Page 9 of The Autumn Prince

“Yes, sir. He had egg on toast and a glass of water.”

Minimal and boring.

“And does he always run around like this?” He was literally circling the room like the second hand on a clock.

“Yes, sir. He’s always very busy.”

Stressed and worried.

“Since the curse?”

“Oh, long before then.”

As I watched Incendis flit around the room yet again, I started to think my mission might just be to slow him down and stop him from working himself to death. I was actually very good at planning relaxing vacations. Very, very good.

Chapter 4

Iwas getting exhausted just watching Incendis poke his nose into every group of people. What was he even doing? Leading? Bothering? Like, he kept going around and around, hitting up the same table over and over again. I’d counted for a little while, and the max time he’d spent with a group had been almost exactly three minutes. With some sixty tables—it was hard to see through all the people to the back of the enormous room—that meant he was interrupting those people twenty times every hour.

Maybe he was a valuable member of each team. He could be giving great advice or imparting knowledge only he knew. Because if that wasn’t the case and he was being a micromanager, I knew I’d have killed him well before that twentieth visit if it was my table. These people either needed him absolutely desperately, or they were capable of incredible restraint.

“That damn kid’s going to work himself to death.”

Lars was back.

He had a point. “He looks very busy.”

“Needs to calm down.”

“He does seem very high strung.”

“Mmm…”

Lars thrust a tray at me with a burrito on it.

I looked at the burrito, and then at him. “You have burritos in the fae realm?”

“Humans don’t have exclusivity on literally anything, Mister Snotty-face.” He thrust the tray at me again, so I took the little plate my breakfast sat on. “Don’t get too excited about this thing, though, because it’s all mushrooms, seeds, and gourds or whatever-the-hell. Fall harvest kind of stuff.”

That sounded horrific, but I’d only had snacks for dinner last night. I bit into the burrito and discovered strips of steak. I could forgive a lot when given a good piece of meat.

“Good?” Lars asked.

I nodded, happily chewing.

“That’s goat meat, by the way.”

Fuck. I wasn’t sure I could swallow. Which wasn’t something I’d ever been against.

Lars smirked at me. “Beggars can’t be choosers when your whole world is locked in a curse.”

I gulped down that bite because he was probably right. I could believe there were a lot of environmental consequences to being trapped in autumn for three years. Looking back at Incendis, I wondered if maybe that was why him and everyone else looked so stressed.

Interrupting him might not be the way to go here.

“Who cast the curse on the court?” I took another bite of my burrito and definitely didn’t think about the adorable creature that had given its life for my breakfast.

No, I would not have been upset about the cow. Shut up.