Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
CAELAN
I’d made it all of three steps before the Fae King appeared by my vehicle, his antlers gone, dressed in a pair of joggers and a t-shirt. My footsteps slowed, and I watched him warily.
“Lord,” Cernunnos said.
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, unable to keep the question to myself.
“Why do the fae do anything?” he said, wearing an enigmatic smile.
I shook my head and kept walking, eager for a shower and my bed.
“Evie has many challenges coming her way,” Cernunnos said when he realized I wasn’t going to answer his question. “She needs strong allies in her corner.”
“I would have gained her trust eventually.” Believing that was one of the few things keeping me going. Now that I knew more of Evie’s background, her reticence made a lot more sense.
“Not soon enough.” Cernunnos jerked ahead toward Evie’s house. “You love her.”
It wasn’t a question. “And if I do?”
“She isn’t ready to accept how you feel about her. Evie is…damaged.”
My lips pulled away from my teeth. “She is not damaged goods,” I snapped.
Cernunnos’s eyes swirled with unfathomable magic. “You misunderstand. Her heart is damaged, and she does not trust people, with good reason. If someone is to be with her, they must accept all of her.”
The fae king tilted his head and studied me, his power cleaving me to the bone. Cernunnos didn’t harm me, but I stood there under his judgment, knowing he saw everything about me. “You are not ready to do so.”
“You don’t know a thing about my heart.”
Cernunnos straightened to his full height, the antlers reappearing on his head. Above us, the sky opened, revealing a host of transparent warrior riders and animals the likes of which I’d never seen before.
The Wild Hunt. I stood there awestruck by his simple display of unfathomable power, knowing if Cernunnos ever decided to strike me down, I was helpless to defend myself.
“I know everything about you, Shifter Lord.” His voice rumbled across Evie’s land. “And I know you will lose her if you aren’t ready to bear her pain.”
“You know what she’s hiding.” I stopped at the driver’s side door, watching him carefully. “Why would she tell you and not me?”
Cernunnos laughed. “She told me nothing, young child. Evie clings to her secret as a child would their blanket.”
“Why are you so interested in her?” I’d been wondering this for months now and hadn’t come up with a single thing other than Evie’s powers. Cernunnos ruled over green things and Evie was a Floromancer. Was she under his rule or was there something else going on?
“Humans have a custom. I think you call it meddling in-laws. Is that correct?”
I stilled. “In-laws.” He couldn’t actually be saying what I thought he was saying.
“Consider me a meddler,” Cernunnos said.
A moment later, a massive stag stood before me, its antlers dripping with moss and magic. Before I could respond, the stag leapt into the air to rejoin the Hunt, and the skies closed, leaving me alone in Evie’s driveway wondering what the hell was going on.
In-laws. That meant…
No. Surely not.