I laughed softly. Bone craft could crack spines if manipulated well enough, but Kael was too good in the heart. “Let’s just get this damn creature back before Selena truly believes we’ve been kidnapped by trolls. I thought when you returned, you’d draw some of her attention away from me. But you, Kael Darkwin, have been intentionally taking tasks that keep you away from the cooking rooms.”

“I can’t help it if I’m so revered that folk are always asking to see me.”

I shoved his shoulder. “You think too much of yourself.”

“That’s not what Märta said through her gasps earlier.”

“Ah, still bedding a woman who has painted your name across her bedpost like a shrine?”

Kael winked and strode to the cart, propping one elbow on the edge. “She might have a slight obsession, but she is a delight in my bed.”

“Bed.” I blew out my lips. “You’ve never taken her anywhere other than the Fernwood.”

“I resent that. I’ll have it be known, I was between her thighs in the stables.”

“Ass.”

Kael was added to the servants of the jarl’s household the winter after the youth house sent me. For a lonely boy and a lonely girl, we grew close, we shared our secrets, we protected each other.

If others held my stare too long, Kael would distract them. When anyone tried to learn of a past I hardly knew, Kael would bark at them to mind their own lives.

He was my only family.

“What do you need help with to get us back before the village is overturned?”

I jabbed a finger toward Pukki. “That foul beast needs to return to his duty and pull the damn cart.”

Kael stroked Pukki’s crooked horns, clicking his tongue, and the traitorous goat followed him without pause.

“I hate you.” My smile faded and I spoke in a voice softer than before. “If you are taken into the guard today, I hope you know I am proud of you, but I cannot help feeling like it will change us. I will be a risk to you.”

“Ly, I swore an oath. Those scars in your eyes are safe with me. My loyalty is not divided between you and the kingdom. All I hope is to use my craft and sword to keep you safe.”

Kael bore his craft with pride while helping me conceal mine. I offered a weary smile. “You’re much better than me, you pest.”

“I know, you fool.”

With Kael’s help, I managed to tie Pukki to the cart.

“Have you heard anything about the murder of Melder Fadey?” I asked.

Despite the coldness I saw every time King Damir’s melder stepped into a village, his sudden death lifted the hair on my neck.

“The killer has yet to be found,” Kael said.

“You were in Stonegate, how did King Damir respond to losing his prized consort?”