“It’s eating at me too,” she said. “Let’s reinforce our wards.”

“We already did.”

“Let’s do it again.”

Savannah nodded, and she and Dugas left.

Elara turned to Johanna. “Any luck?”

“The warrior is human,” the blond-headed witch signed.

“Are you sure?”

“Ninety percent. I have done everything I can, but the imprint was very weak. But human is the only thing that makes sense.”

It would be so much easier if the armored man was a creature. One could key a ward to bar a creature. One could research and exploit its weaknesses. But a human… That was so much worse. The castle and the town were full of magically powerful humans. She couldn’t ward everyone in.

Elara sighed. The irony of Hugh’s lovely insult was that he was right. She needed to get laid. She could’ve used the release and the comfort.

“Give me some dirt,” she signed.

Johanna put a small test tube into her hand.

“I will go play with it. Maybe I can see something.”

When it came to research, Savannah was better educated than her, and Johanna was more talented. But Elara had to try.

Elara took her test tube and left the room.

Hugh was a stubborn asshole. The problem with stubborn assholes is that once they made up their mind, they followed through, logic and rational thinking be damned. She couldn’t leave it as it was. She had to talk to him about it. If she didn’t, he could snap and attack the Pack delegation tomorrow and ruin a carefully constructed deal that she spent months working on.

Elara conquered the first flight of stairs, when she heard light steps running down. A moment later Stoyan rounded the landing.

He saw her and halted. “Ma’am.”

“Is he upstairs?” she asked.

“No.”

“Where is he?”

Stoyan opened his mouth.

“Stoyan,” she warned. “Where is he?”

“He stepped out.”

“In which direction?”

“He needs… space,” Stoyan said.

What he needed was a solid wallop on his head and a personality transplant.

Johanna emerged from the hallway and waved at them. “Hello.”

Stoyan’s gaze snagged on her for half a second too long. Well. That was interesting.

“Stoyan, where is he going? I’m going to find out anyway. Your Preceptor won’t escape, but you would save me a couple of minutes.”

“He’s going to Radion’s smithy,” Stoyan said.

“Thank you.”

She put the tube into the pocket of her dress and ran down the stairs.

Elara strode out of the gates. The town sat behind Baile castle, hugging the lake shore in a ragged crescent. Radion’s smithy was on the eastern edge of it. A path stretched before her. Hugh had two choices. He could turn right at the fork of the path, circle the castle, and take Sage Street down and east, which would put his course past the shops and houses. Or he could stay straight and walk through the Herbals, a carefully managed stretch of woods hugging the north side of the town and used for the cultivation of herbs.

Where would a violent man in a foul mood go? It was a no-brainer.

She blurred, stepping fast down the path through the woods. One, two, three, four…

Hugh walked on the cobbled path. He was out of uniform. His jeans were scuffed and worn, just like his black boots. His broad shoulders stretched the fabric of a white T-shirt, which hung loose around his waist. Cedric, the big dog he’d healed, ran along his side, tongue lolling. From this angle, Hugh almost looked like a normal guy out for a stroll with his adoring pooch.

It was so strange, Elara thought. By all rights, Hugh d’Ambray was a despicable human being, but for some reason dogs instantly liked him. Horses too. Bucky was practically overcome with joy every morning when Hugh came to brush him and pick his hooves.

She supposed some women liked him too.

Cedric looked at her over his shoulder. She hurried to catch up, making no effort to move quietly. Cedric trotted over to her. She petted him.

“You’re insane if you think he will make good war dogs. His puppies will be just like him, goofballs.”

Hugh ignored her.

Elara walked next to him. Tall trees spread their canopy above them, just far enough apart to let some isolated rays of sun through. The brush at their roots was gone. Instead carefully planted patches of herbs colored the ground on both sides of the path. The plants were both native and introduced: sage, mugwort, plantain, ginseng, goldenseal, black cohosh, and more. Being here soothed raw nerves, and she often walked this path. More often since Hugh arrived. She needed a lot of soothing these days.

“How can I get rid of you?” Hugh asked.

“Divorce me.”

“As soon as I can,” he swore.

Elara let him have a minute of silence. “Tell me.”

He gave her a brooding look.

“Tell me about Lennart and why you hate him.”

Exasperation stretched his face. He looked up, as if searching for the heavens.

“Our marriage is a sham. Our alliance isn’t,” she said. “We need each other. When people look at you, they see a murdering butcher who betrayed his allies. When they look at me, they see an abomination who leads a cult and feeds on human sacrifice. But now we’re married and suddenly they see us as newlyweds. They assume that there must be something I see in you, some redeeming quality that made me love you and marry you. When they look at me, they see a wife. Surely, I couldn’t be that abominable.”

“Or I wouldn’t have married you,” he finished.

“Yes. Doors that were previously closed are beginning to open. The Red Guard guy is coming after ignoring us for months. The county sheriffs think that we are a lovely couple. Explain the problem with the Pack, so I’ll understand.”

“No.”

“I’m not asking for your thoughts and secrets. Just for facts. I’ll learn them anyway. Normally I’d pounce on a chance to explore your weaknesses, but right now I just want the Pack thing to go smoothly. I worked too damn hard for it. A three month-long bidding war, four trips to the Pack to woo them, almost ten thousand in extra herbs planted.”

“Did you go yourself to woo the Pack?”

She laughed. “Because I am so sweet and charming?”

He gave her a dark look. “Your people are eating out of your hand.”

“They are my people and I love them. They’ve proved their loyalty beyond anything I had a right to ask. There is no limit to how low I will sink to keep them safe.”

“Interesting choice of words.”

She faced him. “Accurate. I will do anything for them.”

“Good.” His smile was like the flash of a knife. “I’ll use it against you later.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m so scared. I’ll have to go and find someone to sex me up right away just to keep my composure. Tell me, how did all this start?”

He didn’t answer. She strolled next to him.

“Roland found out he had a daughter,” Hugh said.

“I know the story,” she said. “The immortal wizard woke up after hibernating through the centuries of technology just before the Shift. He set about rebuilding his empire from the ruins of our modern world. He gathered necromancers and made them into the People. He hired an army and set a warlord to lead them. And he swore off having children, not sure why.”

“They always turn on him,” Hugh said.

Just like you? Maybe he had turned on Roland. Maybe not. There was something wistful in the way he said Roland’s name.

“He fell in love in spite of himself,” Elara continued. “And he had a daughter, but his wife ran away.”

“He tried to kill the child in the womb,” Hugh said.

She stopped and glanced at him. “What?”

“It didn’t work. Daniels is hard to kill.”

Elara recovered. “And then her mother took her and ran away with Roland’s Warlord.”

“He raised me,” Hugh said.

“The Warlord?”

“Yes. His name was Voron. He’d trained me since they found me in France. Then Kalina, Daniels’s mother, decided she needed his help, and it was all over. One day he was simply gone. That was her power. If she wanted to, she could make you love her.”