Berk jabbed his glass of whiskey toward his son. “A decade of which they’ve probably spent plotting our demise.”

“Nothing new to report,” I said, and I’d said as much too often, for Berk scowled. “Dade has even finally agreed to form a new treaty with Errin.” The kingdom that once mostly contained only humans had opened its borders mere months after the war in an effort to welcome fae of all ilk.

We weren’t fools. It escaped no one’s notice that the human royals were number one on Dade’s shit list. Still, at Opal’s urging, he’d decided to leave them be and to hear their excuses for their actions.

But not without careful use of their fear.

We now had a permanent fixture of warriors within Errin, as well as along every coastline. Should Marvis, the human king who’d seized control of Wistensia, decide to try his hand with us again, he would not succeed.

It would seem he was well aware of that, as there had been no sign that he’d set his sights on us.

As far as he knew, I was dead. And if he didn’t believe it, then perhaps he was satisfied by my willingness to play dead. That, or he knew he didn’t stand any chance of ridding me from existence. Not without consequences.

And now that Sinshell and Vordane were once again united as we had been in the past, the consequences would be more than he could afford.

Regardless, I could understand Berk’s worry. I still harbored a healthy amount of it myself now that I had a family—a life I never would have imagined would be gifted to me.

But should trouble come our way again, we would be ready. We had too much to fight for. Too much to lose. So we were always prepared.

Berk stewed on what I’d said for another minute while Mariana placed the herb-flavored mountain of chicken upon the table, his eyes on me and his jaw tight.

Mariana clasped my cheek. “Where’s my pup?”

I kissed hers when she leaned down to do the same to mine. “I warned him.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Not well enough, and your hair needs brushing.”

Indeed, I’d taken to wearing it long again.

Fang hadn’t left me alone about it for the months it had taken to grow it back because he knew why I’d done it. This time, I didn’t keep it trimmed to my shoulders. I’d somehow ended up in a competition with Hel to see whose hair could reach their ass first.

Unfair if you asked me, being that the cub was still growing his brawn and I had too much of it, which put me at a slight disadvantage.