Chapter Forty-Eight

Thank You

Vince

I was pretty sure Crossbody was still at least a little dazed from what had just happened, but he already seemed different as we left the Spring Palace behind.

He was smiling. That huge, beautiful smile I’d only seen outside of work, when we were alone together. His posture was loose and relaxed, all the tension gone from his shoulders. I didn’t know if it was a fae thing, but he even looked like he was fucking glowing . His skin was all… radiant and flushed with happiness. His eyes were sparkling in the bright spring sunshine.

The only other times I’d seen him this relaxed were in the immediate moments after I’d made him come stupidly hard from fucking him senseless. Before his brain had rebooted. Seeing it now was making the tight knot of worry that had formed in my chest a week ago begin to ease.

We’d actually done it.

Crossbody didn’t seem remotely concerned about any of his mother’s scary guards coming after us. To be fair, they were probably still pretty preoccupied by Ethel and Freddie and their gaggle of elderly lizard shifter ladies. The palace was unnervingly empty as we strolled out of its huge front doors at a leisurely place after collecting our suitcase and finding Ianthe to accompany her to the crossing.

The latter had been his idea. Not mine. She seemed… nice, I guessed. Fine. But a part of me still kind of wanted to hate her for almost—unwillingly, in her defence—stealing Crossbody from me.

I gripped his hand tight, keeping our fingers threaded together, wanting to glance over and make sure she’d noticed. Which, yeah, I knew was beyond childish, but… Well, I knew what a fucking catch he was. Sweet and generous and un-fucking-believably gorgeous. Eager and passionate in bed. Funny in his own understated way. Hard-working and determined and stubborn in a way I admired.

And mine. He was mine.

I was a little scared that she was going to suddenly realise she was desperately, madly in love with him after all, in the relatively short time it would take us to walk to the crossing and part ways.

And then what if he realised the same thing? What if he suddenly realised that he really did want to marry her and have lots of babies together and become Spring King? What if he didn’t want me anymore, because I’d been an asshole to him for years and all I’d really offered him was… sordid fuck sessions at a sleazy motel?

Shit. Fuck. I knew now that Crossbody wasn’t a snob—not too much of one, anyway—but surely he wanted better than that. He deserved better than that. And Ianthe was a goddamn princess. She could give him fancy clothes and nice jewellery and they could vacation together in the Summer Court. I mean, it was the Summer Court. Who wouldn’t want to vacation there? It was probably like a permanent beach resort or something.

That’s not going to happen, I reassured myself, exhaling a slow, silent breath as we walked through the town to stop my thoughts from spiralling any more out of control. There’s no way he’d want to stay in Otherworld. And she’s in love with someone else. She said so.

That daunting little word—the L one—made me clench up with a disconcerting blend of terror and unbridled joy. I automatically gripped Crossbody’s hand tighter, and he glanced over at me with a questioning smile to make sure I was alright.

I grinned back, stroking my thumb over the pulse point of his inner wrist. “You okay?”

“Yes.” His smile widened, and he leaned closer, his shoulder bumping mine as we walked, to kiss my cheek.

I could tell he meant it. It was weird how well I could read him now, considering how many years I’d spent unable to figure him out at all.

Clearing my throat, I forced myself to gruffly ask, “How ‘bout you, Ianthe?”

“Oh, I’m marvellous,” she replied cheerfully, strolling along the cobblestone path on the other side of Crossbody. “I can’t wait to get home and find Chrios.”

“What will you two do?” Crossbody asked her with a polite smile.

“Elope, I imagine.” She sighed dreamily. “Or perhaps I will do what you did, Elvis, and renounce my title. I don’t care about being a princess. Honestly, it becomes considerably harder to believe in the sanctity of our royal families and supposed gods-blessed right to rule once you start hearing about things like democracy in the human world.”

He chuckled. “Indeed.”

I nudged him gently with my elbow. “What if you’ve started a revolt among the young fae royals? Maybe you’ll be the catalyst for Otherworld’s entire monarchic system getting dismantled. That would be awesome.”

