“Do you?” I laughed after Hadrian said I owed him. “You’re truly insufferable. You know, I was going to thank you by cleansing some torok meat for you… give you some real power, but since there’s nothing to thank you for, and you’re being an ass, I guess I won’t.”

Hadrian’s smile disappeared, and his eyes sharpened.

“Oh, a normal look, thank God,” I said.

“Mira.”

“Wh~at?”

“Can you truly?”

“Do what?” I asked, putting my hand from my ears. “You must el~uci~date on your intentions.”

“Cleanse third evolution meat,” Hadrian said. “This, meat.”

I looked at the torok meat. “I can try. If I don’t… owe you anything after this.”

“It’s done,” Hadrian said.

“Okay… good. Let me get my machete. Actually, this’ll do.” I picked up a stick from the cookfire pile and used mana sharpening to turn it into a blade. Then, I carved off a piece of torok meat under everyone’s watchful stares.

It felt good.

Mask off.

Considering that I blinded half of them and a good deal probably saw Kline’s ethereal form, the cat was out of the bag. Might as well tell a grand story for future generations in case I died during the winter.

I then grabbed a heaping chunk the size of a chuck roast and said, “This is what you get. If you were nicer, you would have gotten more. Now come to my tent.”

“Would you really punish me for being myself?” Hadrian asked. “Or do you enjoy obsequious men who are afraid to express themselves?”

I immediately thought of Aiden.

“No, I don’t.” I paused and looked at him. “But I’m not into… whatever you are, either.”

“I never implied you should.”

I paused. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Tyler nearly freaked out when Hadrian entered my tent, but once he learned that Hadrian wasn’t trying to bed me, or at least I’d rather die than bed him, he just wanted to join. Hadrian was, after all, his new hero.

I hated that—but I understood why.

So I let him come in as I slapped the meat onto the inner stove pit like a baker and then closed my eyes.

I examined the aura and found it dominating and overflowing, so I erred on the side of caution and cut off a sliver the shape of a steak to start with.

“That’s wise,” Hadrian said. “I was starting to think you were holding back on those torok.”

“Shut up,” I said, breathing in and then cycling.

Words cannot express the overwhelming difference between the torok meat and the other third evolution meat I had worked with. I imagined the colossus at the pond would be even greater, but I never cleansed or ate it. We were running for our lives. So this was the first time I felt real aura—and it was overwhelming.

I cried out and sucked it up, activating Mental Shielding to regain control. The aura burst out like a busted fire hydrant, but I grappled hold of it and started threading.

Tyler was oblivious to what was happening, but Hadrian’s face was lost in wonder as he watched me thread all the aura and then cleanse it. His gaze was so intense it was uncomfortable.

But I was too tired to care and collapsed on the ground, panting hard.

“I lied,” I said. “I’m giving you a fourth of that chunk—and that’s it.”

Hadrian laughed breathlessly. “That’s more than enough.” He looked at the meat with fascination and then waited patiently for me to do the rest.

I did.

It was faster during the second attempt, and after an hour, I finished the fourth and was absolutely exhausted.

“You’ll be stronger than me next harvest,” Hadrian remarked. “Considering all that meat out there.”

“I won’t be able to eat it all,” I said. “I need to return north. Also, don’t flatter me. It only took one encounter with ya’ll to learn how weak I really am.” I looked away. “Raw power doesn’t mean much.”

“Hoh?” Hadrian hummed. “So you did kill them?”

“What do you mean? Those people got lost in the forest.” I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t you remember?”

Hadrian scoffed and turned away. “Such statements don’t work unless the answer is both shared and obvious. Anything else is an admission of guilt.”

I smiled wryly. That was a good point. He did know, but there was no reason to confirm it.

“Would it bother you if I did?” I asked Hadrian, watching Tyler.

“Of course not,” Hadrian said.

“Care to elaborate?” I asked.

“I refuse to remark on self-evident matters,” Hadrian said coldly.

“That was rude.”

