He wasn’t sure why Fiona so thoroughly undid him. He couldn’t stop thinking about her: the little quirk of her mouth when she said something clever, the delicate curve of her waist, the way she stared at the ceiling when she was lost in thought, how she blushed whenever he caught her eyes lingering on him too long.
But apparently, he horrified her.
For one so scared of monsters, she seemed to have a lot of them in her life. Jack, her father, and now him. She’d never accept him the way he was.
He couldn’t see how he could have handled anything differently. After all, he’d been trapped in Rawhed’s bathroom by Harvesters hellbent on killing him. Was he supposed to just let himself die?
He snapped the book shut, a little too loudly. Estelle’s eyes darted to his, irritated at the disturbance.
“Sorry.”
“Brooding about something?”
He took in a breath, steeling his nerves. “What will happen with Fiona?”
Estelle crossed her arms. “She shouldn’t be here. She doesn’t belong. Even you must be able to see that.”
“She’s not responsible for what her father did.”
“She’s his daughter. I could sense the evil in her as soon as I met her. I know you’re fooled by her pretty eyes. I know she seems sweet and innocent. But she’s capable of horrific violence. It’s quite obvious.”
“What exactly did Danny Shea do?”
Estelle wiped her hands on a blue cloth and glanced out the window. “Some of our young men want out of here. They go off looking for adventure in your realm. It’s always been that way. Nine times out of ten they end up in jail. This was a little worse than that. One of our men fell in with the Connolly gang. He tried to impress them, bragging about pirate gold in Dogtown. It was all lies. But the lies got away from him, and he led them right here.”
“He brought them through the veil?” A shudder crawled over his skin.
She nodded. “The gang set bear traps in the woods. Three men were caught.” Her eyes were on Tobias, flashing gray. “And my mother. She used to be the Queen. Fiona’s dear dad did the torturing, carving them up for information. He didn’t get any gold out of it, since we had none. He went off looking for the Picaroons himself. And he left four corpses behind.”
Tobias’s heart ached. Fiona’s father was practically as bad as Rawhed himself. It wasn’t the kind of tragedy people got over. It would be a miracle if they let Fiona stay.
Before he could ask another question, someone knocked on Estelle’s door. Tobias rose, crossing the warped floorboards.
As he pulled open the door, sunlight streamed in. He stared at Thomas, Alan, and Oswald. Celia stood behind them, chewing her lip.
Oswald sniffed the air. “Is someone making venison stew?”
The whole crew was here—or nearly the whole crew. “What’s going on? Where’s Fiona?”
Celia’s cheeks were pale. “She’s fine. Catching up on sleep. But we have some serious work to do.”
Tobias shook his head. “What do you mean?”
“It’s not just the witch hunters who are after us,” said Thomas. “Some of the werewolves went to town to sell medicines. As soon as they left the veil, they saw men hunting around the woods. The men wore the Throcknell lions.”
“Spies from the King,” said Oswald, as if Tobias were too stupid to work it out for himself.
Tobias cursed.
Clutching a small leather bag, Celia’s knuckles had gone white. “If they know we’re here, they might be coming back with reinforcements.”
“I told you they were coming,” Estelle called out from her medical table. “Before long, the whole Maremount army will surround us. Giving sanctuary to the King’s daughter was either the best idea I ever had, or the worst. I haven’t decided yet.”
Celia’s eyes widened. “Oh. You know who I am. Then you know my father wants to kill us. And he’s not going to stop until we’re dead in the town square.”
A spark of fear lit the back of Tobias’s mind. “Isn’t Dogtown protected?”
“Not from the Picaroons,” said Oswald. “They can lower the veil.”
Alan’s wolverine sat by his feet, dark eyes glistening, as Alan squinted in the sunlight. “Shocking as it may be, I don’t think we can count on magical fog to protect us.”
With a growing sense of dread, Tobias shot a glance to Estelle. “How safe is this place?”
She crossed to the door. “The Picaroons have Dagon’s power. They can lower the veil. When they do, others can get in. Our magic is powerful, but imperfect. It’s a scary world out there: Purgators, Throcknells, a forest full of ogres and a woodwose or two. We’ll protect you as best we can, but can guarantee nothing.” Her eyes roamed over his chest. “And if you want to stay here, you’d best keep me happy.”
Oswald’s eyes bored into Tobias. “Don’t fret, Queen. Tobias is always there when a lady needs a hand stirring her stew.”