Page 8 of Shifting Winds
“What I usually say before I get wrapped up in it anyway.” I slumped against the desk. “Although, I think he came around to slowing things down.”
“Really?” Ash sipped from a large water bottle. He might be in human form, but he drank water like an elephant. “I’ve never met a reasonable fae.”
“Hey!”
“Present company excluded,” he added with a wink. “Sometimes.”
“Yes, it’s not like he has a choice. If he wants someone of blood relation to take over, he has to wait for me.” Not that I would. Dealing with my mother was bad enough. Thinking ofdealing with all the fae made me want to close myself in a dark room and scream.
Moira’s brows rose. “Are you thinking of doing it?”
I snorted. “Right now? No. Who’s to say what the future holds, but I don’t see myself ever leading an entire faction of people.”
Moira’s lips pursed. “And what about Caelan’s people?”
“Even the shifters.” I groaned. “Maybe I shouldn’t have acted on my feelings.” Doing so had opened a door I wasn’t sure I could close. Or even wanted to. But just like me, Caelan came with complications. I didn’t regret what we’d done, and I cared about the Shifter Lord more than I’d ever cared about anyone else.
“Don’t apologize for following your heart.” Moira topped off my mug. “Now, the store opens in twenty minutes, and you’re on register duty because you’ve been slacking off the last few weeks.”
She winked and tipped her mug at me. “We have an anniversary party in two weeks. I’ll be in the back working on a few of the arrangements, but they specifically requested you to do the main centerpiece. They want one of those automatons like you did for Caelan the first time.”
I gave her a dubious stare. “Hopefully not as involved as the others?”
“Nope. A simple scene, something romantic. I’ll have to check my notes.” She waved and headed to the back, leaving Ash and me alone in the front.
Ash had gone back to his own worktable and was occupied with scrutinizing the branching pattern on his newest project, a Japanese maple bonsai. A cool thread of green magic trickled from his fingers as he coaxed the bonsai to grow the way he thought it should.
I smiled and pulled the register over. Many things demanded my attention today. The least I could do was cross a few more things off the to-do list before I went home.
When I finally made it home, a letter wrapped in vines and divine magic lay tucked inside the screen door.
I set my bag down and opened it right away, not wanting the magic inside my house in case it was something unfriendly.
The parchment was thick and heavy, the ink the message was written with a deep, indigo blue.
The Court of Gods meets in two weeks’ time.
Attendance is not optional.
It was unsigned.
Chapter
Four
Iwoke up the next morning, the damning letter still clutched in my hand. My eyes felt like sandpaper. Most of the night I stared at the ceiling wondering if I should have died on that field in Scotland. Things would be so much easier if I had.
And as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I mentally slapped myself and dragged my maudlin rear end out of bed. I wasn’t the kind of fatalistic person who believed everything happened for a reason. I believed every decision you made led you to a certain path, and it’s the choices that came after that drove your life.
Coffee first. Contemplation second.
Joy Springs had chilled considerably, the outside temperatures plunging into the forties overnight. I shrugged on a wool and cashmere blend oversized sweater, wiggled my feet into a pair of wool slippers, and took my coffee on the back porch.
A massive gray wolf peered at me through the forest cover. My heart skipped a beat until my brain unscrambled.
“Come up,” I said quietly. “There are clothes in the top left drawer of my dresser. Want some coffee?”
The wolf trotted up the stairs and gently nudged me, careful not to spill my coffee. I gave him a healthy scratch under the neck and a gentle swat on the rear end. “I can’t believe you’re going to make me get up,” I muttered.
