Page 70 of The Fox Heir

Shame, thick and heavy, burns its way through my chest. I’ve broken many promises in my life, especially to him, but I never did it without a reason. Someday, I hope he’ll be able to see that.

The fire crackles in the hearth, doing little to cut the sudden chill between us.

Hunter’s eyes stare out at the snow-covered landscape of Annwyn, but I don’t think he really sees it. It’s just an excuse to keep from looking at me. Out his window, the frozen north awaits in an immense forest. He doesn’t even know about the fae yet. How they’re real. How they can be both whimsical and utterly terrifying. How they’re out there, in the wilds of Annwyn, just out of sight.

When he speaks again, his words are raw, honest. “An oath doesn’t mean you give up when the path gets too difficult, or complicated. I may not be a King’s Guard anymore, but no one can break the oath I made to the rightful ruler of Llwyn.” His brown eyes shift to meet mine. “You.”

“Don’t you mean my father?”

He shakes his head. “Your father lost his right to the crown when he disowned the rightful heir and used the Llwyn people to feed his lust for power.”

He sits up and reaches for my hand. I suck in a breath. I thought I’d forgotten, the feel of his skin on mine, but I didn’t. The memory of it comes crashing back into me, like the sea in a storm. My hand knows his. My skin remembers the warmth of him, the hard calluses from years of training with swords, the surprising sureness of his grip … but something isn’t the same. There was a time when Hunter’s touch sent shivers down my spine. When his voice sent my heart skittering.

Now, he’s familiar, and yet not. There’s a distance between us.

“Hunter, I can’t just be the heir again. My father disowned me. He tried to kill me.”

He shakes his head again. “It’s not a matter of if you can or cannot. You are the rightful heir. You may not have chosen this life, but it chose you. And I chose you too. Even if I won’t be your husband, I will always be a knight in your service. Until death takes me.”

Hunter’s eyes burn with determination and sincerity, like a warm flame. I know this look. I know this man. He believes in honor and virtue above all else. When faced with a difficult choice, he will always do the right thing, even if it comes at his own expense. It’s why I fell in love with him all those years ago. It’s why I had to let him go.

“Whatever happened to living a quiet life?”

He shakes his head slowly. “That was a fiancé’s promise to his betrothed. We’re not those people anymore. They died back in the borderlands, in the fires of Ellyll.”

In many ways, he’s right. I certainly don’t feel like the same woman who crossed Llwyn on a mission to find her grandmother. Now, I want only one thing in life: to kill the Fox King.

I’m almost afraid to ask, but I do anyway. “What happened after Ellyll?”

He nods and chews his lip for a few seconds before deciding where to start. “I couldn’t go back to Caerwen. I’m a fugitive.” His eyes flicker up to meet mine. There’s no blame in them, but I feel the bite of guilt all the same.

“Mostly, I traveled from village to village, asking for odd jobs. There were plenty of farmers in need of a strong back to finish the last of the harvest or ready their fields for winter. I meant what I said when I told you I wanted to be a fisherman. To live a simple life.”

I nod. “I know you did.” It’s why we never would have worked.

He sighs, growing weary again. “But then the snow came, and there was no need for hired hands. After Ellyll, things were different. You were gone. I suppose I just … drifted.”

It’s difficult for me to imagine Hunter wandering from town to town with no mission, no purpose. It couldn’t have been easy for him.

“But then, I started to notice something … concerning.”

“More concerning than normal, you mean?” I raise an eyebrow.

He nods. “The soldiers are heading toward the borderlands. There were so many of them. And King’s Guards too.” He gives me a meaningful look. “I knew he was up to something. And it wasn’t good.”

My face pales.

“So, I went back to Caerwen. To the Fox Palace.”

“Hunter, you could’ve been killed!”

He nods, looking sheepish. “I was careful. But I couldn’t just sit back and pretend nothing was happening. I needed to find out what your father was up to.”

Of course, he did. A pang of fondness strikes my heart. Hunter, forever the noble knight, with or without his copper armor.

“And did you?” I ask, almost afraid to hear the answer.

His mouth forms a grim line. “I heard stories. None of them good.”