When we’d left the Böttr Kingdom, it’d been late afternoon in Keeose’s new favorite place, a stone tower where she’d conducted her experiments. We didn’t arrive back in the tower. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe, and then the dark, mossy ground came whirling up to me, a heavy, earthy smell. I squeezed the grass, ripping it up, while I jerked around.

All I could think about was Keeose discovering that the world had moved on, three hundred years since she’d stepped foot in her home again. Gazing up at the dark outline of the castle, I couldn’t help but think about it.

How many years had it been since we conquered this kingdom? How many hundreds of years?

I pushed myself up off the ground and tried to see the castle, to see if anything changed about it.

“Warrick!” Byrid held her stomach and her cat tail flickered in irritation behind her. “Ooo…I’m going to be sick.”

I helped her up with a careful hand on her back and Keeose too, cursing under her breath.

“I aimed for the tower.” Keeose swore again, dusting herself off.

Auror didn’t need my help but Maeve stood up on shaky knees and drew in a sharp breath. She didn’t blink. She couldn’t have looked more stunned at the castle if she tried.

“Where are we?” she whispered.

“We’ve got to figure that out,” I told her and broke into a jog. Nothing about our surroundings comforted me. The stone path, the forest, all of that could’ve been around for years and years. Especially the castle, the formidable structure that had lasted the years of Byrid’s crazy relatives.

“Why are we running?!” Byrid yelped behind me.

“Did you not listen to them discussing over the crunchy cheese bread?” Auror lobbed back at her, easily keeping up with me. Her silver hair flew behind her, so much brighter in the overhanging moonlight.

“No, I was too busy focusing on the crunchy cheese bread!”

I didn’t bother replying to either of them, I was too focused on the lantern that swung in the distance. Our boots flew across the stone as we rushed to find out exactly how long it’d been since we’d left this world. The lantern grew and there was a man underneath, in dark clothing I couldn’t make out.

He grunted in surprise when he saw us and I got close to his face, to see if there was anything I could recognize.

“What kingdom are we in?!” I demanded. “Who rules these lands?!”

His mouth fell open. “Your—your majesty!”

Holy shit. We were back.

“That’s fucking right!” I shouted, grabbing his shoulders. “It’s the king!”

The man couldn’t have been taken more aback by us. Keeose pumped the air in excitement and cackled with laughter and the two of us crushed each other in a hug. Auror even cracked a smile.

“Why are we celebrating?” Byrid demanded. “No one ever tells me anything.”

“You do not listen,” Auror retorted.

“Oh, you’re ridiculous.” Byrid waved a hand. “I refuse to hear any babble you say.”

The man with the lantern turned out to be a guard and he ushered us towards the castle, stammering out questions. It turned out, even if we hadn’t missed our time by hundreds of years, we’d been missing for a full moon cycle, a month, driving everyone in the castle mad with worry. When we entered through the main doors, one of the servants dropped a platter and it clattered to the ground.

“My king?!” The servant sucked in a breath. “You’ve returned?!”

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I grinned. “Back and better than ever.”

It seemed like everywhere I went, someone was touching me. My girls behind me, the servants in wonder, and the guards, clapping me on the back, excited to see us returned. Our stewardess, an old, lovely woman named Xalap, yelled at us for frightening her and drew Auror, Byrid, Keeose, and I into a hug before she snapped at some of the servants, calling upon a midnight feast for the returning royals.

“We’re not feasting,” I told her kindly. “Don’t wake anybody up.”

“Everyone is awake,” she retorted and reached out to touch the blood on my shoulder. “We were frightened that someone else would come to take over, the anxieties running through this castle! Oh, your majesty, how grateful I am.” She held a hand to her throat. “I beg of you, don’t do that to me again. My heart…my heart…”

“We had no idea this was going to happen,” Keeose said, close to me as we walked down the hallway. “We’ll perfect the magic. We’ll figure out a permanent portal.”

“You are a queen, my lady,” Xalap reminded her. “We cannot have any of you lost…my heart…my condition…”

Auror raised an eyebrow. “You have never spoken of a heart condition before.”

“What, are you a medicine woman?” She snorted. “And before your coronation too…no one ever thinks of my constitution…how they could do this to me, I do not know…”

“Xalap.” I stopped her at the bottom stair that led up to our war room, with the elder council. “We don’t need a feast but I’d like you to take stock of the castle. We’ve been gone for a month, I need to know what we should be knowing and get everything back on track for the coronation.”

“Oh, of course, your majesty, of course—”

I smiled at her and the old lady shuffled away, hurrying along the hallways until she disappeared.

Byrid turned to me with a big smile. “You’re finally showing interest in your coronation! I knew it’d happen—”

“Oh, I don’t care about the tiara ceremony.” I chuckled. “But Xalap needs something to do or she drives everybody crazy.”

Byrid’s smile slipped off her face and she frowned at me. Her ears flickered in irritation. But, next to her, Auror snickered and tried to hide it with her hand.

The girls started up the stairs, off to our war room, where I’d been assured that my general and my men were, but Maeve stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. She shook her head, indicating that she wanted a moment alone, and I frowned, pulling back.

“What is it?”

She stared at me. “What is it? Are you serious?”

“Isn’t this place amazing?”

“What?” She blinked, gazing down the hallways, with enormous paintings, flickering lanterns, and great bear rugs that were cleaned once a month. But it seemed like none of that registered to her. She turned back to me, disbelief on her face. “She said…Keeose was your queen.”

I nodded. “Sorry, I thought I told you.”

“No…I guess, I didn’t…understand?” Maeve realized she still had a hand on my shoulder and she quickly drew it back, a flush creeping up her neck. “Keeose is your…?”

“My wife. Just like Auror and Byrid.”

“What?”

In my time in their world, it’d happened so naturally that I honestly hadn’t even thought about it. Originally, Auror and I had come together, and Auror had informed me that she was only interested in me and me alone. Byrid had proposed and then Keeose and I had came together when we’d joined with the rebel forces. In the end, all three of them were my common-law wives, even as different as they were.

Maeve blinked. “You came to this world and just…became Conan the Barbarian? Collecting women?”

“Oh, come on.” I put a hand to my forehead. “Out of everything here, all of this cool shit, that’s what you’re focused on? You’re still alive. No gods have struck you down and this is a whole new world to discover. Besides, Conan the Barbarian didn’t even—”

“I know the original stories.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I just didn’t think you were that kind of guy.”

“Are you saying you want to go back home?”

“Am I—how could you ask that?”

“Then what are you asking from me?”

Our conversation was interrupted by a thunder of boots heading down the stairs. We took back steps instinctively but it didn’t matter. Men poured into the hallway, whooping and hollering, and I was rushed in a sea of my soldiers, chanting together at their success at finally finding us, even if we’d stumbled inside.

The girls were there too, laughing together, and hearing about all of the adventures that the men had been on, searching wide and low for us across the land.

I chuckled with them and got some new updates from Commander Polvi, about our armies, hard in training, some updates from the kingdoms close, and how hard they tried to keep our disappearance a secret. And there was Auror, nodding next to me with her arms folded over her chest, listening intently.

I was happy. I was really happy.

But, glancing off at Maeve, standing away from each other, close to the wall, I thought she’d be happier.