Page 20 of Shifting Winds
I stiffened in surprise.
“Your father and I are close friends, Evie. He trusts me with almost everything.”
“Almost,” I said. “Why not everything?”
“Because we are fae,” he said, as if that explained everything.
A massive creature stepped before us, a thing of bark and limbs.
Conor stopped. “Hello, Birch.”
The creature shrank down and down until a man about my height stood before us. He had nut brown hair, pale skin, and swirling green eyes. “Conor. Who is this delightful creature? She smells of flowers and mystery.”
“Birch, please meet Evie, Cernunnos’s daughter.”
The tree man blinked. “Daughter, you say?” His eyes narrowed. “Are you sure? She looks nothing like the crabby king.”
A bubble of laughter escaped me.
Conor sighed. “You’d best hold your tongue, Birch. Our liege is on edge tonight.”
I glanced at him. “He is?”
“Few people bring their children around people like us, my dear,” Birch said before Conor could speak. “Though you are no longer a child. Why has he kept you from us for so long?”
I didn’t see the harm in telling the truth. “Humans raised me.”
Birch frowned. “You’re no changeling. Your blood leaks magic. Strange, interesting magic.”
“You can smell blood?” I blurted. Did he sense my Chimera magic? Cernunnos hadn’t said anything about the potential for someone sniffing out the secrets my blood held, and I hadn’t thought to ask.
“One of his many, annoying talents.” Conor’s voice dripped with exasperation.
Birch’s smile held an edge. “And a quite useful one.”
He gave us a small bow. “I must be off, but I will see you soon, Evie. There is much we should discuss.”
Birch disappeared, there one moment and gone the next. “He left the dinner entirely?”
Conor rolled his eyes. “Who knows. Birch is an enigma wrapped in tree bark.”
“You don’t like him?”
“I love the tree. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t aggravate the shit out of me.”
And so it went, on and on. Dozens of introductions, numerous cryptic comments, and edged words. My head was spinning by the time Conor steered me toward the table and my father.
When Conor left me with a wink and a smile, Cernunnos leaned over. “How’d it go?”
“Everyone here is a silver-tongued liar,” I whispered.
My father blinked before laughing out loud. “Yes,” he said when he finally composed himself. “You’ve discovered a fae’s universal talent.”
“And you?” I asked, reaching for the napkin to spread it over my lap. “If everyone here has a silver tongue, is yours golden?”
Sadness touched his face. “When I have to be. But never to you.”
My heart flipped over. “Is that why you don’t answer my questions?”
