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settled as she stroked him behind the ears.
     
    * * * *
     
    “Lady, you have bewitched my steed.” Ander was calmer now and looked over at his fearless steed of the Wild Hunt as she scratched his ears and ran her hands over the lithe body. He felt both foolish and jealous. After a few minutes she tired again and fell asleep. Abax remained with her and watched carefully as attendants came in to change the dressings on her feet.
    Fiona was his match in every way. So it was logical for Abax to give his loyalty and affection to her. But nestling with her was a little extreme. What power did she have to take the attention of his steed from him?
    He mulled the question over as they attended to the damage that had been done to her legs. Elven healing would have to be employed, or she would not be able to move painlessly again. Mythos was hovering over her feet now, magic flowing into her wounded tissues. She would never know how her feet had been healed, she would just assume that it had been the rapid medical care she had received. It was the way they had always dealt with humans.
    Fiona’s magic was finding and therein lay the secret of Abax’s loyalties. Fiona was a hunter. She could find anything. And Abax was, first and foremost, a steed of the Wild Hunt. Ander almost laughed aloud as he figured it out.
    The steed had given his loyalty to the best hunter in the family. That was unmistakably Fiona. He would have to get used to being second best.
    As long as she kept looking at him with trust in her eyes, he could manage.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 11
     
     
    Waking up was a tricky thing. Fiona was still pinned to the bed, but a delicate wiggling of her feet had them feeling much better. The pain that had woken her several times in the night had faded.
    It was her three visitors that had her befuddled. Well, four. Artemis was hanging back, near the door. A quick look to her right let her know Ander was gone, but Abax was still snuggled against her. He had shifted into a small cat, but his eyes were still the same.
    “Fiona. We are so happy to see you again. It has been so long.” The woman who came forward was familiar. “I am Westa Lucidine. Lucky. We met at camp. This is Valentine and you may remember Hannah?”
    The familiarity came back to her in a rush. The girlish giggles, the late night tutorials on magic, given in complete and companionable silence. “Holy crap. How did you end up here?”
    “The same way you did. We were stalked by masters of the Wild Hunt. And we let them catch us. Well, all except Valentine. She was raised here.” Lucky was taking up the bulk of the conversation, the other two were fluffing her pillows and checking on her bandages.
    “You are able to leave the infirmary today, but because of your injuries, you won’t be able to get around much for a few weeks. So, we decided to have an orientation meeting here today.”
    Valentine spoke, her voice like the light breath of bells, “As you may have noticed, Silverwood is full of elves and other magical creatures. All men.”
    “I did.”
    “They have volunteered to try and find mates among the humans, to bring more magic into the modern age. They came through a few years ago to acclimate themselves to modern times and, when the bearers of the new magic gained complete control over their talents, they left to court them.”
    “That would be us then. The girls from that year at Camp Silverwood.”
    “Yep.”
    “So, Artemis is one of them?”
    “Yep.”
    “So, what is the grand plan here then? I already have my match.”
    “Why it is to help find matches for those who want regular women. We cannot simply let them run into the local population to beguile the local women away from their men. They deserve women who are as exceptional as they are. That is what we are here for. Matchmaking.”
    “You have to be joking.”
    “I am not. You talent is location. Lucky is luck, Hannah is out of body transport, and I am keyed toward