“Then the Winter King might send Carl’s brother after me,” he joked, but I tensed up, not finding it all that funny.

Maybe I’d try and subtly bring that up with Carl at work next week. Get him to keep an eye on his vampire assassin brother for me.

“Do you see the stone building over there with the greenery on its roof?” Crossbody squeezed my hand to get my attention, pointing with his other at a wide, ornate structure in the distance that looked massive from here. And on its roof was—

“Greenery?” I echoed in disbelief. “That’s a… Is that a fucking forest growing from the top of it?”

Crossbody laughed. “Just a very small one. I wouldn’t call it a forest. More like… a decent-sized copse.”

“Uh, sure.” A copse on a roof. Sure. All very fucking normal.

One of our neighbours at the trailer park had had a dead possum on their roof for so long it’d mummified. It had actually been a bit of landmark for the locals. When I’d once offered to get it off the roof and bury it or something, all of them—including my own uncle—had looked at me like I’d threatened to shit on everyone’s doorsteps.

“I used to love going for walks up there.” Crossbody sighed wistfully, but his expression wasn’t sad when I side-eyed him to make sure. He was smiling.

He was also walking much, much slower than I would’ve liked. I clutched his hand tighter and flicked a nervous glance over my shoulder at the palace, which was—in my opinion—still worryingly close. The queen’s guards—or god fucking forbid, the queen herself—could show up at any minute and do something to him.

“Looks pretty.” I tried to subtly increase our speed. “Hey, when we get back, why don’t we—”

“Does any wildlife live up there, Elvis?” Ianthe asked cheerfully, also taking her sweet fucking time, strolling along the path, pausing to look at flowers, even waving at some of the locals who stopped and watched.

I gritted my teeth. “I think we should maybe hurr—”

“Some, yes,” Crossbody replied, all relaxed and calm, his thumb stroking absently over mine. “Obviously everything that flies has no trouble reaching it. But there is also a small pond up there, and the frogs adored it. And the— Oh, look.”

Once again, he squeezed my hand and pointed—this time at a bunch of tall boulders jutting up on a hill in the distance. He actually came to a complete stop to show me, so I sighed and tried to calm myself down after glancing back at the palace again. We were a decent distance from it, at least, so we’d have plenty of warning if anyone did come after us. And I knew Crossbody was a good runner—he spent most of his time at work on the damn treadmill.

Letting a small smile tilt my mouth, I nodded dutifully. “I see them. What are they?”

“The tall stones. An old portal to the human world.”

My brows shot up. “You haven’t always used the crossings you have now?”

“No, but the stones are from long, long ago.” He waved a hand dismissively. “Thousands of years ago. When we dealt directly with humans and they left us offerings and things.”

“Damn.” I chuckled and turned to face them fully, trying to get a better look. “Don’t think humans have ever liked us ghouls. Definitely wouldn’t have ever left us offerings and shit like that. They all just assume we like eating dead bodies.”

“Oh.” Ianthe’s hesitant voice had me glancing over to see her giving me a sheepish smile. “So… you don’t do that, then? We just don’t get to meet many other types of beings here,” she added in a rush.

I managed to give her a somewhat polite smile back. “No, we don’t eat human corpses. We also aren’t dead,” I tacked on, remembering what all those snooty fae had said back at the palace. “I think ghouls—back in the old days or whatever—used to be like… scavengers, I guess. Plus we naturally tend to be nocturnal. You know, if our jobs and stuff allow it.”

“I read that ancient ghouls lived in underground cave networks,” Crossbody piped up. “And that yes, they were nocturnal scavengers, so they would emerge at night to find food. But…” He flushed, flicking me an apologetic smile. “The books I read did perpetuate the consumption of human flesh myth, I’m afraid.”

I shot him a quick grin with a brow raised. “Been reading about ghouls, have you?”

His flush deepened and he averted his gaze. “Just in passing.”

Trying not to smile, I leaned over to kiss his cheek. He was cute. And now that his guard was no longer up around me constantly, I could see right fucking through him.

