WITH RICCI BACK WITH the printer, I could finally get the letters ready. There were a couple of languages in the area, and only one of them used the letters we had on the computer, so the copies intended to go into the elven kingdom had to be handwritten and copied.

With the elves and the civilians we had rescued, I had more than enough help folding the paper into airplanes. Still, it was a lot of work, plus we had to go out and finish hunting down the fairies.

Seth sat down on the ground behind me and took the paper airplane from me, then kissed my cheek. A few people gave us funny looks for it, but they could think whatever they wanted. We weren’t doing anything so horrific to be judged for it. If anything, we did everything we could to make things better.

This world could burn along with its people. Why did I bother doing all this if I got nothing but scorn in return?

“You work too hard. Let others make the planes.” That earned Seth a growl from Strelka, who lay next to me.

“I’m fine. We’ll finish these, and I can send them out.” There were still a few thousand letters to fold. And people began to whisper now. I could imagine what they said. Lord Dralik's whore now giving herself to otherworlders. No respectable woman would do that. What did they know about me?

“No. You need to rest, or you’ll kill yourself with exhaustion. At least, take some time to have fun.”

I groaned. Just because he didn’t appreciate science books didn’t mean I didn’t have fun reading them. He was right, though, I did need to stretch my legs a little. More importantly, I needed to get away from people.

“There isn’t much to do here, and going to your world to have fun is going to be too time-consuming.” I had heard about the forms of entertainment his world had.

“How about we take a swim in the mountain river?” Seth asked.

The water in it was cold, but we didn’t even have to leave the castle to get to it. One of the lower rooms opened to a section of the stream since we used it as a water supply. With the pipes in place, no one would think to go there, so we wouldn’t be bothered. I welcomed the chance to be alone with Seth.

“Alright.” I got up, and my dogs followed.

“I have to go back to my world tomorrow,” Seth said as we navigated the corridors and staircases. “I’ll bring a few things back, and some of it will be just for fun, nothing else. You’re gonna have to go along with it and enjoy at least a couple of movies with me. Deal, my fancy lady?”

My neck and face heated up. “I’m not a lady.”

“You’re not just a lady. You're my lady. And I need to take you shopping one of these days to make sure you look super fancy.”

I had gone shopping in his world one time with Jill. It had been a disaster. We vanished from this world for a whole week because I wanted to find one pair of trousers, and Jill insisted on filling up an entire shopping cart. Twice. Then made me try it all on.

“I have enough clothes.”

We walked into the cavernous room that opened to the river. Seth shut the door behind us for extra privacy, then pulled me in for a kiss that, as always, got interrupted by a growl. My dogs didn’t like sharing.

“Sometimes, I think you have too many clothes,” Seth said. “But that’s not the point. I like you, I like being with you, and I wanna spoil you. That’s what people in my world do when they fancy each other, so no arguing.”

“Seth, we still have tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of fairies we have to kill. I can’t disappear for days.”

“Fine, then I’ll disappear for a couple of days to pack my things. We can move some of my furniture to this world. Our room needs some good decor.”

We needed to have electricity in our room. Then I could steal his coffeemaker, so I could read at night.

“Do you have any instant coffee in your house?”

He smirked, then gave me another kiss before he let go of me and started pulling his clothes off.

“I’ll stop by a store on the way back and get a few cans for you. Any other requests?”

His shirt slid up his back, revealing muscles. It’s not like I had never seen muscular men before. I had helped dress so many wounds over the years, and the soldiers in our world did have a tendency to have certain body types since swords and armor required much strength. Still, Seth always managed to get my attention when he took off his clothes.

“Requests?” Seth reminded me.

“Chocolate.” It gave a good burst of energy when we were on the road hunting fairies.

He went right on, stripping off all of his clothes right in front of me. Every muscle on display. Really, he didn't look that much better than half of our soldiers. Why couldn't I stop staring at him? Why were we waiting until he could make it special and all that?

“Are you gonna swim with your clothes on?” Seth asked.

Oh, right, swimming. We were here for that. How was I supposed to undress in front of him?

“We wanted to wait.” My heart thudded in my chest at the idea of doing it right now. Could I go through with it? Could I resist? Everyone probably already thought we had done it countless times.

“We’re going for a swim, beautiful. I’m sure Strelka will bite me if I try anything else.” He took a step into the water and waited for me to follow.

