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All eyes turned to me and Bael as we strode back into the camp. Colorful tents, reminiscent of those that had filled the clearing on the edge of the Waywoods last year, stood erect in a haphazard circle, campfires and tables overflowing with food set between them. Servants and guards milled around, some attending to lesser nobles, some seeming to try to look busy or already packing up their horses to leave.
We made a beeline for the golden tent at the back, where Enid had unpacked my things the previous afternoon. No one said a word to us, but there was the occasional bow or lowering of the eyes.Strange. Just…impossibly strange.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
Bael let his arms hang loosely by his sides, as casual as anything. “What do you mean?”
I worried my bottom lip, thinking of the mob that had formed outside the castle last month. “I suppose I expected a crowd like at the first hunt.”
“Inbetwixt has never been the most elaborate of hunting grounds,” Bael replied. “Likely, it’s due to their culture. In other provinces, grudges will be held off for years before they play out in the hunts. In Inbetwixt, violence is a more common practice, so the hunts are less sensational. I don’t believe a hunting season has ever ended in Inbetwixt, much to their chagrin, I’m sure.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “You say that as though you’ve seen a hunt before, but that’s impossible. The last one would have been…what? Hundreds of years before you were born?”
Fae might be immortal, appearing young and beautiful far longer than humans did, but they still showed signs of aging in their own way: lighter hair, wiser eyes, more scars from battles long ago. Even if Bael hadn’t told me that he was only in his mid-thirties in human years, I still would have guessed he was young from demeanor alone.
He grinned. “Ah, but I’ve seen enough of them to feel as if I’ve been there, little monster, but that is also an explanation for later—when we are not in the open.”
A raven cried in the distance as we walked further into the camp, making the ominous feeling all the more obvious. People seemed to go stiff, and all conversations ended as we passed.
“I still think something feels off. I only saw one group of hunters, and you were not picking them off this time, as last time, correct?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“That’s odd then, and does it seem…tense to you?”
Bael glanced around, as if only just realizing anyone else was present. “I could only guess. I have hardly spoken to everyone here.”
I struggled not to roll my eyes. The Everlast family as a whole had a nasty habit of forgetting to give me even the most basic information, then berating me for ignorance. Bael was perhaps the least guilty of this, but that was not a glowing endorsement. “I’ll take it. Your ‘guess’ would be better than the silence I am usually graced with.”
“I suspect many thought you would die last night, and yet here you are, uninjured.”
“Well, none of you came to hunt me,” I said uncomfortably.
“Yes,” Bael agreed, his lip curling in a feline smile. “And what does that say to the people? They’re trying to decide if their impression of you was incorrect and if they’ve made any missteps so far if you turn out to be a larger threat than they anticipated.”
I remembered Prince Scion’s taunting after the first hunt—that if none of the real competitors were present, I could hardly call myself the winner. In this case, I almost agreed with him. I bit the inside of my cheek and shook myself—that was an absurd line of thinking, ungrateful at best and suicidal at worst. I’d always thought curiosity would kill me. Now, complacency seemed the greater threat.
I shook my head, and a few strands of filthy hair fell into my face. I gestured down at myself, still covered in drying mud and scratches from the quarry. “This is hardly the picture of a threat.”
He looked me up and down. “I don’t think you see yourself very clearly, little monster. To me, it simply looks like you survived.”
I felt a heat crawl up the back of my neck and shrunk under the weight of his compliment.
“And if you want information,” he added seemingly as an afterthought, “might I suggest you start asking better questions.”
* * *
Bael heldthe flap of my tent open, and I ducked under his arm and stepped inside, only to jump at the sound of a small gasp.
Beside the bed on the far side of the tent, a girl with mouse-brown hair in a long braid whirled to face me. Enid dropped the gown she’d been folding and reached down, as if to pull an invisible weapon from her pocket. “Y-you’re back.”
“Don’t sound so disappointed.” I raised my eyebrows at her, glancing at her twitching hand by her side. “And you’re unprepared. If you want to fight, get yourself a knife or something.”
She flushed and looked from me to Bael. “I wouldn’t.”
I pressed my lips together, not entirely sure I believed that, but it wasn’t the most pressing thing at the moment.
The tent was small but extremely well furnished, given that we’d only used it for travel. A small bed took up most of the space, and a table with a washbasin and a plate of fruit sat beside it to the right. At the foot of the bed, there was a large traveling trunk, on which sat a silver mirror and a hairbrush.
