Page 120 of Wanted: Rogues and Bards

Liron lifted his head to look at Fen. “Sure. I’m happy to pick up supplies with you. We should also check in with Gillea to see if he’s uncovered any information on the rest of your mother’s missing treasures.”

The most beautiful smile spread across Fen’s lips and Lirion’s heart skipped a beat. “Good plan. We’ll stop there too.”

Lirion was more than happy to follow Fen anywhere.

After securing their previous rental, getting supplies, grabbing the information Gillea had gathered while they were away, and ensuring Aria was well taken care of for their hopefully short trip, they’d left for Dunley village. Unfortunately, now that they were in the south again, summer showed no signs of slacking. The heat was intense, threatening to roast them all under the blazing sun in a cloudless sky. Not even a breeze stirred to give them some relief on their long journey. At least they weren’t walking the entire way.

As per usual, they used Hapi’s new skele-elks to pull a rented wagon and travel back to Lord Mire’s. The wagon was bursting at the seams with so many of them crowded in. Belstrom rode in front with Hapi to give people more shoulder room. Not elbow, shoulder. Belstrom’s shoulders went on for miles.

It meant Lirion was cuddled into Fenric’s side for the trip in. Was he complaining? Absolutely not.

Was he worried that he apparently enjoyed cuddling with Lirion, even with no sex involved? A little.

Day by day, it felt like Lirion slipped into the cracks of his heart. Fenric was torn between wanting to safeguard against him and pull him closer so Lirion would stay at his side always.

Fuck, what the hell did he even say? Lirion had explained how incubi worked. They didn’t tie themselves to anyone unless the person was very wealthy and could provide them with a house and such. Fenric couldn’t even afford a decent lair right now.

The realization hit, and he barely kept the thought off his face.

Shit, was he seriously thinking about asking Lirion to stay with them? Was he that far gone on this man?

Better to not ask questions when he didn’t know what to do with the answers.

When the wall of thick white fog appeared ahead of them after they crossed the dry riverbed, Fenric gave himself a mental slap and pulled his shit together. Think about potential relationships later; there was shit to do now.

Hapi slowed the carriage once they were about a hundred yards away from the foggy border, then stopped altogether. Turning in the seat, he looked at Lirion. “Still want to test it?”

“Yeah.” Lirion hopped to the ground. “I want to see what I’m dealing with.”

Fenric followed him. It wasn’t until his feet hit the dirt that he realized he’d even done so.

Fortunately, no one seemed to question this. They walked to the edge of the fog—which was just as dense as their first visit—without anyone asking what the hell Fenric was doing. Only Fenric seemed to ask that question. To which he had no easy answer.

Lirion’s head panned from side to side as he took in the endless white wall. “Well, I thought you were exaggerating, but this is worse than pea soup.”

“Isn’t it, though?”

“How far did you get last time?”

“Not far, really. We figured out a routine step that got us in to a certain degree.”

Lirion hummed and looked it over again. “I don’t think this can be dispelled. There’s a lot of magic in this fog. All right, Plan A, I’ll try to dispel part of this so we can get through. Plan B—because I’m pretty sure Plan A will fail—is I try a guiding song so we can navigate through.”

“Yeah, that’s not something in my arsenal of tricks.”

“This one is something I created, based on a much older spell I stumbled across,” Lirion explained as he pulled his lyre out of the protective case. “I often use it as a perk so I can travel cheaper. It does have a major drawback—I have to play the song over and over otherwise the spell ends. So, reasonably, I can only do it for about an hour, as my fingers need a break by that point.”

“Good to know.”

Lirion stared straight ahead and started strumming. To Fenric’s senses, it was pretty music that seemed to possess a magical vibration, as he could almost detect it. Like wind, more felt than seen.

The fog moved and shifted in front of them, but only a small pocket, and the cleared area filled back in after only a couple of seconds.

Lirion stopped strumming with a sigh. “I figured it would do that. All right, Plan B.”

Fenric wasn’t at all upset about the first failure, but he was concerned Plan B wouldn’t work either. And they didn’t currently have a Plan C.

Lirion switched songs, and the new one had a lively little beat. Something Fenric would imagine you’d dance to, really, as it was a jig. He could see why Lirion could only play the song for an hour—it would be difficult to play much longer than that. His hand would start cramping.