"Who the heck did you think it was?" She pulled herself over the edge of the bed and crept sideways toward me. Eyeing me as though I might chuck her across the room again.

"I didn't know! I thought you were a rat! Why didn't you say something?"

"Would a talking rat have made you feel better?" She turned and put her fists on her hips in a chastising way.

Likely not. I eyed her standing there so belligerently.

"Don't give me that stance. You practically are a rat." I flounced. Dropping back to my butt on the bed.

Feeling foolish for having gotten so scared over nothing.

But this house is filled with oddities.

And I was still daunted by the things Bodin had said to me so recently.

That he suspected Ginny, my maid since I was twelve and she was barely older, may have had some involvement in my father's death.

Which makes her frequent absences even more suspicious. I was growing increasingly more concerned that what he was saying was possible.

And my guilt was growing that I'd ever thought he was capable of such a thing.

He loved my father as if he were his own.

Bodin is many things. But not a killer.

Vix's nose wrinkled and her lips twitched in objection at my good humored insult.

"What are you doing waking me up in the middle of the night?" I changed the subject. Not wishing to think about my foolishness any further.

"I needed to talk to you."

About what? My concern was beginning to mount.

What's so important that she's rushed to me in the middle of the night?

"Why?" My head lifted and I gave her an urgent look. "Is something wrong with Bodin?"

"Perhaps..."

"Perhaps what?" I asked harshly.

Her gaze fell and she shifted a foot in a way that reminded me of a shameful child. "I may've caused a lot of damage...To someone who certainly didn't deserve it." She deflated. Her head falling.

Bodin or me? I settled on a reasonable suspicion.

"Bodin?" I queried softly.

She nodded hesitantly. Tilting her head and peering up at me guiltily.

"What have you done?"

My anxiety was growing. Was he okay? Was he hurt?

I found myself leaning forward. Impatient for her to explain what the devil she was doing in my chambers in the dead of night. Scaring me half to death.

"I told you all those bad things about him."

"Yes..."

"They're not true. Ginny had my brother and was going to hurt him if I didn't tell you some things."

"Ginny my maid?" I leapt to my feet next to the bed to give her a shocked look.

Vix nodded.

"Where is your brother now?"

"The Fey King came for him."

I blew a breath of relief. "Of course, he did."

"Then why did you keep telling me those things?"

"I only recently told him, and he got my brother. She had him for a while. In a jar under her bed."

My brows lowered. "How dreadful! Poor thing!"

"It's okay! I'm okay now!" A chittering voice announced from my windowsill. Drawing both our gazes. It was a tiny fox creature even smaller than Vix. He was only about half her height. "My Sis didn't mean no harm!"

He hopped down and scampered over to stand at my feet. Clutching my ankle and fluffing his long white tipped, orange tail. He blinked huge orange eyes up at me. "She was only trying to protect me."

Bodin's face flashed in my mind as I thought about how he'd been trying to protect me when he'd found out my father was dying. He'd said more than once that he'd done that to keep me safe.

And I hadn't forgotten the touching way he'd sat outside my door the night before my father died.

He's always been there for me. Guarding me.

***

"Why are you telling me all this now?" I asked Vix. Still looking at her tiny little brother. With his little pointed ears. Looking too irresistible not to reach down and lift into the palm of my hand.

He let me. Shuffling on my palm with his small hand-like feet. His eyes consuming most of his little triangular face. Giant eyes peering at me from over his short snout. His tiny black nose twitching.

"Because it was wrong of me, and I didn't want you to end up going along with Ginny's plan. I think she wants to hurt you. And maybe Bodin too."

I shot her a quick look. "Hurt me how?"

"She's working for someone back in your old home. A man."

Randy.

"Why?"

"I'm not sure." Vix frowned. Scurrying forward on all fours a few lopes before tilting her head to give me a thoughtful look. Scratching her chin with a front paw in a confused way.

"Hmm." I was staring at Vix as I slumped onto the edge of the bed. Feeling like the world's biggest fool.

In truth, I didn't deserve much of Bodin's kindness. I thought about what a spoiled fool I'd been since I arrived.

***

"I don't know where Ginny is..." I said aloud.

"She left to go back there." Vix scooted forward a few more loping bounds. "After I-"

She stood up and paused. "After she had a little accident."

I frowned at Vix. "You did something to her?"

"She kept him in a jar!" Vix gestured to her little brother.

"That's fair." I nodded slow understanding. Imagining that if I had a little brother who looked this fragile and adorable, I'd likely do anything to protect him too.

"What is your name?" I asked him.

"Tobbin."

"Thank you for coming, Tobbin. I have a hard time trusting Vix in all she says."

He turned his head to give me a glare. "She ain't no liar. She's the best sister in the world!"

Vix smiled in an almost maternal way, as she peered over the edge of the bed to look at him.

"You raise him." I acknowledged. Reading their interactions.

"Mum's been dead a long time. Killed by hunters."

"How'd they know what you are?"

"They didn't." Vix shrugged. "When we're out in the woods we run on all fours."

She mimicked the motion. "They think we're just foxes. Shoot us like them too. Send their dogs on us..."

That sounded like a dreadful way to go. I grimaced sympathetically. Resisting the urge to collect Vix and give her a tiny hug in reassurance.

"I imagine it took a lot of courage to come tell me this." I said.

Vix chewed her cheek, sucking in the other on as she stared at the bedding again.

"Thank you for being so brave." I reached to rub her back in a way that told her I forgave her.

She closed her eyes and crooned, rubbing her back into my touch much as a kitten would.

I found myself smiling at her. She's not so bad.

"Don't hate Bodin." She opened her eyes to murmur. "He's truly been nothing but good to all of us. He's like a brother to me. And the Fey King is his father. So, you know there is much good in him."

"You say the Fey King's title with such reference."

"He tends all of us."

"Would you tell me more of Bodin's mother?"

Vix smiled and nodded. Dropping to sit next to me on the edge of my bed.

***

Tobbin shimmied up my leg. Catching the hem of my nightdress to climb his way up. Positioning himself on the other side of his siter and leaning around her to peer at me as Vix began to tell me what'd happened.

"Rebecca Millen was beautiful back then." Vix sighed at the memory of her. "I remembered that first day he brought her to the Fey Castle."

"He took her?" I blinked rapidly.

"He seduced her. As he had many mortal women before her. But she...She was the last." Vix smiled as she said it. She sighed wistfully. "Would that a fey king would change his world for the sight of me..."

I bit my lip to keep from laughing at the idea that a tiny fox creature might seduce an immortal royal.

"He saw her bathing and turned into a stag to steal her to the castle. She spoke endlessly of her fiancé, Jason Charters."

Bodin's father.

"But she couldn't resist the charms of the Fey King...Though she did refrain from his banquet." She made that sound like a nearly impossible feat.

I gave her a long study. "Is that remarkable."

"Quite." Vix's white brows lifted on her orange forehead. "You've never heard of the Fey King's Banquet?"

I eyed her quizzically.

"One taste and you can never go home."

I drew a horrified breath.

"Don't worry." Vix reassured with a half laugh. "Wasn't the banquet she couldn't resist tasting..."