“I’m so fucking grateful she wanted you as it kept me from being tied to someone that dark and twisted. It was your betrayal that hurt because I loved you, maybe most of anyone. Now I’m just happy it happened because it put me on the path to finding Inez. Even if I hadn’t accepted your princess, if you had not hurt me so gravely, I wouldn’t have run from every court. I wouldn’t have waited for her.”
“You really are the Zen master,” Jaxon chuckled. “Not sure I could look at it that way, but I’m glad you have such healthy perspectives on life. It helps Inez. You help Inez in a way only you could.”
“She carries a lot of darkness for one so young,” Sebastian agreed, shaking his head. “It’s hard to see the bigger picture on losing her memories.”
“You don’t even know the half of it, mate,” Cerdic said as he went back for his plate. “She has years of ghosts haunting her and I mean literally. While she’s willing to work through it slowly, she won’t share the burden as she doesn’t like to burden people.”
“Okay, this isn’t bachelor party conversations,” Tyson cut in, always cautious on who was listening or overhearing what they shouldn’t. “We’ve got a big night ahead so eat up.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant but I was in. I could definitely use a night off.
“You kissed Inez?” Vitor asked me at a volume most couldn’t hear.
I sighed, knowing he wanted her too. “I can’t apologize, but I am sorry she doesn’t look your way as well. It will take time, my friend. Even if an accident, you almost killed her after abducting her.”
“I know this,” he hissed, rage boiling in him. “My jealousy didn’t make me ask. I hoped such a wonderful princess would look your way. I wanted to wish you luck.”
“Thank you. She’s very clear that anything will be slow, and she’s spun all around so often, I understand that. I’ll wait. I simply needed to know there was something there on her side too.”
“Patience is a virtue you have in spades,” he sighed, knowing he didn’t. “Just put in a good word for me if you can, okay?”
“Deal.” That I could do. Vitor was a good man who had been abused all of his life, especially by women, so the fact he wanted one for real was a miracle in its own, but he needed time to heal before trying to be the noble for another princess.
So did I, which was why I didn’t have a problem with slow and being patient.
We headed to Texas where something was set up and waiting, everyone giving James curious looks.
“There is an overpopulation of wild boars, feral hogs, or whatever else they’re called,” he explained. “I overheard Princess Nora talking to Sebastian that she was going to ask Inez to handle it. Our princess will most likely agree, but either way, we’ll have to handle it, so we thought why not have some fun with it.”
“We have thirty empty shipping containers lined up for each team,” Simon said as he took over, gesturing behind him. “Team Cerdic will battle Team Kristof for the prize of our final stop on our party tour. It’s awesome, trust us.” He looked over to Jacob and Winston. “I would assume all of the Wessex covens here would be on Cerdic’s team?”
“We’ll join in the fun,” Henry Wessex, Cerdic’s father, answered with a nod. “The first to fill up the thirty containers with dead boars wins?”
“Yes,” Simon answered before looking at Kristof. “So they have more, but you have older if everyone else is joining your team? Or do we need the O’Cleirghs’ on Cerdic’s side?”
“Line up so we can see who’s where and try to even it out a bit.”
I wanted to roll my eyes when Ceawlin went on Kristof’s side.
“I don’t want your disloyal ass on my team,” Kristof warned him. “Why are you even here?”
Ceawlin shrugged, but I saw the anger in his eyes he tried to hide. “I find it amusing. Fine, I’ll stay here and keep tabs that everyone’s playing fair.”
The amount of snorts or snickers that he would act as referee echoed through the night.
There was a bit of back and forth, but finally the teams were mostly even. They definitely had more, but we had the age.
“If they’re smart, they’ll have people load these totes and their oldest bring the totes back to unload,” Vitor muttered as he held up the massive totes made for forklifts to move. They had to fit like a ton of weight at least.
“That’s not a bad strategy instead of dragging these around all over,” Kristof agreed. “Does that work? You, Petre, and Tian run the totes?”
“Do we know if this prize really is awesome?” Tian asked, always the distrusting and cynical ball of sunshine.
Kristof nodded. “Inez was up to something with Simon and James, and if she was involved, it will be good.”
“Right, you’re not biased,” I drawled. He didn’t disagree but he also wasn’t wrong.
Simon gave the countdown and then we were off. We picked the best spot for the totes, and just as we did, they were bringing in boars with snapped necks to load up. Kristof was in fine form, like he was competing for more than the prize, but Inez herself. It wasn’t long until the first tote was full, Vitor heading off with it.
I went next and snagged a boar on the way, snapping its neck before tossing it into the container. I emptied the tote and headed back. A few more rounds of that and I saw we
