She took it gratefully. If she was drinking, she wouldn’t have to talk. He clearly knew her other self. Perhaps she could get him to help without giving away her secret.
“You left your purse again,” he said with a warm smile, holding up a strange leather satchel died the same blue as the birds of the Summer Court.
“That’s kind of you” she said politely, taking it.
The leather was soft to the touch and shiny in places, as if her other self had carried this same bag for years. It was also mysteriously heavy.
It took everything Ashe had not to open it and search the contents for coin and keys, and anything else that might unlock the changeling’s existence.
“Willow,” the young man said again, placing a hand on her knee. “Do you want to talk about what happened? Was there actually a bear out there?”
She shook her head, trying not to show her horror. Commoners did not touch royalty. But she reminded herself that she was not royalty. And traditions would be different here.
“I’m fine,” she said quietly.
He observed her with concern in his dark eyes. “Would you like a ride home?”
“Yes,” she said, relieved and hopeful that the bag she held might contain keys to the gates of her changeling’s home.
He nodded to her and headed back toward the glass doors she’d entered from.
She followed in his wake, clutching the enormous purse.
He held the door open for her, impressing her with his chivalry. She had heard that mortals were wildly rude, but this one seemed civil enough.
Once outside, he glanced around the lot.
People were already wandering back into the diner or heading to their mechanical coaches.
The bounty hunter following her must have snatched her double instead, leaving Ashe to enjoy her newfound freedom.
She tried not to celebrate openly, but she felt light on her feet with joy.
Ramón walked up to a decidedly humble looking coach.
“Your chariot awaits, my lady,” he said with a strange smile.
She blinked at him. This was not a chariot. It was a battered looking hunk of metal standing on four round rubber feet.
“Kidding,” he said, arching one eyebrow. “You really are shaken, aren’t you.”
“I’m fine,” she said for the second time.
He shrugged, and she watched as he opened the door to the coach.
She pulled up on her door handle and felt the click as it unfastened.
She was a natural. This mortal thing was going to be a breeze.
The man did something to the wheel of the vehicle and it coughed to life.
She clung to the seat.
“Don’t forget your seatbelt,” he said, pulling something out of the wall near his head.
She followed suit and found a bit of waxed canvas with a metal piece on the end. She watched him pull his out and click it in and she managed to do the same after only two tries.
Nailed it.
However, she was unprepared for the sudden velocity of their departure.
She gasped and grabbed her seat with both hands.
“You, okay?” the man asked.
She nodded, unwilling to say I’m fine for the third time in a row.
They drove on in silence and she tried to focus on the horizon, like her parents had taught her to do when she was seasick on a boat in the choppy half-frozen lake.
The people I thought were my parents…
She tried to remind herself to be grateful for the information she had literally bumped into tonight.
Knowing she was a changeling made her lack of magic understandable, natural… not my fault.
“Here you go,” the man said politely, pulling the coach up in front of a small building.
“Have a pleasant evening,” Ashe said.
“Uh, thanks,” he replied, looking a little bewildered.
She got out and heard him chuckling. “What?”
“Oh, I’m just glad that you remembered your purse this time,” he said with a twinkly smile.
She smiled back, though she had no idea how her counterpoint could regularly forget such a commodious rucksack.
The coach pulled away in another foggy explosion and she faced the building head-on.
The first floor appeared to be a grocery shop. A hand painted sign in the window read CLOSED.
She walked around to the side where a rickety outdoor staircase led up to a door with the number 2 emblazoned on it.
She looked around, but there was no one to witness her, so she crept up the staircase, which was made of painted metal, not wood - so less rickety than she had originally thought.
When she reached the top she shook the purse.
Something inside it jingled.
She stuck her hand inside gamely, feeling things that were soft, pointy, smooth, and at last the chattering metal teeth of a ring of keys.
It took a moment to locate the proper one, but it slid into the modern looking knob with a satisfying click and opened the door smoothly.
Ashe stepped into her new life.
2
Varik
Varik hid in the shadows at the edge of the woods, catching his breath and cursing himself silently for letting the girl slip into the crowd inside the diner.
Varik was a professional. He crossed the veil regularly, and was prepared for such distractions.
But the last thing he expected was to be shoved aside by a giant bear as soon as he set foot on the parking lot. And not just any bear - it had clearly been a fae creature.
He had no idea where it had come from, but he’d been ready for a serious fight over their shared quarry. He assumed it was there for the same prize he was seeking. And there was no way he would let his competitor win the bounty of Princess Ashe.
Varik was the most dangerous bounty hunter in the Seasonal Courts. The idea that some bear-fae had seen him in his natural form and kept coming was almost unthinkable.
Varik had readied a spell and weapon, and prepared himself to take out the burly bear by any means necessary.
But then it had disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.
And Varik was left with nothing but confusion, and the sinking feeling that there was more going on here than he understood.
But none of that mattered. He might have missed one shot at her, but the competition was gone, and his quarry was still in sight. The job was still on.
Ashe was well-ensconced in the diner now, a man knelt to touch her knee.
Varik was impressed when she didn’t flinch.
Ashe of the Winter Court had not been raised to be touched by commoners.
But she held herself in perfect control, the ugly fluorescent lights gleaming fetchingly in her dark hair, despite the few stray leaves collected there.
He felt an odd pang of something akin to jealousy, though he had no idea why he wouldn’t want anyone to touch his quarry. He had never even laid eyes on her before tonight.
Something tugged at his boot.
“Ronan,” he said firmly.
The wolf pup let go of his bootstrap, and looked up at him in puppyish reproach.
Varik smiled in spite of himself.
Ronan gave a little yap and grinned up at him, one ear up and the other still flopped down, giving the wolf pup an eternally inquisitive look.
He had been very frightened of the bear. But now he was bored again already. He had a short attention span.
“We have to be patient, little buddy,” Varik told him.