Sam

Though Will's eyes were closed, Sam got the impression that the two men were staring each other down. Motionless, they eyed each other like wolverines locked in the same cage.

Will tilted his head one way, then the other, holding that little smile of his. The harsh, emaciated angles of his face gave the impression of a bird of prey. Buck grinned wide, radiating confidence, but there was a persistent twitch in his cheek, and he tapped his nails impatiently against the hilt of his saber.

"We should—" Sam began.

Suddenly, Will was no longer beside her on the bench. In the blink of an eye he had crossed the gravel path and moved in on Buck, standing almost as close as the one-time lady consort clinging to the lord's arm. Small stones scattered along his passage, went still. The back of Will's corpse-pale right hand rested on Buck's sword hand.

Dawn shrank away. Buck gave a hard blink, but didn't move.

"Careful, lord," Will spoke softly. "We wouldn't want you to nick yourself."

Buck's rangers bristled with bare steel. Wary, Sam began to rise from her seat, but Buck told his people off with a glance here, a glance there, and a sharp click of his tongue. The men reluctantly stowed their blades, and Sam settled back onto the creaking bench with equal reluctance.

His grin widened a smidge as he took Will in, showing rows of perfect teeth. "I'm glad to see you so lively. I'd heard you were doing poorly."

"I got better."

"But at what cost?" Buck sighed dramatically. "What are they going to call you now, I wonder? No-Eyes?"

"It's got a ring to it."

Buck snorted. "It certainly doesn't! But not to worry—we'll workshop a better one."

"I've got enough nicknames already, I think."

"I always thought 'Misfortune' was a strange one, but now I think I get what Brimstone was on about."

"I do have a name, you know."

Buck laughed brightly. "But that would take away your whole aura of mystery! And mystery, as it happens, is incredibly sexy." He wriggled his sword hand against the one weighing it down. "Now, I suggest you take a step back, my good Misfortune."

"Or what?"

"Or I might just kiss you on the lips. And we wouldn't want to make either of these fine ladies jealous, would we?"

Will stood statue-still, watching, his one eyeball moving beneath the lid. Then, finally, he cracked a dangerous grin of his own and took two long steps back, moving much more fluidly than he had just a few hours earlier. Sam went over to brace him—and keep him from starting any fights—but he waved her off.

"You've done well by us," Will said. Bending at the waist, he sketched out a smooth bow. "Thank you. You've saved my minder here a great deal of heartache. For that, and for the good of the world, I am at your service. My lord."

Buck took his hand off his blade to clap his hands with a delighted laugh. "You know, this is not the way I saw our next meeting playing out. But, for some reason, I'm glad it did. Please stand up, One-Eye, before you start to embarrass me in front of my collectivist friends."

Will straightened with the tiniest grimace, a hand pressed to his stomach. "As you wish."

Sam took him by the arm and would not abide any of his childish stubbornness this time, guiding him back toward the bench.

"Have you two had anything to eat yet?" Buck asked. "Personally, I could go for some supper. Why don't we break bread to celebrate our new friendship?"

Will hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "That sounds good. Sam is hungry."

Huh?

Once he said it, she realized that she really was hungry. Fucking starving, in fact. She'd barely had any appetite for the last two weeks, eating in small nibbles that had no room to settle in a stomach already stuffed full of worry. Now, though, just the mention of food was enough to get her guts rumbling ominously.

"Good!" Buck turned to his men, Dawn sticking tightly to his side, and said: "Guys, would you mind fetching some tables and chairs and stuff? It would be nice to eat in the open air, I think. Oh, and maybe tell the kitchen to whip up something yummy."

"Uh…" said one of them, scratching at his head. "I don't think you should be left without protection." Based on the way he was stealing looks at Will, it was clear where his concern lay.

"Nonsense!" Buck replied. "I'm not some little roadside waif, am I? Besides, if some dastardly type does manage to scale the walls and tries to snatch my pearls, I have two excellent protectors right here." He made a sweeping gesture that included both Will and Sam. He turned his head to look at them, grinning like a little kid. "Isn't that right?"

"I'm not half the killer I used to be, I'm afraid," Will said, "but my surveillance capabilities are still top notch, and Sam here has arms to make the Devil Queen sweat. You're in good hands."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Buck motioned more enthusiastically toward Will and said: "See?" as though they had all just heard undeniable proof.

The green-clad woodsmen looked skeptical in the extreme. "But he was Brimstone's dog," said a young woman. "And didn't he try to kill you?"

"That was all an unfortunate misunderstanding, entirely my fault. Anything beyond that is just a bit of friendly banter. As for his working relationship with our dearly departed ex-sovereign, I've been led to understand that it was an act from the start."

"Of course he'd say that! Look at him—the man's a snake! He'll change his tune every day of the week if it benefits him."

"Hey!" Sam called, jaw quivering with tension. "Take that back!"

The woman snorted up a gob of snot and spat in their general direction. "You've gotta be one dumb broad to get taken in by a bastard like that. I guess with some women, all it takes is a bit of mediocre dick to knock all the sense clean out of her head."

Sam's face went hot, teeth clenched so tight she could hear them creaking. She didn't care about being insulted—that was fine—but for them to look down on Will? After everything he had sacrificed?

She would never stand for that.