“Rude? As opposed to what? You wasting my time to validate your insecurities?”

“Just asking…” I shuddered at the finality in his words. I seriously didn’t understand why he was casually okay with me killing the Melhans, one of his supposed allies. There were laws and customs here that were markedly different than those from home, and Hadrian seemed to take the approach that researching the reason that the sky was the color it was was a waste of time when the question was whether it was blue.

Then I turned to Tyler. “You?”

Hadrian rolled his eyes, rolling his entire neck with it, and said, “I’ll take my leave.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Don’t hit your head on the way out,” I said, giving him a peace size for ultimate effect as he wrapped his meat and left. Then, I waited for Tyler to stop smirking before addressing him again. “Tyler, tell me.”

Tyler’s shallow grin faded, and he turned away. “I… Listen, I think if it were anyone else, I’d think it was badass. Hell, if Hadrian did it, I’d think it was dope…”

“But?” I asked.

He grimaced. “Not my sister. I mean… I’m not bothered by anything you could’ve done. Even if you killed someone in cold blood out here… I’d love you. But… What happened to loving plants?”

I ran my fingers through my hair. “I’ve been asking that for four months.”

“You still like them, right?” he asked.

I nodded. “I do. It’s just been a matter of survival up until this point. I think you’ve seen that… but… that’s over. I have power and the right to live here. Now… I have a whole year… to just do alchemy and study plants and… whatever I want. It’s just been delayed.”

Tyler nodded absentmindedly. “As long as there’s a reason.”

I nodded back. “There is.”

“Love you, sis.”

“Love you.”

We hugged, and then he looked at the meat. “So… um…” he coughed. “Do I get some of that?”

I chuffed. “You’re unbelievable!”

“So… was that a yes?”

“No!”

“Seriously?”

I presented both my palms up with an open mouth as if to say, Are you actually being serious? But he was, and I knew I would normally say yes anyway. But the simple fact was that I couldn’t, so I told him so.

“Actually yes,” I said solemnly. “This meat would… probably make your chest explode or something.” I traced the lean lines on the meat with my eyes. “That meat I’ve been feeding you—it’s nothing like this. I’m not even sure I could eat this, and I’ve been eating nothing but third evolution meat the last two weeks.”

“Wait, did you just say third evolution?”

“Yeah, third evolution. But they’ve been nothing like this.”

“I see…”

I reflected on the situation and then turned to him. “I’m going to build a home here. Real living quarters. And when I do… you should stay a year. I’ll train you and give you crazy elixirs and stuff. Okay? In the meantime, just focus on your training. I’ll buy an extension of Kalas's training.”

“Oh… about that. “ Tyler retracted his digits into a packed fist. “Fuck that guy. He didn’t do a damn thing to help you. He could’ve. I know damn well he could’ve, but he didn’t. He was just going to watch you—”

“But he’s the strongest,” I said, pushing his cheek to look at me. “So use him. When… if… Kal wakes up. You’ll need that strength.”

He nodded hesitantly, and I felt ill. I was so close to killing him and his whole damn family sneakily. Now, I was relying upon Hadrian to protect my parents—and it wouldn’t be pretty. The Melhans invested a diamond request into the kid. Justified or not, they would be out for blood.

Tyler and I finished our conversation just as Felio checked up on me.

“Thank goodness you’re okay!” she said, putting her hand to her breast.

“I am…” I said, slicing some meat. “Are you hungry? This’s probably the only time you’ll get to eat something like this.”

Her eyes widened, and then she smiled. “How is it that I come in to check in on you, and yet you’re the one thinking about me?”

“I’m just offering you some food.” I looked at her. “Isn’t that what friends do?”

Felio stared at me dumbly, as if I had just shattered her mind with a sledgehammer, then fed her the fragments like cereal.

“Is that… wrong?” I asked nervously. “Where I’m from, you just kinda… like certain people, and that’s enough to be like… friends. Is it different here?”

