Page 4 of Shifting Winds
Cernunnos looked uncomfortable and sad. We stared at each other for a long moment before he turned and pulled up a stool, scooting it closer. “Tell me what you’re doing,” he said softly.
My hands trembled. “I’m separating and repotting the arugula so I can give it out to the people I work with. Caelan may want some, too.”
He nodded. “And you don’t use your magic to do so?”
“I use my magic to boost its health and growth. Potting plants allows me to know the soil I’m using and tells me what it needs.” I lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Plus, it’s therapeutic.”
“May I?” he asked, gesturing for the trowel.
My brow furrowed. I waited for the other shoe to drop, but Cernunnos sat there, one tanned hand resting on my workbench. “Fine.”
I pushed the arugula and trowel over, handed him five pots, and scooted the large container of dirt closer. Then I pulled another tray of plants over for me to work on.
After I showed him how I repotted plants, Cernunnos got to work.
Half an hour later, the Fae King was happily potting other things at my direction, boosting some of my older plants with a soft touch of his fingers.
Eventually, the stress in my shoulders faded away, and I got into the rhythm of working with nature and my father’s unusual presence. Magic saturated the air, mine and Cernunnos’s natural power mingling together, different but similar.
Every plant in the greenhouse hummed with contentment, stretching and reaching for us both.
“You’ve never worked in a greenhouse like this?” I asked, breaking the long but comfortable silence.
A small smile. “The first thing you should learn about the fae is that most of us are old enough to forget about mundane work. Magic has become a catch all for us. If we can do something by barely lifting a finger, we will.” His hands and forearms were coated in black dirt, a satisfied gleam in his eyes as he propagated a new type of pothos I’d accidentally created.
Interesting. “Have you ever used that against one of them?”
Cernunnos laughed. “Considering you had to show me how to pot a seedling, I’m going with no. I’m just as guilty as the rest, perhaps even more so.” He carefully nudged dirt around the delicate cutting. “I’m older than everyone and never realized that perhaps I lean on my power more than I should.”
Warmth filled me at his words. “Well, I’m the expert at getting by with a wing and a prayer.”
Cernunnos stiffened. “Evangeline.”
“Don’t,” I whispered. If he apologized, I might break. “What’s done is done. I know you stayed away to keep me safe from Mom.”
He inhaled a heavy breath. “And now I don’t know if staying away was the right decision. But taking you back to my kingdom?” Cernunnos shook his head. “It is no place for a child.”
I slid a look his way. “And yet you want me to take your crown? What about me? What if I want children one day? Would you have me do as you did to me?”
My father’s shoulders slumped. “You chastise me like a child.” He shook his head and let out a short laugh. “And I deserve it. I should have known you wouldn’t bow down to my demands. You’ve yet to do so with anything in your life. The fact remains, Evie. My kingdom needs an heir. You are my only child.”
“Can you choose someone else? Does it have to be a child?”
Cernunnos pushed the pot away and took another, slowly filling it with dirt. “An heir is always a child, whether biological or adopted. But I would not trust anyone else to rule. You might not be human, but you live among humans. You understand them and think like them sometimes. The gods no longer inhabit the earth, but I am the land’s steward.”
I understood what he wanted and what he was saying, but I was barely equipped to take care of myself. “What about what I want?”
A thin smile. “Perhaps we can figure out a way for you to have the best of both worlds. There is always change when a new ruler arrives. The same will prove true for my kingdom.”
“And children?”
He cocked his head and studied me. “Do you truly wish for children after growing up the way you did?”
“I don’t often think about it,” I admitted. “But Caelan knows what I am now.”
His brows rose. “You wish for them with the wolf?”
“Not necessarily. No one has known what I am for many years. Who’s to say I could even have children with him?” I shook my head. “And how can I have my life and my shop, Caelan and his Keep, and be queen of…” I waved my hand. “Your stuff, too?”
