But not Victoire. The guilt resurfaced with a vengeance. I’d survived enough to know it always would. There’d been no sense in that little girl’s death. No explanation to make it right. There’d been none when we’d burned the witches’ children, either. Victoire had deserved better. They all had.

We did too.

Pushing to my feet, I craned my neck in search of Pan. He’d disappeared into a back room at my arrival, but he couldn’t hide from me forever. I strode to the counter and rang the bell. I rang it again. If a small voice in my head chastised me—if it called me rude for harassing a baker after he’d risked life and limb for mine—I ignored it. The witches hadn’t doused his hearth. I would bake the pastries myself if he couldn’t. Surely I could figure it out.

“What are you doing?” Lou eyed me suspiciously from the table. “You need to be nice to Pan.”

“I’m always nice to—”

“You’re ringing his bell.”

“Isn’t that why it’s here?”

“He isn’t a cat, Reid,” Beau said with a smirk.

“It’s rude to ring the bell,” Coco agreed.

Lou nodded. “Also annoying.”

“Very,” Beau said.

I grimaced at them all. “I am trying to purchase us sticky buns.” To Lou, I grumbled, “I think I owe you one, in particular.”

Her face cleared instantly, and she leaned forward with bright eyes, knitting her fingers together atop the table. “Have I told you today how absolutely and completely attractive I find your ass?”

I snorted just as Pan strode into view. Scowling, he snatched the bell from his counter. “What is it? What do you want? Can you not see I am closed for business?” He gestured a wild hand at the window. “There was a war, young man. Wake up!” When he snapped his fingers beneath my nose, I fought the urge to roll my eyes. “We cannot all cower and tremble, forsaking our loved ones. Oh no! Some of us must protect this great kingdom of ours. You treat our fair Lucida like a princess now, yes?”

I cast a scathing look over my shoulder. Both Beau’s and Coco’s shoulders shook with laughter. Lou gazed back at me with a perfectly placid expression. She batted her lashes. “Like a queen,” I said wryly.

Pan frowned at me as if considering. “Very well. I shall make you the sticky buns”—he snapped his fingers again—“but you shall pay full price.”

I flashed a hard smile. “Thanks.”

Back at the table, Lou pressed her foot over mine. “A truly spectacular ass.”