Things were different now. After the final battle, Puck had vanished, first to help Ash in his quest to earn a soul, then disappearing from the Nevernever completely. No one knew where he’d gone, but I suspected he’d wanted to put some distance between us, take some time to think. I’d desperately hoped to see him again soon, if only to let him know how grateful I was. Puck had loved me, but he’d gone with Ash to help him earn a soul so that his archrival could return to the Iron Realm to be with me. Robin Goodfellow, for all his pranks and mischief, was the sweetest, most noble person I’d ever known, and I’d missed him terribly.

“Well.” Puck finally broke the silence, scratching the back of his neck. “This is awkward. And here I thought I would have to rescue you and ice-boy from something again. That’s normally how these little reunions go.” He gave me a sheepish grin and stood uncomfortably next to the bridge, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Not sure what to do here, your highness. I’d give you a hug, but that might not be proper, and bowing just seems weird. Think I’ll just stand here and wave. Or, I could give you a salute—”

Shaking my head, I walked up to him, reached out and pulled him into a hug. He hesitated only a second, then returned it tightly.

“Hey, princess,” he murmured as we drew apart, and I smiled at his old, stupid nickname for me. It seemed everything was back to normal between us, or at least on its way. His gaze flickered to Ash, who stood by calmly, watching us both. I spared a glance at my knight, but there was nothing cold or hostile in his expression. He almost appeared happy to see Puck. Almost.

“We missed you at the wedding,” he said.

“Yeah.” Puck shrugged. “I was in Kyoto at the time, visiting some old kitsune friends. We were traveling up to Hokaido to check out this old temple that was supposedly haunted. Turns out, a yuki-onna had taken up residence there and had scared off most of the locals. She wasn’t terribly happy to see us. Can you believe it?” He grinned. “Course, we, uh, might’ve pissed her off when the temple caught fire—you know how kitsune are. She chased us all the way to the coast, throwing icicles, causing blizzards…the old hag even tried burying us under an avalanche. We almost died.” He sighed dreamily and looked at Ash. “You should’ve been there, ice-boy.”

“So, how did you end up here?” I asked, promising myself to get the rest of that story out of him later. Right now, I needed to focus on what we were doing.