly. “You killed the lord and his family, and we’re thankful to be free of him at last, but we still got these damn finfolk out there and the floodwaters covering our farmland. We can’t even let the animals graze right now, and we’re under constant threat of them sneaking into the village.”

It was on the tip of Fenric’s tongue to say hell no because that was not his job. He’d gotten what he came for. There was no need to do anything else.

Some of that must have shown on his face because she doubled down. “You can’t leave easily with the finfolk loose, anyway. They let you in here, but now they see you as stuck in their trap with the rest of us. You’re dinner.”

Dammit, she made a good point.

Still, was it worth all the extra work? Fenric knew for a fact it would mean fighting the finfolk in the water.

He hated water battles.

Hated. Them.

“Oh, of course. You’ll be in a difficult position otherwise.” Maxie swooped in from the side and gathered up Jessamine’s hand, giving her the softest, most sympathetic look ever. “I imagine you’d have to hire someone else, which might take months, seeing the scale of the job. And that’s assuming you can even find a way out of the fog barrier and past all the attacking finfolk.”

Jessamine melted under his sincere look and gave a helpless plea in return. “It would, and we might not survive it. We barely have food in the larders as it is. And we still have to replant the fields!”