Page 36 of The Iron Hex

Hugo saw Eira looking at him and she watched his posture change immediately, as if he hadn’t expected her to see him... as if he had thought he’d be able to get back to the tavern before she came downstairs to meet him for dinner.

What had he been up to? She strode out into the town center to meet him, the townspeople bustling around them as they made their way home for their evening plans.

“Eira.” He smiled, a single curl of his dark hair falling into his face.

She wanted to brush it back with her fingers and lace her hands through his hair. “Hugo,” she said instead, putting her hand on her hip. “Where were you?”

“Straight to the point,” he answered.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Eira retorted.

“I was trying to see if I could listen in at one of the guard outposts to see if they had any discussions about us.”

Eira watched him, her eyes searching for a sign that he was lying. Loitering around a guard outpost when the two of them were highly wanted seemed risky at best, and downright stupid at worst.

“You don’t believe me,” he said, one corner of his mouth lifting into a smirk. She fought the urge to kiss it off his stupidly handsome face. “I also snatched a few of the wanted posters of me around their outpost... nothing of you yet, if you were wondering.”

Eira grabbed one of the wanted posters from Hugo’s hand, unrolling it to see a relatively good rendition of the man standing in front of her, just with shorter hair... and absolutely the wrong nose shape.

“This is pretty good. You should go back to the outpost and tell the Iron Retinue that whoever they have doing the art is talented,” Eira said dryly before shoving the paper back into Hugo’s hand. “This whole thing just seems like a foolish decision. And riskier than you’ve been so far. I’ve learned that out-of-character behavior means something strange is happening—or that the person is lying,”

“I’m not lying,” he said, tearing up the wanted posters and letting the pieces fall like confetti to the ground. “I did go to the guard outpost, but it was only after I went looking for the princess. I found nothing, though.”

“Why would you look for her without me?” she asked, crestfallen and concerned.

“You were taking a bath, and I hoped I could quickly ask around to see if anyone had seen a woman that looked like her recently,” Hugo answered matter-of-factly. “I wasn’t thinking about leaving you out, just about maximizing time.”

“And what did people say?” Eira asked.

“No one has seen her.” Hugo shook his head, disappointment coloring each word. Another dead end. Eira didn’t know yet how they were going to find the princess if her failing memory was the only reliable resource.

“That’s unfortunate,” Eira said. “But don’t leave me out in the future, okay?”

“Understood, your ladyship,” he chuckled.

Eira rolled her eyes, trying to brush off how she felt. She believed Hugo, and she trusted what he was saying. But what if he had found the princess without her? What would he have done? Or was she being paranoid? Realizing she had decades of lost memories, and that a witch somewhere in Astra had stolen them, had left her feeling extremely vulnerable.

“Shall we?” Hugo said, gesturing to the door of the tavern.

“Fine,” Eira said, her walk slow as she found herself lost in thought all the way there.

21

Hugo

Hugo hated how Eira had seen right through him. He hadn’t lied; he had gone out looking for the princess, but he’d simply stumbled upon the guard outpost during his search. The princess had been nowhere to be found. He’d casually asked around at some stores, charming his way through the ladies that worked in them, hoping that if he won them over with a little bit of cheeky flirting, they’d be more likely to tell him where their friend was... and Hugo didn’t have the heart to do that type of flirtatious reconnaissance around Eira. It meant nothing to him, but she...shemeant everything, and he would not allow her to think that he wanted someone else. Even if she didn’t remember him, even if he had to pretend like he didn’t want her every second he was around her.

He shook his head, snapping out of his thoughts of Eira. If the princess had decided to stay here in this town, then the girls in the shops would have known her; he was sure of it. Princess Evangeline had exceptional social graces. She would have allies if she’d lived here for years.

Hugo was grateful to have found Eira at last, but her memoryloss was a problem. He felt deeply for her, despite his attempts to push it down, and he certainly wanted to protect her... but he also had a mission, and that was finding the princess. He’d been banking on the two women being together. And now that they weren’t? Well, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was supposed to do. Eira couldn’t even tell him where she’d last seen the princess, never mind where she might have fled to.

Not a single soul in this town had known who Evangeline was or could pinpoint anyone who looked like her that had moved into town in the past few years. Asking so brazenly had been risky, but calculated risks were important in this line of work... in hunting.

They sat in silence as they ate dinner, Eira’s eyes glassy and puffy from sobbing in the bath as she savored the meal of ham, roasted root vegetables, and mashed potatoes that had been put in front of them. Hugo glanced around the room, surveying the full tavern and trying to determine if anyone stood out to him. Had he seen that woman before? Or what about the man at the bar, talking to the barmaid who had recognized Eira? Hugo shook his head. No, he was being paranoid, his mind still wondering how he’d been found in Cilirien. Iron Retinue soldiers were much more obvious, but still, he committed the faces around him to memory just in case.

Hugo peeked at Eira out of the corner of his eye, watching her take measured bites of her meal. He hoped Eira wasn’t upset with him. He hadn’t wanted to tell her that he’d gone out looking for the princess without her, not because he’d have kept the princess from her, but because Eira had finally found a moment of peace in the chaos of the last few days. He hadn’t wanted to stress her out for nothing, and it had ultimately come to nothing. But there was one thing he needed to discuss with her—something that had been eating at him since he’d seen the conjured hand, since he’d found her in her store. Since his arm had completely healed.

Eira was a witch, and Hugo was still reeling from that revelation, the knowledge that Eira was capable of not only potions magic, but illegal magic as well. It had been running in circles in his head since he’d seen the conjured hand when he’d broken into her home. And even her potions magic... it was too powerful, much more so than it should have been.