"I didn't do anything," Natalie said. "I told you I wouldn't, didn't I? But, um, Aina might have done a few things to me."

  Jordan gave her perhaps the fttest look in all of existence.

  Natalie's ears burned.

  "And, um," she tinued. "Someone might've found us … I mean, her, on me, getting intimate … in the middle of a public alleyway."

  The ft look turned disbelieving.

  "Aina said I should go find you, and that we should take an early train back to Aradon," Natalie finished. "Apparently her dad is … protective. Might make a big fuss. We don't know how long it'll be before he finds out, but Aina knows it'll happen. Apparently the woman who found us is loyal to him, so there's no way she stays quiet."

  Jordan stared at her.

  Finally, she forlornly looked down at her half-eaten pastry, a out an enormous sigh. She ed it up in the paper it had e in and walked over to the bin, tossing it irash.

  "Natalie," Jordan said. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

  "H-Hey."

  "Do you really have to fuything that wiggles its ass at you? Anything at all?" She walked up to Natalie and poked her in the chest. Narrow green eyes scrutinized her. "Do you not already get your pick of us, three times a day?"

  "It just happened," Natalie stammered, raising her hands in self defense. "And really! I didn't fuck her. It was all Aina." She g to her flimsy excuse, because really, it was all she had.

  Jordan groaned, and Natalie's ears burned hotter.

  "I'm finding you a chastity cage," she said ftly. "And I'll carry the key around. You'll need a permission slip whenever you want to fueone." She rubbed her forehead. "Well, let's go collect the team. I was having fun, you know."

  "Sorry." She really was. Maybe Jordan had a point. Her self-trol had been at a record low when it came to Aina, and that was saying something, sideriandards for recklessness.

  In a hurry, they went and gathered their teammates. Each of them took the news in a different way. Sofia reacted much the same as Jordan, with ara helping of e. Liz seemed exasperated but not surprised—and also worried. She cared most about reputation among them, for obvious reasons. Ana they found st, off in a secluded area sitting by herself on a bench, enjoying some solitude. She saw her four teammates approag, Natalie's embarrassment, and stood.

  "It's happehen?" she asked.

  Natalie guessed she retty predictable.

  Before long, they had extricated themselves from the celebration and were hurrying back to The Kraken's Heath to collect their belongings. stop would be the train station, and it would be pure luck whether there was one headed for Aradon soon. Odds weren't low, though. Plentiful traffic to the capital.

  "Holy," Jordan said in the carriage ride over. "It's our fault. Why'd we let her out of ht? It was obvious what would happen."

  "I agree," Sofia said. "We have no oo bme but ourselves. Like leaving a cat in a room with ip."

  Natalie couldn't help but think that was rather patronizing … but maybe fair, sidering the circumstances. She had o stand o came to defending her self-trol.

  She sighed, slumping into her seat. Yes, this was definitely all her fault.

  But, admittedly, a small part of her couldn't help but think:

  At least the pussy was good.

  It robably for the best that she didn't voice that to her teammates.

  ***

  By some miracle, they escaped Tarenhelm without issue. The rain had only been forty-five minutes from departure, and that hadn't been quiough for the Baron to discover what had happened and e chasing after them—whether he would even do something like that.

  They made it to Te well past evening, with night having takehey hauled their luggage to their respective dorms and unpacked. Despite her exasperation and annoyance, Jordan wasn't actually mad; she cuddled up with Natalie like normal that night. Though it went no further than cuddling. That might've been because Natalie didn't initiate, not wanting to push her luck. Could've just been that they were both exhausted too. Natalie had been through a wringer of a day. Those bruises from the chieftain had gone nowhere.

  The m, they made their report to Tehey omitted anything to do with Greed and Natalie's css, instead simply expining what had happened—including the golden veins, but not any theories of their own. The only part they ht lied about was the shards of Greed Natalie had absorbed. All else was unfiltered.

  Later, she wasn't sure how long from now, she would be meeting with the King to give a full report. Liz had work to do on her side te that. The cept disoriented Natalie. A meeting with the King. How insane.

  The day at Te passed like normal. M training, followed by csses, then lunch, and academics. A part of her started to rex, w whether anything would even e from her indiscretion with Aina. The team had been split oher to tell Te what Natalie had done, but they had decided against it. It ossible the Baron wouldn't want rumors to spread and would fume in silence.

  Theher shoe dropped. At the end of the academic day, a Te official fetched her, a woman in a prim suit and high heels. The dean of the academy wao speak with her, she told Natalie. She tried not to panic; it ossible that she'd bee for because the dean wanted crification on their bizarre quest report. In fact, that was likely the case, logically speaking.

  But her hopes were squashed when, stepping into the dean's offiatalie found herself in a meeting with not just one of the most powerful and iial women in the world, the dean of Te Delving Academy, but also Barowood.

  Aher of them looked happy in the slightest.