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I grimaced. “How long can you hold him off?”
“Two months, we hope.”
“How did they get so powerful?” I asked.
“We made an error when we created them,” Alida began.
Someone interrupted us as they brought our food out, and we all paused for a moment to thank them before we started eating.
Alida resumed, “It’s a long story, but we made them dependent on their contracts to stay alive. They gain energy through killing, and it keeps them functioning. We didn’t factor in the possibility that the energy wasn’t their own by nature, so it won’t ever fade from them.”
My eyes widened. “So they’re constantly getting stronger?”
“Yes. What an error to make, right? Eventually, those bastards are going to be strong enough to destroy our world—and we have no way of knowing exactly when that will be.”
Damn.
“I need to get back to our work as soon as we’re done eating,” Kierden told the elves, changing the subject again. They offered to help look at the bodies again, and he agreed readily.
We ended up talking about the differences between clothing styles in all the different lands while we ate. And honestly, it was a lot more fun than I expected.
Chapter20
Nissa
The next two weeks passed by quickly. Kierden spent most of his time with the elves, looking into anything and everything that could possibly be a lead. They found nothing, though none of them gave up.
Eisley left soon after the elves started helping Kierden and the other fae search. Neither she nor her brother would tell me where she was going, but she took a group of fae with her. Though I didn’t voice my suspicion, I was guessing that Kierden had sent her to my town for the revenge he had mentioned.
Part of me hoped my suspicion was right, because that part of me wanted them to suffer for what they’d done to me.
Another part of me hoped I was wrong, and we could all just let go of what happened. I wanted to be done with it more than I wanted revenge.
Kierden most definitely didn’t feel that way, though.
I spent my days in the fields, growing plants and helping harvest them. We had an excess of crops, and they were all getting too big, so we sent two groups of fae out to the other kingdoms with massive carts full of produce. I worried the esu would be grumpy about pulling the heavy carts, but they were excited to have something to do, and really excited to see the kingdoms without being at war.
When we finished harvesting, it would be time to replant my fields. It would take meweeksto get everything planted, and I was absolutely thrilled that I’d get to spend all that time with my hands in the dirt. I never felt more at ease than I did surrounded by my plants.
Kierden and I spent every night together, splitting our time between his room in the castle and my home just off the farm. I’d started considering them bothourhomes, but it felt like a stretch since we hadn’t officially bound ourselves together in any way.
The itch to seal our bond grew stronger, and I had to fight harder not to say the words with every damn day that passed.
The desire to have sex grew stronger too—we made love every night with our fingers and mouths but hadn’t taken it any further. I was putting off a visit to the healer, Dirue, because it just seemed awkward.
I kept hoping a fertility-suppressing plant would just appear outside my house overnight, but that had yet to happen. Kierden had offered to go, but he was busy with the elves, so I turned him down.
After one night when we had a particularly hard time restraining from graduating to full-on sex, I finally decided it was time to swallow my discomfort and visit Dirue.
Bright and I made our way to the healer’s house. She was amused by my reluctance… so at least one of us was entertained by my misfortune.
I knocked tentatively on the door. It was on the far end of the kingdom, so my wrist was hurting something fierce. Kierden had assured me mentally that she wouldn’t want to chat for long, so I was ignoring the pain. He and Bright both insisted that she wouldn’t mind the intrusion, but I was still a bit nervous.
I scratched Bright lightly behind the ears as I waited.
The thick wooden door opened a moment later, and my gaze collided with that of a beautiful fae woman with light skin and vibrant pink hair. She was nearly as tall as Kierden, though obviously not as large.
“Nissa,” the healer said, her voice warm as her mouth curved upward. “I wondered when I’d get to see you healthy.”
