Page 60 of Search for the Lost

“The other way is with a guide, and through the power of Order and Chaos.”

Leo brightened, sitting up and smiling, his fluffy white robe slipping to reveal….

Crispin forced his mind—and his eyes—back to business. “Yes. Mother has some small mastery of both, from her own… dalliance with Chaos. And with a proper guide⁠—"

“Like Wolfschmuck.” Leo said it with particular relish.

“With Dietrich, and working together, you and I should be able to make a path through the forest to her secret cabin.”

“Lair.” Aspin and Leo said it together, and then looked at each other and grinned.

Crispin didn’t like seeing his beloved and his brother becoming so chummy. Not one bit.

Minkis snickered, and Crispin shot him a dirty look. “In any case, we will set off tomorrow, promptly half an hour after sunrise.”

“So early?” Leo yawned, apparently having moved beyond his crisis of jealousy.

Crispin nodded. “Dietrich⁠—”

“Wolfscum.”

“Our guide says it may take most of the day to get there, and I don’t want to be in the middle of the Black Forest after dark.”

Aspin nodded. “Makes sense.”

Crispin stared at his brother. Who are you? “Um… thanks?”

“Maybe we should all get to bed.” Leo fingered the opening in his robe suggestively.

Crispin grinned. “Yeah, I’m, um, tired.”

Aspin snorted. “Get a room, you two.” He glanced at the open door to their bedroom. “Oh, you already have one.” He heaved himself off the couch. “See you at the crack of dawn. I saw a cute Piwati downstairs whose antlers I’d like to⁠—”

“Good night, Asp.” The less he heard about Aspin’s sexual escapades, the better.

“Night Elly.” The door closed behind him. And this time Crispin didn’t mind the nickname at all.

“Come on, Order Boy. I’ve got a mess for you to clean up.” Leo posed next to their bedroom doorway in what he must have thought was an alluring way.

It was actually goofy and stupid. And that, surprisingly, turned Crispin on even more.

Not long after Dawn cracked her whip and woke him out of a sound sleep in Leo’s arms, Crispin and the others gathered at the end of the road, under the shadow of the Black Forest. The road itself ended abruptly, a ragged line of cobblestones, some of them cracked in half as if the forest had suddenly sprung up one night and destroyed the rest of the roadway.

Crispin stared at the forest in trepidation, his stomach in his throat, which was a most uncomfortable accommodation of organs, and one his body was not well suited to.

In the distance, the WOLFs were already up and about, as evidenced by their bloodcurdling howls and yowls and… somehow even more frightening, yodels.

His hand unconsciously sought Leo’s, who squeezed back hard, letting Crispin know his human was just as scared as he was.

“We could go back for a second breakfast. There was a plate of crumpets that I didn’t get to sample, which looked almost as good as Mrs. Turtlerump’s.”

“I think we’ve had more than enough to eat,” Aspin said. He didn’t sound scared. In fact, he was doing that annoying fae warrior thing where you could almost imagine him in armor with a flaming sword, ready to march into battle against the most heinous hell beasts and raffaturtles. Almost.

Dietrich puffed out his chest in an outsize display of manhood, apparently trying to out-Aspin Aspin. “If the three of you⁠—”

Minkis chittered angrily on Crispin’s shoulder.

“The four of you⁠—”