Chapter 34

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

WREN

C aelan hums to himself as he puts his new dog back into the basket he apparently carried him over in.

"Hash Beauchamp is a Seelie fae?" I can't wrap my head around it. "You're sure?"

"He tricked me. The whole time, he tricked me." He shakes his head, sounding put-out but also impressed, as if someone fooling him is perhaps the most outrageous thing he's ever imagined.

"You said my house stank every time the brownie's shown up. Didn't Hash smell?"

"Well, yes, I smelled that wet dog odor as soon as I walked in the door of the place, but then Boner appeared, wet, limping, and absolutely foul in every way." He slips into a high-pitched baby voice, and my eyebrows shoot up as he boops the dog on its admittedly wet dog nose.

"I just can't believe it."

"I've noticed," Caelan says drily, then nudges my ribs with an elbow. "You aren't excited about the sapphires? And that I found out where they were? Don't you want to know? How are you not dying to know?"

"Of course I want to know, but…" I trail off, eyeing the panting, wheezing dog in the basket now hanging on Caelan's arm. "Frankly, I think we need to get that dog to Rosalina as soon as we can."

"Oh, I don't know," Caelan hesitates, then rolls his eyes, giving up. "Fine. I have a theory as to what's actually wrong with Boner, other than being limp, but I am open to what the Wild Oak Woods animal mage has to say." He licks his lips, and I impulsively pull his face down to mine, kissing him again.

"Fucking love the way you taste, little witch," Caelan growls, his fangs sharp against my mouth. "But my Boner needs help."

I burst out laughing, then raise one eyebrow and smooth a hand down the hard bulge in his pants. "I can see that."

He groans, capturing my mouth in his again… until a loud whistle makes my cheeks blush.

I pull away from him, laughing as I push one hand against his chest. "What were the plans you had in mind? The ones you said we had, you know, the ones I wasn't included in making?"

A bubble of happiness expands in my chest with every word. He made plans for us.

For us.

"Well," he says slowly. "The plan's now changed slightly, but you know what? I think it will be even better in the early evening." He takes my hand in his, pressing a soft kiss against my knuckles, his glacier-blue eyes drinking me in. "I can't keep you up too late," he finishes, his words full of meaning and heat.

"First, we'll take care of my dog, then I want to show you the inn." His eyes sparkle as he mentions his new project, and I can tell he's beyond excited to show me around. "We can have lunch… and then I thought we'd take a nap."

"A nap?" I laugh. "Why would you think I'd be able to sleep when there's so many other things we could do?"

Caelan steps closer, his mouth nuzzling against my ear, sending a shiver of excitement down my spine. "Because you'll need all your energy for what I have planned for you tonight."

My entire body clenches on nothing, and he laughs against my skin.

"Why am I not entirely sure what you mean by that?" I ask, pushing him away.

There's a completely wicked, lascivious look in his eyes, and I love that I'm the reason for it.

"Let's just say it's an ancient Unseelie fae tradition, my lovely witch," he murmurs, tracing a finger down my cheekbone.

"Is there a boner involved?" I ask, batting my eyelashes, adoring this playful side of him, so happy I'm the one that brings it out.

He tilts his head back and laughs, the sound so lovely it makes my heart leap, several people and creatures in the streets stopping to look our way.

I don't blame them one bit.

I'm addicted to the sound of it already.

Familiar Friends is a set of two small houses wedged together at the outskirts of town, a creamy white barn-like structure nestled next to Rosalina's pale sky-blue house and storefront. An owl sits on top of one of the open barn doors, looking for all the world like a statue used to scare off other birds.

Until its head swivels and it blinks two lamp-like eyes at us.

A white-spotted fawn snoozes under a tree next to Rosalina's barn, and a cat's curled up next to it, making biscuits on its hindleg, purring loud enough that I hear the animal before I see it.

Boner just stares vacantly around, his silvery cataracts likely obscuring his view of the rest of the animals.

We stroll into Rosalina's store, hand in hand, and Caelan pauses, looking around with an awe-struck expression.

I felt the same way the first time I wandered in here.

The front of Rosalina's house, where she conducts her business, is lined with large dark oak shelves stocked with all manner of animal food, treats, fresh-made medicinal ointments and poultices, as well as a collection of toys that rivals anything I ever saw in the northern city.

Pink fluff balls enchanted to float in front of playful cats, rechargeable with the right charm. An enchanted wooden rabbit for a dog to chase, never to be caught, always appearing back in the owner's hand when the dog gets too close. Exercise wheels for mice that create energy to be stored in a strange glass globe, crackling around the fragile perimeter when touched.

A trio of parrots hang on real tree branches suspended from the ceiling, a riot of blues and greens and deep reds, conversing in several different languages. Something thick and scaled contracts behind another chair, beady eyes and a forked tongue flicking out as the snake contemplates us.

A luna moth, larger than any I've ever seen before, sleeps on the door that leads to the rest of Rosalina's house.

It would be overwhelming, should be, even, were the animals all not so completely peaceful.

Fenn chirps before racing off to where Rosalina's mouse familiar is washing his face with careful pink paws, white whiskers trembling in excitement when she sees the fox, immediately swinging onto his fur and climbing happily on top of Fenn's head.

I let out an amused snort.

"Hey Wren," Rosalina emerges from around a corner, beaming at me. "And you must be Caelan. I've heard so much about you."

"From Squeak?" I ask, arching an eyebrow.

"My familiar loves to gossip," she agrees with a twinkle in her deep brown eyes. "But no, this was from a certain dog." Rosalina looks meaningfully at where Boner's snoozing in the basket.

