They drudged through the fields, in no way hurrying to escape the crackling and burning of the house behind them. Fanli lumbered forward like someone brought back from the dead—or nearing it.

Each time Pest tried to approach her, she flinched and recoiled. On his third attempt, her threatened tears convinced him to keep his distance.

He wasn't at all thrilled nor surprised to see the hunchback's house closing in. As he was the leader, that would be the place to visit.

What shocked Pest, however, was a glint out of the corner of his left eye that followed his every move. He doubted himself at first but paused in his stride to look. It vanished.

Now he was going crazy as well.

The cold greeting from the hunchback was a new revelation. One more surprise awaited Pest when the hunchback stepped back and bade them entry. Mother. She was here, not at all her usual self. For one thing, she stood rather than fly.

Pest wasn't the only one concerned.

Father tried to rush to her. When she shook her head, he heeded her warning.

Once Fanli stepped in, she pressed her back against the wall by the door, then slid down to rest, her knees at her chest.

While the hunchback, Wyrn, and his wife stood, Pest's parents sat. They didn't seem capable of standing, not after a hand slammed down on the table.

"Explain this," Wyrn demanded. "Now!"

Father wouldn't move but said, "I assume it was not good news with your daughter."

Silence.

A pin could drop and deafen everyone there.

Pest expected his mother to come to his rescue. He hadn't wanted them finding out like this but now that it was out there, there was no need to keep hiding.

"He's a fairy," Father drawled. "What do you expect from a fairy?"

Wen still stood in her mother's embrace, utterly lost. Ved was the only one giving them distance. He rested on the door, not far from where Fanli sat.

Pest, sitting on the other side of the room, took interest in the floor, anything to avoid her broken gaze.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," the hunchback barked.

"But we'd explained it," Mother insisted. "Several times. Several times Matax and I explained it to him. We made it clear he shouldn't do this. Matax even helped him select a bedfellow early to make certain this would not happen."

"Wait. What's going on?" Wen broke her mother's hold finally. "What was all that? All the nonsense about checking me for magic?"

"All that," the hunchback said, "was you keeping the worst secret of your life." He turned his sights to Pest. "Because you've slept with a fairy. Has she not?"

Much like Fanli, Pest had nothing to say.

"That doesn't explain anything," Wen cried. "Father, what's going on? I told you looking for your support, not humiliation. I did nothing wrong."

"Not you," Pest's father answered. "The human child."

Wen lost patience. "That doesn't explain anything! Stop coddling me and just be direct for once."

"Darling," Wen's mother said, taking her daughters hands. "We've told you that Pest wasn't an option."

"He's going by Abri now. And yes, I know, but nobody wants to tell me why."

Her father scoffed. "He can tell you why." He asked Pest, "How long now? A year? Two?"

At the silence, Pest's father growled. "Answer him."

"Three months," Pest admitted.

Teeth gritted, Wen's father asked, "And how many?"

That, took time. Pest had nearly lost count. He gave the best guess he could.

Wen's mother gasped. "Three months. You've slept with forty women in three months?"

"Slept with?" Wen regarded her mother in confusion and shock. "Mother, you're mistaken. He isn't like that."

"A bit over forty," Pest grumbled.

The silence that time stole all feelings of hope from the room.

"I don't understand," Wen said, turning to her mother. "I thought he and I would get married."

"There's no marriage for him, darling. That's what I tried to tell you. He's...he's a fairy. He may look human and maybe he'll never turn into a true Fae, but he behaves like one. We—" She glanced at her husband then confessed to her daughter, "We'd hoped he would be fully human. Even after his father voiced his concern, we...were hopeful it wouldn't affect his victims, but we were wrong."

Wen looked from both her parents, again and again. Tears tumbled down her cheeks.

"I still don't understand what any of you are saying! And anyway, he's not a fairy!"

"No. He's no true fairy." Fanli picked her head up and explained, "Yet. But he does carry the blood of the Fae. I assure you, I can see it. So... I guess the basic principle still holds true. Any woman visited by him intimately will never enjoy another man. Meaning all the women he's bedded will soon find out the hard way not to trust a handsome face." When her eyes settled on Pest, he felt crushed by the palpable hurt there. "And I can't believe you knew all too well what the consequences would be but didn't care."

"I cared," Pest admitted. He hung his head and muttered into his chest, "I just couldn't stop."

Outside, thunder rolled.

"It's not his fault," Wen's mother explained. "Fairies are created for a task. Once that task is at an end, there's an empty feeling that eats away at them. They must fill it up. Much like genuine generosity fuels your treasure, admiration and affection fills a fairy up. So long as the woman wanted him in kind, the draw is strong for him to answer the temptation."

Wen's tears had ebbed but not her shock.

"And it never lasts," the hunchback said, turning to Pest. "Hence the reason for a steady bedfellow—someone you love." His gaze settled on Pest's father. "Something I warned you of."

It was the first time Pest knew his father to be meek. There was no love lost between him and the hunchback. In fact, Father often spewed his disapproval for the way the Jaffo leader handled things.

Tonight, he was slow to respond. "He rejected his bedfellow. Partly...because of my harsh words."

Pest's jaw dropped. He meant to shout out in protest, but a different voice cut him off.