“I won’t keep stopping us, but do you see that tiny structure on the top of the hill there?” Crossbody leaned in until his cheek was almost brushing mine and pointed.

I squinted and nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“That is a very old henge with an altar in the centre.” He leaned back and smiled at me. “Where my ancestors would go to make sacrifices to the gods in thanks for their power as the monarchy.”

My brow quirked at the mention of sacrifices, then quirked again. “Wait, so your ancestors specifically? The royal family?”

“Yes.”

“Did… you ever have to do that?” I asked with a touch of trepidation.

He laughed. “No. We stopped making sacrificial offerings centuries ago.”

“When it got too risky to keep bringing humans over,” Ianthe added. “Suddenly there were so many more humans, it was harder for the old fae to lure a single one away without any others spotting them.”

I eyed the pair of them in alarm. “Your ancestors used to lure humans into Otherworld to sacrifice them?”

“Yes.” Ianthe smiled at me. “Fascinating, isn’t it?”

“Uh, I just…” I scrubbed my jaw. “I kind of assumed all the old fairytales about, uh, the fae being vicious and bloodthirsty and stuff were just… stories.”

“Oh no.” Ianthe shook her head. “I would say as a people, we are fairly vicious.”

“Vindictive,” Crossbody added.

“Yes,” she agreed. “And cunning.”

“We can be quite cruel too,” Crossbody said.

“Oh yes,” Ianthe agreed yet again with a big smile. Alarmingly, neither of them sounded like they thought these characteristics were bad. “Capable of extreme cruelty, actually. Except to the ones we love.”

A beat of charged and slightly awkward silence followed as Crossbody’s fingers twitched against mine. He started walking again, quicker than before, pulling me with him.

“There’s actually somewhere else I want to show you,” he said hurriedly. “Well, something I want you to try. If that’s alright.”

“Um, sure.” My voice was a little hoarse, and I had to push down the tangle of nerves that had risen from Ianthe pulling out the L word. Glancing over at Crossbody as he led me down the quaint cobblestone path, I squeezed his hand. “You seem to like it here.”

The nerves threatened to bubble back up. I was surprised by how eager he was being to show me things in the queendom he’d fled from. How much he was lingering. I’d assumed he’d be desperate to get as far away from here as possible.

My gut clenched hard with foreboding. What if being back here for the first time in six years was making him realise how much he actually loved it? What if he changed his mind and wanted to stay?

Crossbody shrugged, his cheeks lightly flushed and a faint smile dancing at his lips again. “I am suddenly appreciating the beauty of it all, now that it’s no longer a millstone around my neck.”

I tensed but tried not to show it, dipping my chin in a jerky nod. My heart started beating faster, and I had to work hard not to yank my hand from his as the idea that he was going to leave me—just like my dad did, then my mom every fucking weekend for most of my childhood—suddenly felt like a sure thing, making me want to get defensive and snarly and angry and distance myself before he could do it first.

“I can’t wait to get home, though,” he then said, looking over at me, gripping my hand tighter as if he’d been able to sense the turmoil suddenly roiling in my gut. “Back to our lives.”

Slowly, uncertainly, all that ugly emotion began to sink back down, settling beneath the surface where it always lingered, waiting to bubble back up. I exhaled slowly, watching our feet as we walked. Somehow, with just a few plain words, Crossbody had managed to soothe the frightened and insecure part of me. The part that made me lash out. The scared little kid with no stability who’d only learned to trust a very, very select few when Uncle Robbie started looking after me.

I trusted Crossbody, though. The realisation hit me like a slap to the face.

I believed him. I trusted him.

Who would you take with you if you had to go back into Frank and Beans’ home?

The question popped into my head, and I thought it was a pretty good indicator of trust levels, to be honest. Who would I trust to have by my side if I had to go back into that hellhole for whatever horrifying, fucked up reason?

Before, it would’ve been Dan. My best buddy. The guy who’d already gone through that nightmare with me once.

But now, I realised… it would absolutely be Crossbody. It was Crossbody who I’d want covering my back, protecting me, facing down those two fucking monsters with me.

