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“Then don’t tell me what to do,” she said quietly.
“You—”
“And do keep your promise.”
Words rushed up his throat, but stayed there when she gave the four another reassuring look before marching away. Somehow, he knew she would still find out if he did kill them, perhaps through those vials. He glowered at the four.
“Ignore that. Ignore her. Come with me. And don’t you dare throw those bottles, or else…”
That, along with his gesture, was enough to send them scampering after him as he led them in the opposite direction. The nervous shifts behind him told him they were gathering courage, rousing his curiosity.
“We truly are sorry for intruding,” the same male who spoke earlier said. “Truly. Your wife is right—”
“She’s not my damn wife.”
“Oh.” There was a swallow. “Then your mistress—”
“Guest. She’s my guest,” he snapped. “She will leave when the time comes.”
And the time couldn’t come soon enough. His mood turned stormy, but he kept listening as the older female hushed the other and tried to salvage the situation.
“Guest. Your guest is right! We can leave. We won’t tell anyone about this place. We can find somewhere else to stay—”
“No. Come with me.”
He waited for another set of pleading, negotiating, maybe even arguing. But the four went silent again, still restless but no longer building up the courage to say something. They crossed from forest to forest, where he sensed their energies dwindling. They stopped in a clearing in one of the last forests, where a small block stood holding a door. A series of raps later and a head peeked out.
“Your grace,” Bernard greeted, mustache neatly trimmed and expression sleepy. That cleared when he spotted the four and assessed them. “What can I do for you?”
“Take them in,” Klaus ordered. “Keep them here in the meantime.”
“Dungeon?” the teenage girl whispered.
“Not dungeon,” he answered before the humans could. “I do not need to arrest you.”
“Oh.”
He turned to them, scanning the four lost expressions. He cleared his throat until they focused. “You said your island was invaded and you have nowhere to go. You might as well stay here, where you will have somewhere to sleep and will be fed and clothed. You will also be under my protection, under one condition.”
“What condition?” the older woman asked.
“Servitude. Loyalty. Jacques?”
Another head peeking out immediately rushed forward. The scrawny man ushered the four inside the door, where they disappeared under a set of stairs going down. Bernard stayed behind.
“Not prisoners?”
“Not prisoners,” Klaus confirmed. “They’re humans and lost their home to pirates. I need you to check the vicinity with Gerard, Olga, and Miko. I need confirmation that their island isn’t a nearby one and we won’t have pirates in this territory anytime soon.”
“I will get to it.”
“In the meantime, have the rest interrogate them—subtly, if you please. If you think they are healthy enough, do find where they can fit in and be of service immediately.”
“Of course, your grace.”
The door closed. Humans didn’t belong in the Otherworld as it was founded specifically to get away from them. But some humans found their way in, anyway, and the rare ones either blended in or found their secret spots to thrive. None of it was his business, so long as they left him alone. But turning them away meant they would either drown at sea or find another island with a bigger threat, and the idea of a teenage girl dying so young and defenseless didn’t sit well with him.
Klaus returned to the skies to do some scouting too. He first checked for open sources of energy, confirming there were none in the areas where the alarms had been first triggered. No portals and no magic, either, but there were broken pieces of a makeshift raft perched against a jagged mound of rocks. He flew further from the island, checking what he asked Bernard to check, then turning back before anyone spotted him. Perhaps the portal was underwater, a chance coordinate they used that had led them here. If so, then Miko was their best swimmer and best chance at investigating that.
