They typically dwelled within tree trunks and giant toadstools. Fiercely protective of their domains, most knew to take extreme caution when encountering them, lest they wished to lose some hair, clothing, and even footwear.

“Do you know where he might be?”

Jats scratched at his brown beard. “The wolf?” I nodded, and he laughed—a rough chime that ended when he stated, “Stars, no.”

“Probably growling at some unfortunate soul,” Kloon muttered low, as if fearing Scythe would hear.

“Or maiming them,” Jats said. “Rumor has it his torturing tactics are positively grotesque, and that he’s spent a lot of time in that nightmare of a keep’s dungeon with the daring humans captured from the war.”

My hopes drooped. That Keep was the one place I could not go.

Kloon shivered. “Beast indeed.” Setting the rod over his lap, he mumbled, “Nothing but a grizzly, grumbling monster.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Why are you so afraid of Scythe?”

Kloon looked at me as though I’d asked something ludicrous.

Jats pursed his lips, then said, “I think the better question is, why in the bloody stars aren’t you?”

“Don’t pry,” Kloon mocked. “Sensitive.”

Jats smacked his chest. Kloon released a miniature growl and threw himself at Jats. The two tumbled into the water, making a raucous and cursing.

I waited until they’d both reached their overturned boat, and then I smiled and left.

Daylight bled into evening, and though I longed to stay in the cottage to wait for this beast of mine, he might have thought I’d left if he returned to the apartment and I wasn’t there.

So I went back. I ate some pie, and I tried to read some of his many books.

Then I took to the streets. There was one other creature who might know where I could find him or at least have a way of reaching him for me.

The downhill trek to Olivianna’s was quiet and crisp, winter pressing its warning upon the air.

City dwellers were tucked inside their apartments and townhouses and businesses. Some roamed the streets in small groups, but there was a somberness to them, to the entire city, that hadn’t been here when I last was.

War had touched them and, perhaps for many, for the first time.

Guilt needled, and again I reminded myself that I hadn’t known what Marvis had been planning. That even if I had known ahead of time, I wouldn’t have been able to stop it. Which, in turn, angered me. For if I’d discovered anything sooner, perhaps some lives could have been spared.

I kept my head down when a passing carriage ambled uphill, golden eyes searching the street from behind a velvet curtain. No matter how often I told myself that I was safe, and that Rorn wouldn’t know where to find me, it didn’t help.