Crossbody would never ask me to give up my favourite pair of pants as a sacrificial lamb. Okay, in Dan’s defence, he’d been wearing sweatpants, so it wasn’t like he’d even had a zipper to offer them himself. And yeah, alright, I hadn’t argued all that hard at the time, because I’d just been desperate to get out of there.

But still. Crossbody would’ve found a way for me to leave The House That Pure Horror Built with my pants and my dignity intact. He would’ve used his cruel, vindictive fae cunning to beat them.

Okay, I got it now. That was pretty hot.

“You’re the one I’d want with me if I ever came face to face with Frank and Beans again,” I heard myself say, my voice hoarse and faintly vacant as I relived some of the horrors.

“What is a Frankenbeans?” Ianthe asked curiously.

Crossbody, who was probably very confused by that arbitrary statement, chuckled warily. “I… Well, what an honour. Thank you.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ianthe’s brows shoot up as she stopped dead and stared at us. Crossbody didn’t seem to notice, but he was coming to a stop too as he pointed at a small stone building up ahead.

“I want you to try one of our traditional galettes.” He grinned and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “This bakery makes the best ones. I didn’t want to leave without having it one last time.”

“Okay, sure.” My gaze kept darting over to Ianthe, brow furrowing a little with confusion, because she still looked somewhat stunned. “Uh, what’s a galette?”

Crossbody chuckled. “I’ll go and buy us some. Just let me—oh. Damn.”

“What?” My eyes jumped back to him, before I spun to stare at the path we’d just walked down, in case his mother or her creepy guards were barrelling toward us. There was nothing.

“I forgot I have no money.” Crossbody sounded sheepish, and I turned back to see him rubbing his flushed face. “Sorry.”

“Elvis, take some of mine.” Ianthe was already reaching into her pants pocket. “I insist.”

He stiffened. “I appreciate the offer, but I will decline, Ianthe.”

She rolled her eyes. “It comes with no catch. No binding promise. I expect nothing in return.”

“No.” He gave her a tight smile. “I appreciate it.”

“Oh shit, wait.” Ducking down, I unzipped our suitcase and shoved my hand in, feeling around for the sock I’d stuffed right at the bottom. Just in case any sneaky palace staff had decided to go through our suitcase while we’d been preoccupied.

When I found it, I straightened and showed the coin-laden sock to Crossbody and Ianthe, who both stared at it in mild alarm.

“It looks like a weapon,” Crossbody said, cocking his head.

Ianthe nodded. “That would hurt if you hit someone around the head with it.”

“That is actually a thing,” I told them both, “in the human world. Pretty sure I once saw Freddie using one to—Anyway, that doesn’t matter. I don’t have this as a weapon. I, uh… I actually… took some coins from your room.” I gave Crossbody a wincing look. “I saw them in this big gold pot and grabbed a handful just in case we needed to bribe any guards or whatever to get out. I’m not a thief,” I added vehemently, squaring my shoulders. “Never stolen a fucking thing in my life. Uh, before this, I mean. Well, except that time my laces broke right before a bout and that goblin fuckhead prick Sal from the Redcap Rollers left his skates unattended while he went to the bathroom, and he’s such a smug asshole anyway so I—”

“Vince.” Crossbody gave me a hesitant smile. “It’s fine. If they were in my room, they were technically mine anyway, so…”

“Yeah, of course.” I immediately held the sock out. “I just didn’t want you to think I was—”

“I don’t.” He ducked his head to kiss my cheek, his mouth lingering there for a second before he stepped back and reached into my greying sweat sock to pull out some coins. “Thank you. I’ll go get us the galettes.”

I could sense Ianthe watching me as he swept his hand down my arm, briefly squeezed my fingers, then walked off toward the little bakery. When I glanced over and caught her gaze, her mouth quirked into a smile.

“Well.” She chuckled, her dark brows lifting. “He really meant it then.”

“Meant what?”

She hesitated, watching me carefully and pursing her lips, before gesturing at a low stone wall at the edge of the path. “Just something he said to me. Let’s sit.”

