Please be careful. Jorah’s voice was concerned in my head, and I rolled my eyes at him.
You know I will be.
Why are you following that guy, Bas? Thayer sounded annoyed.
He was tearing the fangs out of the hobgoblin body when I ran into him. I need to make sure he isn’t dangerous.
Thayer sighed in my head, but dropped it with a, Don’t do anything stupid.
Who me? I asked innocently.
Jorah chuckled and Thayer ignored me—both made me grin. Since taking on the Mantle of Three with Jorah and Thayer, my magic came to me even more easily. My shadow affinity magic still came from the shadows around me, but because I was filled with the Power of Three, I could simply draw from that endless resource or pull it from the shadows. Either one worked, and both were easy for me. I’d always had a lot of power—Ailin thought that one day I might surpass him with my natural abilities—and now my power was bigger than I ever imagined. Which was why Jor, Thay, and I still trained all the time. We never wanted our magic getting out of control, and sometimes it felt like the Power of Three was trying to do just that.
Pushing my will into the magic so it not only kept me from sight but kept anyone from hearing my sounds, I took off after the hunter. Lucky for me, I was able to hide Blaze from sight and sound as well, so I hopped on him and we followed the hunter’s truck. Blaze flew lower to the ground than usual so we wouldn’t lose Grim.
The hunter drove into the city to a shady part of town, and a smirk formed on my face. I’d known he was a shady bastard. When he pulled up behind a shitty bar in an alley, got out of the car, and walked up to a back door, knocking, I hopped off Blaze’s back so I could hear what was said. I was going to figure this fucker out.
A very short woman opened the door, saw Grim, and asked, “Did you get it?”
Grim sighed and ran a hand through his hair, then pulled a vial out of his pocket. “This was all I could get. I’m sorry it’s not more, Betdresli. I tried, but a witch showed up and—”
“It’s better than nothing,” the short woman said before taking the vial from him. “This is wonderful. Thank you, Grim. It means the world to us. This is going to help Thebrouk so much.”
“How is he feeling? Is the pain still bad?” Grim asked.
The woman, who I now realized was a dwarf or possibly a half-dwarf, turned pale. “He’s in a lot of pain, but the hobgoblin venom will help with that.”
Grim nodded with a frown. “I’m sorry, Betdresli. If you think of anythin’ else to help him, please call or text me. If I come across another hobgoblin, I’ll do my best to get the venom for ya.”
“This will be a great start. It should be enough to make a couple of weeks’ worth of medicine.”
Medicine? He’d pulled out the hobgoblin’s fang so someone could make medicine? I felt my face pale as I thought about the fact I’d not only stopped Grim from getting it all, but had been a total dickhead about it. I’d even tried to make him feel guilty for doing that to a dead creature. Oh Mother, I stopped someone from getting medicine for someone else.
The woman gave Grim a hug, and he awkwardly patted her back, and once she’d gone back inside, he sighed and went back to his truck. Climbing back onto Blaze’s back, I did my best to push the thoughts of how horrible I was away and concentrated on my target. Just because he did one nice thing did not mean he was a good guy or in the clear. Not at all. For all I knew, medicine was code for poison or something.
I followed him through the streets to what most people called the poor side of town, and I cringed. What was a big-time hunter doing here? Maybe he already had another bounty.
He parked his truck in front of a house that was in serious need of a makeover. I was pretty sure the roof was falling apart and leaking in several places, and I even noticed the one side window was boarded up. It made me cringe because it was cold out, so it had to be freezing inside that house.
Grim surprised me when he hopped out of the car, and instead of going up to the house he parked in front of, he walked across the street to another house that was just as bad off as the first.
As I followed on foot behind him, I watched the front door open up before Grim got to it, and a huge smile spread over his face. I didn’t think he even knew how to smile like that, but I had to say that it was a good look on him.
Shaking that stupid thought away, I watched with wide eyes as a little purple blob jumped into Grim’s waiting arms while squealing, “Daddy!”
Grim laughed—and holy shit, were those dimples? he had motherfucking dimples—and said, “Hi, peanut. Gimme some sugar.”
It took a minute for my brain to catch up with what I was seeing. The purple blob was actually a little girl of around six, although she was awfully tiny so perhaps younger, and she gave the hunter a kiss and squeezed his neck, clearly excited. And she’d called Grim Daddy. Oh holy Mother of All, Grim had a kid. A little girl.
Grim started placing kisses all over the little girl’s face as she giggled away, and I noticed something around her ears and under her nose that hooked up to a bookbag on her back. I gasped. She was hooked up to oxygen. Why would she need to be hooked up to oxygen? What could possibly be wrong with her that a healing tonic wouldn’t help?
“How was your day, peanut?” Grim asked her.
She started reciting everything she did today, including exactly how many bites of her sandwich she ate, and how many times she used the bathroom today—three.
Grim let her talk as he held her in his arms, even when an older woman walked out onto the porch and glared at him as she leaned against the beam holding the porch roof up.
Grim ran his fingers over the tube on his daughter’s face and asked her, “How long have you had to use this today?”
“Since right after lunch,” the older woman answered for the little girl. “Rasha, how about you collect your workbooks and all the pictures you made today so you and your father can head home?”
“Yes, Ms. Ulma,” Rasha said as Grim set her on her feet. The little girl said, “Be right back, Daddy.”
“Okay, peanut.” As soon as Rasha was inside, Grim held up his hands and said, “I’m so sorry, Ulma.” He reached into his back pocket and passed her a wad of cash.
“This is less than half of what you owe me, Hiro,” Ulma said. “You promised me you’d have enough to catch up last week. I can’t keep watching her for free.”
“I know.” Grim ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. There was an issue with my bounty this time ‘cause a witc—”
“There’s always an issue lately. If I’m watching her, I can’t be working the register at the store on the corner, and I got rent to pay, too.”
“I know. I promise—”
“Don’t make more promises, Hiro. You’ve been late for months. I love Rasha, you know I do, but I’ve got to have a place to live, I gotta have food to fill my belly, too.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” To my horror, Grim’s eyes filled with tears. “After her last stint in the hospital, I used up all my savings. Ya know I’m tryin’ here, Ulma. I’m doin’ everythin’ I can.” His strange accent became stronger the more upset he got. Holy shit. I’d done this. I’d taken away his bounty so many times because I’d thought he was being a dick, but all he’d been doing was trying to take care of his family, his daughter. My stomach felt like lead.