Felio looked away awkwardly. “Uh… maybe? For normal people. But the Legacies… everything’s an arrangement. I’m not sure it’s the same.”

“Oh… well come hang out. As of this moment, we’re in an arrangement.”

Her lips curved into a smile, and she giggled. “Okay. But don’t put it that way to anyone else. I’ll get some tea.”

I blushed and laughed, and then we drank tea while I cooked torok meat. Twenty minutes later, her guard checked on her and found us sprawled out on the floor of my tent, buzzing like we chased the dragon in an opium den. They panicked and tried to save her life, but she just giggled like a maniac and pointed out the meat.

“Eat some…” I said. “If you’re man enough.”

Ten minutes later, he stumbled out of the tent to get someone else to extract her, but I made the same offer, and the woman took it well. Felio giggled about it the whole time because there was no way that a guard would turn down third evolution torok soul meat when there wasn’t a threat to her life. So we fed her whole damn family until the tent was full, and we were stuffed.

“It’s almost over, isn’t it,” I whispered on my back, staring at the ceiling.

“Yeah…” Felio said. “You sure you don’t want to come back with us? Our family would give you anything to join the Hellara.”

“Like a signing bonus?” I asked with a creeping grin.

Felio didn’t smile—she nodded with a fierce expression. “They would give you the best teachers, a mansion, servants, fine clothing…”

“Wait… you’re being serious,” I said.

“Of course. Every family would. But our family specializes in alchemy and growing alchemic herbs. If you joined us, you would be free to fulfill your passions.”

My heart fluttered when I saw her guards nodding. In an instant, my entire world was turned upside down. I was just offered my dream life… and even more. I was being offered a secured future and a promise to let me return to Areswood every year. It was the best deal I had ever heard.

But…

If I did, what would it have all been for? All the pain and struggle and fights with Drokai and dragons and beasts? The times I almost died? My deals with my patrons? My promises and friendship with Kyro? The mysteries of the forest and my dreams of living in a tree and studying plants.

All of it would’ve been for nothing. And that hurt like tooth pain to think about.

“Maybe another year,” I answered. “It’ll still be open then, right?”

Felio nodded. “Yes.”

I smiled. “Okay. I’ll see how bad winter is here and we’ll talk.”

“Mistress, it’s time to go,” a guard said.

Felio puffed out her cheeks.

I laughed. “I’ll get ready, too. I’m heading to the gates.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“But what about your stuff?”

“Oh, about that…” I said with a wide smile. I couldn’t wait to see her face when I unveiled my portable ward.

It was worth it.

The whole campsite was stunned when I dragged all the gifts and trades I got outside the Mouth, as the pathway shut down during the year, and unveiled my ward, revealing that I had left all my stuff out in the open in a challenge, daring people to steal it.

Then I picked up Kline and put him on my shoulder.

“Excuse me,” Felio said. “But… when did you get that cat?”

“Wait… you don’t know?” I asked.

“Um… no? People’ve been whispering about you being with a large… Wait…”

My lips curved into a sinister grin. Then, I turned to Tyler. “You ready?”

He nodded. Then, I turned to the other side of the plaza. “Hey Aiden!”

Aiden looked up from a makeshift stable he was at. He had a zoo of creatures of all chimerical shapes and types lined up in a procession. “Yeah?” he asked.

“You coming?” I asked.

“Yeah. You gonna say goodbye to the lurvine?”

“What’s the point? I’m coming right back to cook this meat. Unless they want to turn down a soul buffet?”

The lurvine’s hairs bristled, and they lowered their heads.

I giggled and approached them, petting Sina’s snout. “I’ll be back, and we’ll feast like you’ve never feasted. So guard this place, kay?”

She huffed and turned away, but Kael gave his nod of approval. I glanced at the lurvine that was injured saving me and bowed my head.

“Thank you…” I said. He almost died saving me—and it was only hitting me then. I lifted my hands, and he walked forward, allowing me to pet him.

“I’ll be back soon.” I turned south toward Galfer’s Gate. “Come on… we got to go.”