I watched her make her way over, then reluctantly followed and perched on the bumpy wall beside her. Behind it was a meadow with tall grass and long stems of softly coloured flowers swaying in the gentle breeze. The smell of fresh bread and something herbal and savoury, almost like rosemary and garlic, was wafting through the air from the bakery Crossbody had gone into.

But I was suddenly too jittery to enjoy any of it.

“What did he say to you?” My voice was rough with nerves, and I blushed when Ianthe glanced over with a sternly raised brow.

“Trying to pry secrets from me, Vince the ghoul?” She nudged my arm with her elbow jovially. “You know, it’s foolish to make deals with the fae.”

I rolled my eyes. “Maybe back in the old days. But the ones who live in the human world just go into finance, mostly.”

“I’m not a fae from the human world.” She grinned at me. “And neither is Elvis.”

I chuckled, suddenly a little wary. “Uh, yeah. That’s true.”

“You are sweet together.”

I couldn’t contain my snort of amusement. All of our co-workers would have keeled over from laughing so fucking hard if they’d heard anyone refer to Crossbody and me as “sweet together.”

“Why is that funny?” Ianthe’s brow creased with confusion as she watched me.

I shook my head, sobering up. “No, it’s just that—Sorry. It’s just… We kind of hated each other before, uh, this. I mean…” I shifted uncomfortably, scraping my calloused palms over the rough surface of the stone wall. “I was an asshole to him for years.”

“Ah.” To my surprise, she chuckled. “Yes. That tried and true method.”

I glanced over warily. “What do you mean?”

She nudged me again. “Boys have been acting that way to the ones they are sweet on for centuries, Vince.”

This time, my snort of amusement was full of derision. “Well, I’m not a little boy. And no, I didn’t act that way toward Cro—Elvis just because I actually secretly…”

I trailed off, heat creeping into my cheeks as I thought about it. Really thought about it.

I mean, I’d always found him… objectively attractive. But of course I had—he was objectively attractive. He was objectively hot as absolute fuck. He was objectively gorgeous, with an objectively perfect ass and beautiful face and long, objectively sexy legs—

“Thought so.” Ianthe cackled and nudged my knee with hers. “And now you are in love.”

I hunched over a little, rubbing my face. “I mean, we’re… uh…”

“Oh, you can’t try and downplay it.” She nudged me again, this time knocking her shoulder into mine. “I just heard him thank you. Twice.”

My brow creased. “Yeah, so?”

She sobered and stared at me. “He is fae, Vince.”

“I know.” As I stared back at her in confusion, realisation slowly dawned. With a snort of incredulous laughter, I gestured at the bakery Crossbody had vanished into. “He was just thanking me for his own money. It didn’t actually mean… Besides, that’s not true, is it? The thing about the fae never thanking anyone because it means they’re, like, indebted to them or whatever?”

“Why would it not be true?”

“Because it’s just…” I waved my hands, gesturing at nothing. “A folktale. Right?”

“No, it’s not. It is true.”

“I’ve been around fae my whole life. I have definitely heard them thank people.”

“Fae who live in the human world, yes? Fae whose ancestors lived in the human world. Not Otherworld fae.”

“What difference does that make?”

“Because belief in its power plays an important role in our magic, Vince. The fae who settled in the human world probably still adhered to the rule of never thanking anyone at first, otherwise you’d be acknowledging that you owed them a favour. Although I’m sure the odd ‘thank you’ did happen as they integrated themselves into human ways of living. But humans now…” She spread her hands and shrugged. “They don’t believe in us. So they would never know that there was now a fae indebted to them, so they would never ask for their favour, and the debt would never have to be repaid. Eventually, the fae settlers would have realised they didn’t have to worry about being so careful with their words. And once they stopped believing in the power those words held, the words stopped holding the power.”

“But… Otherworld fae still believe in it?” I asked cautiously. “So it still works?”

She gazed at me solemnly, dark eyes flitting briefly to the bakery, as if she was considering her words. Eventually, she nodded. “Yes. For us Otherworld fae, it still works. So we don’t thank anyone.”