"Wanna fight about it, then?" she growled. "You're brave enough to say that shit to my face—how about you repeat it to my fist?"

The woman gave a lazy grin, and made a point of showing the ten AP crystals on her arm as she threw back her cloak. "You're on, pup."

"Then—"

Sam cut off when Will softly patted the hand holding onto his left arm. She looked down, found him smiling up at her, both eyes closed.

"Relax," he said calmly. "You're hurting me."

Sam realized that she had been squeezing him way too tight and instantly let up. "Sorry! I didn't…!"

"I know. It's okay."

"As much as a bona fide cat fight sounds like excellent evening entertainment," Buck said, gesturing for calm, "we're all friends here. Let's kiss and make up, shall we?"

The female ranger did not reply, gaze still intently fixed on Sam.

Buck sighed. "Oookay, here we go. As always, we will settle this dispute democratically. Who among us thinks that One-Eye can be trusted?" The lord raised one finger into the air, indicating his own vote. Smiling.

Dawn, hunched by his side, looked like she wanted to be sick. But her butchered mitt came up a second later.

The rangers eyed their lord reluctantly for a good while. Then, slowly, their hands began to come up. Though Buck made a big show of 'democratic' decisions, it was really just despotism by a prettier name. When push came to shove, none of his followers were ever willing to defy their leader.

The woman was last to raise her hand, doing so only when her comrades began muttering sharply at her. The glare she maintained the whole time made fairly clear the fact that her opinion had not changed in the slightest.

"Very good!" Buck said, and clapped his hands with an air of finality. "Now, Francine, I believe you owe our two friends a sincere apology."

For a moment, the glare of the woman named Francine slid onto her leader. Then her features slowly softened. Turning back to Will and Sam, she inclined her head slightly and said: "I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive my rudeness."

"You—" Sam began, but was cut off almost instantly.

"There's nothing to forgive," Will said, and disentangled himself from Sam's grip on his sleeve. He strode forward, the smile on his face only managing to make him look more predatory, and offered the woman a handshake. Though he carried no weapons on him at all, he looked like he was one provocation away from carving someone open with his bare hands.

Sam had no idea how he was able to constantly project that kind of cold menace regardless of his expression or body language, but it was clear that everyone could feel it. Francine shuffled an instinctive half-step back, and was grasping her dagger before a pointed look from Buck made her desist.

It sort of seemed like Will was toying with them, a tiny derisive edge to his knife-sharp smile that made it seem like he had no respect at all for the person opposite. Then again, it was subtle enough that Sam couldn't be quite sure that she wasn't imagining things. Whatever he was doing, she was pretty sure that he wasn't doing himself any favors in the rangers' eyes.

But damn, if it wasn't hot.

With great reluctance, the female ranger crept forward, inching her left hand forward like she was sticking it through the bars of a lion's cage. Will grasped it, held it for several seconds, his smile perfectly fixed. Something about his closed eyes made him seem even more dangerous. You could never be sure where he was looking, which made it feel like he was taking in everything at once. Shit, for all Sam knew, maybe he could.

"I'm Will Greene," he said in a smooth, friendly tone. "I understand your reservations about me, but I hope you can trust Lord Buck's assurance that we're on the same team. I expect we'll be seeing more of each other from now on."

The woman seemed to take the last part as a threat; went stiff, lips pressed tight. Finally, she muttered: "Francine. Sure."

"Such a heartwarming union of purpose!" Buck declared. "Lovely to see everybody getting along. Absolutely delightful. Now that we're beyond that little dispute, how are we looking on the tables?"

"Right away, Buck," Francine murmured, and stepped rapidly away from Will. She headed for the keep interior, and the other rangers soon followed, leaving only four people in the garden under an afternoon sky of deepening gold.

"Really sorry about that, guys," Buck said with a sheepish little chuckle once they were alone. "My friends can be a bit overprotective at times." He sighed dramatically. "Woe, the curse of being beautiful!"

"All good," Will replied.

"This time," Sam added. "Next time that bitch says some shit like that about Will, I'll have her coughing up teeth."

Buck laughed. "Meeeow. Where the hell did you find this one, One-Eye? She's adorable."

Will just smiled.

When the rangers returned with a table, Buck told them off, saying they needed one more, along with ten chairs. Everyone but Will and the lord himself stiffened at the idea that he intended for all of them to eat together, but having just been chastised the rangers set themselves to carrying out his wishes without fuss, and soon all ten of them found themselves clustered about a long table setting by flickering candle light. Buck sat at one end, Dawn on his right side and Will on his left. Sam, in turn, was on Will's left. The guards had thrown aside their cloaks and were silently stewing into their drinks, occasionally throwing sharp looks at Will and Sam and looking like they wanted to be throwing sharp steel instead.

Will made no sign that he noticed their animosity. At the same time, Sam was sure that not a single twitch slipped past him.

Feeling all hot, she put a hand on his good thigh, leaned in, and whispered: "When'd you go and get so fucking hot, nerd?"

Will smirked, and cracked his one eye at her. "Slow your roll there, big girl. I know it must be hard given my raw sexual magnetism, but at least try to keep your hands off me until we finish eating."

He was clearly joking, but she didn't know if he could tell how close to the mark he was hitting.

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