"That's why we're here," Caelan says importantly, thrusting the basket onto a large table cleared off for the sole purpose of Rosalina's magical examinations. "My Boner has a limp."

I sigh, shaking my head, but Rosalina laughs. The sound cuts off abruptly as she swallows,

"He said you'd come in here and say something just like that."

Caelan goes still next to me. "Who?"

"Oh, an old friend." She picks Boner up off the table, stroking his head over and over again. "You called him Hash."

A faint hit of wild magic, nature magic, washes over me. It's as cold as an early spring rain, as fragrant as fresh-cut grass, the sweetness of honey on my tongue.

Boner barks, and I gasp.

The rheumy eyes, the silvery cataracts and drooling mouth are gone. So is the mangy coat, the too-long toenails, and the white muzzle.

"A fucking glamour," Caelan says in a low voice. "How did I not see it?"

"He told me you were coming, trickster," Rosalina tells him gently. "He said it was time to tame a trickster fae." She glances at me, her eyes kind, wise beyond the thirty years she seems. "He knew you would be well-suited for the task."

My jaw drops. "What?"

"Hash brought… her here? My Wren?"

His tone is so possessive, and it sends a girlish thrill of glee through me.

"He left her the store. He owned it, and when the last tenant left, he found you."

I have no words. "The Seelie fae brought me here?"

"They're watching you, Wren," she whispers, her voice hushed and serious. "They're watching all of us."

Caelan's hand tightens around mine, and he raises his chin. "I'm sure we're extremely entertaining. I, for one, would have it no other way. But the question is, why?"

"If I knew why, I could have helped Hash with whatever plan he started putting in place."

The young dog, Boner, limp no more, wags his entire back half, licking Rosalina's cheek.

"Your dog, like you said, was glamoured to look old. Hash was too, and so was the inn. That's about all I know, that and things in Wild Oak Woods have never been exactly what they seem."

The hair on the back of my neck stands up.

"I'm not trying to scare you, Wren," she says, wrinkling her nose. "Or you, Caelan. I just… can't shake the feeling that?—"

"Something's coming," I finish her sentence as we lock eyes.

She nods once, and Caelan clears his throat. "And you think Hash put me in charge of his… inn because of that?"

"He told me, when he last stopped by here with this dog?—"

"Boner," Caelan interrupts.

I shoot him a look, shaking my head.

"Yep, that's the one," Rosalina continues smoothly, "that something was afoot in the Seelie Court. Something that could change everything."

Magic licks across my skin, a veritable storm cloud of power, and my magic, while strong, is nothing, nothing like that.

Rosalina inhales, her nostrils flaring, as she studies Caelan.

Caelan is emanating power.

"The Dark Queen took my power from me, bound me to her when I was but a child. I hardly remember having it, hardly remember anything from that day at all. That's the way of the Underhill." He gives a crooked smile, a fang flashing.

My heart aches for the boy he must have been. I can only imagine the pain of having a piece of yourself stolen away.

"The binding she did," Rosalina glances at me, "it broke the Queen's binding, didn't it?"

"No, but claiming her as my mate did." Caelan's grin turns positively feral, a wild and beautiful thing. "You're right. So was Hash, the old bastard. Something is about to happen in Wild Oak Woods. The place he gave me, or I should say, tricked me into taking… it's more than an inn."

She leans forward; we both do, hanging on his every word. My skin prickles, an awareness of old magic at work, magic I don't understand, not really. My magic is measured in gold dust and gemstones and the spells worked into them. It's an ancient craft, sure.

But this?

This unbound power I feel creeping around the edges of my awareness, a movement in the periphery that's nothing when you go to look for it—it's something different. Something vast and terrifying and unknowable.

Boner barks, wriggling out of Rosalina's arms, heading back for Caelan at full speed. The dog licks his face, and he pats his head awkwardly.

Just like that, the power that looms all around us seems to suck back into itself, only a shadow of what it was remaining.

I frown. Maybe it was just my imagination.

Rosalina claps her hands together once and time speeds back up, that niggling sense of wrongness disappearing completely.

One of the parrots squawks, and a bristly hedgehog scuttles across the floor before disappearing into a wicker square in the corner.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner," Rosalina says, pursing her lips. "Hash had a way of making sure no one disrupted whatever plans he set in motion."

Her hands spread wide, an apologetic grimace turning the corners of her mouth down. "I don't know more than that. All I can tell you is that Hash means well, and that he wouldn't have chosen the two of you for any reason other than he thought you were the best suited."

"Best suited for what?" I explode, frustrated and more than a little scared.

Rosalina just gives me a sad smile and Caelan pulls me close to him, his hand smoothing across my hip, comforting and careful.

I relax at the touch.

I don't think I even realized how completely touch-starved I've been until this very moment.

"I don't know, Wren. I wish I did. But I do know that you coming here, Caelan and Ga'Rek and Kieran coming here… it feels like the start of something, doesn't it? The new coven, all of it." She shrugs a shoulder, that sad smile back on her face. "I don't know what to expect, only that change is on the wind."

Goosebumps pebble across my skin, a strange sense of foreboding making me swallow harder. "I feel it too," I say.

Caelan squeezes my hip, and Fenn's furry face nudges against my calf, his familiar weight on my foot.

"I'll protect you, no matter what," Caelan tells me fiercely.

"I hope it doesn't come to that," Rosalina murmurs, then brightens. "Here, I just got a shipment of chews and bones in. I bet Fenn and Boner would love them."

She bustles away, a parrot flitting from its perch to her shoulder, leaving Caelan and me in the relative silence of her store and alone with our thoughts.