“But he—”

“Anyone at all, Vince, but those we trust completely. Because it indebts us to that person.”

I flushed, not sure whether she was just teasing me in a weird, fucked up fae way. A squawk of anxious laughter burst from me as I rubbed the back of my neck.

“I—No.” I shook my head vehemently. “Nah. I’ve heard Crossbody thank other people. I know I have. I’m… I’m sure I have.”

Her brow lifted. “Have you?”

“I…” Staring at the cobblestone path, I tried to think. Tried to remember a single instance of Crossbody thanking Holt, or Corey, or Hogbody… Hell, even the waitress at the diner near the motel.

I couldn’t. But that wasn’t unusual, right? It wasn’t like I’d been tracking every time he thanked someone. I wouldn’t have had any reason to store that information away.

But surely I could remember one instance of hearing him thank someone other than me. I mean, just last week, Holt had congratulated and praised him for his match against the Ghastly Boys. I remembered Crossbody’s pleased flush. He’d thanked him then, right? Surely he had.

And just now, Ianthe had offered him money and he’d politely refused. He’d thanked her , hadn’t he? He’d literally said, ‘No, thank you,’ right?

“He didn’t thank me,” she said when I parted my lips, as if she knew exactly what I’d been about to say. “Only you. He won’t go around thanking people, Vince, I assure you. In fact, I am so certain of this, I would even promise you. Which is just as powerful a debt.”

“But…” My voice was a weak croak. “He’s… He’s always said it to me. Even before we… I remember this big argument we had, and I know he was being all sarcastic and everything but he literally said ‘thank you’ to me…”

And he’d definitely said it again, when I’d had him restrained and begging that night in the arena, his hard cock in my hand. He’d thanked me then multiple times.

And the morning after our first night at the motel. I had paid attention to them then, because he’d been acting so differently from how I’d ever seen him before. Soft and gentle and calm and non-combative. I specifically remembered being surprised by him—the snooty royal fae at work who’d hated me—thanking me for anything, let alone for spending an entire night fucking him like an animal.

He’d always thanked me. Even when we hadn’t been…

“What the fuck does that mean?” I croaked, scrubbing anxiously at my face.

“It means he trusts you.” Ianthe rested a hand on my shoulder. “Above all others. And technically, it means a fae prince—well, former prince—owes you many debts.”

I shook my head quickly. “But we definitely didn’t trust each other before, and he said it to me then.”

She was quiet for a moment as she removed her hand. “He must have felt very strongly about you, even if he didn’t let himself acknowledge it.”

“We… we hated each other then,” I said hoarsely, despising hearing myself say those words now. They felt wrong.

“I don’t think you did.”

My throat convulsed as I lifted my head and stared at the bakery. My pulse leaped when Crossbody suddenly appeared through the doorway, holding a stack of large leaves wrapped around several steaming objects.

He grinned at me—that big, beautiful beaming smile—and my throat closed up again. I managed to paste a wobbly smile onto my face as he approached, because I didn’t want him to see how rattled I was.

If Ianthe was telling the truth about what thanking people meant for Otherworld fae, then she was right—technically, Crossbody owed me a fuckload of debts. Not that I would ever cash in on them, but still… He thanked me all the time. For meaningless shit as well as the important stuff.

The implication of that was… kind of shattering. I stared at him as he got closer, and the moment he was in reach, I found myself jumping up from the wall, grabbing his face and crushing my mouth to his.

I knew how favours from the fae worked. I’d just never thought they were real. If a fae was indebted to someone, it meant that person could get them to do anything to repay it. I could ask anything of Crossbody.

He’d thanked me back when we thought we’d hated each other. If I’d known at the time, I could’ve made him quit his job and leave Goliaths. Go back to Otherworld. I could have ordered him to do anything, and he would’ve had to do it. And he’d still made himself that vulnerable to me.

Did he even realise? I broke the kiss and pulled back to stare at him, mapping out his face. Was he even aware of all the times he’d thanked me? Or had they just… slipped out?