"That wasn't why." Fanli watched the floor. "It was because he hadn't meant to choose an ogre and he didn't know how to get rid of me. But rest assured," she said, picking her head up to stare across the room at Pest, "he'll have no trouble getting rid of me now."

A banging came from the door. In the distance, lightning closed in. Another clap of thunder accompanied yet another knock.

The hunchback let out a sigh and said, "That would probably be the dragons. I really don't have time for this."

"Come out," a voice boomed. "We have business with the Jaffo leader."

Wen's father told his wife, "Put Fanli and Pest in a different room. We need to contain this before it gets out. Preferably not the same room if he's done this to her as well."

But before Wen's mother could comply, Fanli stood on her own. She marched to Wen's room and slammed the door. Pest shot to his feet and followed. There was hurried confusion but the ruckus by the dragon was of bigger concern.

"Wen! Not you. Stay out here. They've come to see your father. He needs the help."

Maybe those words worked but for Pest there would be no rescue. Fanli stood with her back to him.

Pest worried for Fanli—she'd been quiet the whole time.

He wanted to reach for her, but equally, didn't dare. She felt like a fool, but he looked like one. But it would only get worse when she found out what he'd done with her treasure.

On any other day, he'd beg her to go home but one look at her trembling and he knew that wasn't an option. He feared she wouldn't get far before the lament took her.

If she ran off now and anything happened to her, he'd never forgive himself. So, while she refused to turn to him, he kept clutching and releasing his fists to stave off his urge to hold her.

"I'm sorry. And I should have told you but—"

She whipped around to face him. "Where's my treasure?"

Pest's breath hitched. His face heated. He should have spoken faster—he should have lied. But he wasn't sure she could survive any more of his deception.

Therefore, he did something that shocked him—he pushed past the tightness in his throat and told her...the truth.

"But she's not human," Fanli explained, close to tears.

Pest couldn't argue that. "She was when we did it."

That wasn't the proper answer.

When she didn't respond, Pest risked picking his head up. He reached for her, but she stepped back.

That one action made his world shrink around him. It wasn't hate in her expression, but something far worse—disappointment.

"Please, give me some time to figure it out," Pest begged. "I'll make it up to you. I swear it."

Fanli trembled. "I don't know what's worse, that ridiculous number of your conquests or the fact that you never once asked anything of me." She shed a tear but no more came. "I guess I should have practiced the human transformation well enough. You didn't even care about being with a dragon." After letting out a deep breath, Fanli nodded. "It's me you hate."

"No." Pest parted his lips, but the words wouldn't come. He sucked in a deep breath then breathed out, "It's because I love you why I never wanted to do that to you."

She wasn't convinced and the look of contempt hurt most of all.

"You don't understand what it's like. I can't stop it. I didn't care about those women. I didn't even know half their names. And the more they want me, the more I want them. But at least they want me, because I fear what I'd do if they didn't! I can't stop it."

His desperation was met with ennui. "Yet that didn't happen with me."

This time, it was easier to admit, "Because I love you."

She smiled, but it looked twisted. "Your gift burned," she taunted. "It burned. If the world ended tomorrow, ogre treasure would still remain. Yours burned because it held no sincerity. You gave my treasure away and got something false in its place. But I can't understand the why. Why!" At his readied words, she warned, "Say you love me again and I'll bite your head off."

Unable to meet her gaze, Pest shook his head. He didn't know where the words came from when he said, "Because even if you looked human, you'd still be an ogre. And everybody knows it. And I'm tired of the attention—to be on display. Being with an ogre, being with you...is the display."

She didn't move but once she took one step, she charged toward him. He steeled himself for something to connect to his chest or head but a second later, the door simply shut.

Pest couldn't will his body to react to him for some time. He stared at the window now revealed in her absence. Tears welled up in him, threatening to erupt with each ragged breath he took.

What had he said and why had he said it? His father was the one who hated what she was. His father, not him. He didn't care. He never cared. Not even once. He never cared. He didn't care.

His chest felt heavy. A force pushed against it, crushing him despite the large room. The world closed in, and then rushed away yet again revealing his hypocrisy.

It was in that moment that he caught that glint again. He blinked, then blinked once more, stunned to find the faun staring at him from outside the window, Fanli's treasure held up in his grip.

"Friend! I've finally found you. I cannot, in good conscience, take this."

That treasure. That blasted treasure, in the presence of dragons.

Fanli's treasure.

Pest merely stared at it but suddenly the room expanded and there he stood, in front of the window.

"I gave it away," Pest explained.

The faun forced a bitter smile. "And I'm giving it away, too." He held out both hands, waiting for Pest to do the same.

Pest set his mind to refuse. He was sure he had. But another blink brought the dress into his grip somehow.

"It means the world to ogres," the faun explained. "The world. I don't feel right using something so tampered with love. You've bled for this. And that suffering was meant for her. Was it not? Only a true bastard would use it."

A true bastard.

Pest focused on the faun and felt nothing.

There was no blinking with things happening without him knowing how. There were no excuses. No. Only one thing remained in Pest's world—his father's words.

It was in this moment that Pest understood himself—his life. Everything. He was a fairy. He looked human but didn't act it. Because his father looked human but didn't act it.

And if it took a true bastard to use someone else's treasure, then Pest decided to be just that.

He looked from the treasure to the faun and the big brown eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

"Friend, no!" the faun warned.

But it was too late. Pest made his wish.