I could do this. Pushing all thoughts and embarrassment out of my mind, I unzipped my dress and let it fall. The underwear could stay for now, although Seth went completely nude. The evidence of his appreciation pointed up at me, bobbing slowly as if beckoning to go in the water.

Seth let out a long breath and took a few steps further, submerging half of his body. “Come here, beautiful.”

I did, needing the frigid water to cool off. This portion of the river ran shallow, plus we could sit on the boulders jutting out in the middle of the cave. Seth guided me to one of them and helped me up, then walked up behind me and began massaging my shoulders and back.

“This river is a lot faster most of the year,” I said. “Especially in the spring and fall. We’ve had accidents in the past.”

“I’ll think up a way for the two of us to go on a proper date,” he promised. “Even with the fairies and the war, we have to find some time to enjoy ourselves. Otherwise, we’ll get too worn out.”

Just coming here with him had already helped me relax more than I could describe. How could he be so good to me? I was a nobody, and yet, here he was.

“I don't understand why you're still in this world. You could go back to your perfect, comfortable life any time you wish.”

His hands stilled. “First off, my life isn't perfect. Second off, I don't want to see you and everyone else here get eaten.” He kissed my shoulder. “Besides, there's this geeky sorceress in this world. I kinda like her.”

“I don't understand that either. I'm not anyone special. I'm not even a good person.”

He walked around to stand in front of me and looked into my eyes. “Why would you say that? You're giving up on sleep to save people. A bad person wouldn't do that.”

The water splashed around his waist. It had slowed significantly this season, thanks to the dry summer we had.

“I almost killed Jill. Twice. And that's after I came here to kill Snaina. I put my dignity aside, let Lord Dralik do whatever he wanted to me, so I could have a chance to kill someone.”

“I don't know who this Snaina is, but why Jill? She’s harmless.”

“She isn't just harmless. She's good. So many people would've died without her, and I almost…” I waved my hand, unable to say it again. “I would've if I could get away with it, but Vinsor was always keeping an eye on her. I only ever got a few minutes alone with her. That's not enough time to murder someone and escape the castle.”

He watched me carefully, listening to every word. “None of that answered my question. Why Jill? Not for nothing, but you're not the kind of person who'd kill just for shits and giggles.”

“I thought she was evil. It took me some time to understand her.”

He kissed my forehead and hugged me tighter. “That sounds more like you.”

His warmth soaked into me, contrasting the frigid water. He knew all of my shortcomings and still didn't hate me. How odd.

“I still don't understand why you'd want to be with me. Any woman in this world would've happily given herself to you. If you wish, you could get a proper lady, not some nameless wench who whored herself out in the name of revenge. I'm not even a virgin.”

“Don't call yourself that. The only thing I care about when it comes to your virginity is that some asshole used his power to make you sleep with him. If I could kill him again, I would. Am I getting the right picture here?”

“I guess.” I had agreed to all of it, though. Revenge had been in my blood and in my name. Lain. All my family members had the same ending, the closest we could get to a proper last name. All of us swore to kill Snaina and Jill. “You don't have that in your world.”

“What? Assholes that abuse their power?” He arched a brow and smirked, only it looked all wrong. “I'm on paid leave because I shot someone. Didn't kill him, but still. The guy admitted that he tried to grab my gun because he wanted to die. But you know what? That was our fault. We failed him.”

“I don't understand. How could it be your fault when he wanted to die?”

Seth sighed and hugged me tighter. “He has a daughter. His ex-wife started dating the son of a detective, and that piece of shit is beating them both. Any report to the police or the child protective services gets swept under the rug because cops sometimes care about their own more than about innocent kids. Any officer who gets out of line gets canned.”

“That's awful, but it's still not your fault.”

“Things are simpler here,” he said. “Lord Dralik got a bunch of people killed and treated you like shit. I put a bullet in his head. Easy.”

I ran my hand over his chest, feeling the muscles move with every breath. “The one with the best army and weapons is above the law here. They can do anything.”

“Not saying things are perfect here, beautiful. Just simpler because we have the biggest guns. I'm tired of looking the other way and following crappy orders. That's not why I joined the military or the police force, but that's how it turned out.”

I kissed his chest, his shoulder, his neck. “Maybe we could bring that girl and her father here. We can keep them safe.”

“I don't know about that. This place is still medieval. Do you guys even have schools?”

“No.” Of course not. Children learn from their parents, and if they were lucky to be born in a wealthy family with a name, they had tutors or could pay to go to school.