I parted my lips, not entirely sure what I wanted to say to him yet, but knowing I needed to say something… big. Important.

As big as what he’d said back at the palace.

“You must be very hungry.” He chuckled, pressing another brief kiss to my lips before lifting the steaming leaf parcels between us. “I got one for each of us.”

In a rush, I remembered Ianthe.

Forcing myself to drop my hands, I took a step back and nodded. “Uh-huh. Yeah.”

“I thought you’d like the mushroom and leek one.” He carefully slid one of the leaf parcels free and handed it to me. “You always have the mushroom rice thing Holt buys in bulk for lunch.”

He’d noticed that?

“Uh, I… Yeah,” I croaked, staring down at the wrapped galette. I still didn’t even fucking know what a galette was, but my eyes were burning a little. “Um, th-thank you. Thanks.”

Those words felt so weirdly loaded now.

“I appreciate it, Elvis,” Ianthe said in a pointed tone as Crossbody handed her a leaf parcel, flicking me a meaningful look. “This smells delicious.”

“They’re very good. I just wanted it one more time before we head back.” He perched on the wall on the other side of me, so I slowly sat back down and unwrapped my leaf, revealing the rough disc of brown, crispy pastry with roasted vegetables piled high in the middle.

We ate in silence for a minute or two. The galettes were actually really fucking good—I reminded myself to tell Robbie to look up the recipe—and Crossbody seemed calm and relaxed as he ate beside me, his shoulder brushing mine and the scent of his hair reaching me every time he moved his head.

When my galette was small enough to eat with one hand, I reached down and threaded my fingers through his on his thigh, needing to be anchored to him in some way. He squeezed my hand and glanced over with a tiny smile, his mauve gaze flicking down to my mouth.

Ianthe cleared her throat, making him look her way.

“I would just like to express my gratitude over what you did today. And for informing me beforehand,” she added with a chuckle.

My brow quirked as I looked at her. So she could ‘express her gratitude,’ huh? That was okay? That was within the weird Otherworld fae rules?

“Of course,” Crossbody said politely. “I’m very pleased that it was also a happy outcome for you.”

“Yes.” She paused, gave me another meaningful glance, then carefully said, “It feels like something that requires more than just an acknowledgement of my gratitude. I think I may owe you a debt now, Elvis.”

He immediately stiffened against my other side. “No. That’s not necessary.”

“Because of you, Chrios and I will get to—”

“Do not indebt yourself to me, Ianthe,” he said sharply. “I expect nothing in return. This was what I wanted.”

I cleared my throat, feeling guilty as I acted ignorant and asked, “What, uh, what’s…”

He exhaled a terse breath and scrunched up his empty leaf. “Otherworld fae don’t thank others. To do so is to give someone a huge amount of power over you. Ianthe thinks she owes us a great debt now. You don’t,” he said to her, his tone stubborn in a familiar way that made my belly squeeze tight with affection.

Ianthe was too busy giving me another meaningful look as she took a bite of her galette.

“Oh,” I managed to croak, then took a breath and carefully said, “But you thank me all the time.”

Crossbody went stiff. After a few loaded seconds, he stood from the wall and took my empty leaf from me.

“It… That’s different,” he mumbled, keeping his head lowered so a sweep of shimmering golden hair hid the blush in his cheeks. “We should keep walking.”

“Okay. Sure.” I quickly stood. Ianthe and I shared a brief look as she brushed the crumbs off her shirt.

I hurried to catch up with Crossbody, automatically threading my fingers through his when I reached his side.

Gazing out at the meadows and farm fields and little stone houses as we walked, I cleared my throat. “Thank you for the thing. The galette.”

Then I gave his hand a firm, meaningful squeeze, side-eyeing him as he glanced over. When I grinned at him, his lips slowly tilted up into a smile of his own.

“You’re welcome.” After a long pause, he added in a softer voice, “Thank you for coming with me.”

I shook my head, lifting our linked hands to kiss his knuckles. “You don’t need to thank me for that, Crossbody.”