Page 23 of Beyond the Faerie Gate

I’m going to take that as a compliment.

Wait… eldest? As in more than one?

“Florian is the knight commander of the palace guard in Elfhame,” Jaro continues, disrupting my train of thought. “He and I were good friends before I left to keep watch over you.”

He shoulders open the door, walking into a cosy space that isn’t so different from the tavern back in Nopchurch. There’s a bar across the far wall and tables scattered here and there.

Just like the marketplace, it’s deserted.

Well, until Jaro bangs on the front desk loud enough to wake the dead.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” a feminine voice calls out.

Still not speaking English.

I give up hope in that moment. Why I even thought anyone would speak a human language in a different realm is beyond me. My male companions are clearly just using it to keep me comfortable, but I doubt anyone else will do the same.

A clopping sound rouses my curiosity and I glance up, catching a glimpse of what looks suspiciously like a pair of goat’s legs, before Jaro tugs gently on my hood in reprimand.

“Good evening,” he says. “Have you got any high fae rooms available?”

“I’ve got a nice goblin size room on the top floor, or an ogre one just through there.” Whoever Jaro is talking to is brisk and businesslike, without a hint of apology in her tone. “I can have either made up in ten minutes.”

Jaro hums under his breath. “Goblin. And a bath would be good too.”

“Will you be paying currency or gems?”

The door swings open just as she finishes speaking and Drystan’s voice replies. “Currency.”

The chink of metal falling across wood punctuates his sentence. “Throw in a bag of extra feed for my horse.”

“Aye, sire.” There’s a scratching sound—probably a quill on parchment—before she clears her throat. “Just for the record, this isn’t a whoring establishment—”

“You don’t want to finish that sentence,” Jaro growls.

The goat-legged female huffs out an exasperated breath. “Look, my pa makes the rules. You don’t like it, take it up with him when he returns from the temple. You want to fuck a whore, do it at the brothel where they are prepared to clean up the mess and damages.”

Damages? Just what do fae do with their bed partners?

“None of us are whores,” Jaro retorts. “But we’ll take any insult to our lady seriously. Make sure your pa is aware of that when he returns from the temple.”

He’s defending my honour, I realise, with another blush.

Pity I can’t even thank him without letting him know that I can understand their language and losing my one advantage.

I’m no fool. I know it will happen eventually. But I’m going to wait until I trust them to reveal my hand.

Maeve would be so proud of me.

Speaking of Maeve… I need to find a moment alone to call on my friends, if they can even find me in this realm. A stone settles in my gut as I consider the very real possibility that they were sealed on the other side when the portal was destroyed.

Either that, or they were iron-induced hallucinations, and without the metal keeping me weak, I’ll no longer be able to see them.

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