Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Asingle dark feather tinged with blue lay by the entrance to my greenhouse. I was bending to reach for it when a subtle shift in the air and a tinge of pine scent tickled my nose.
“Here to collect?” I asked my father, knowing it was him by the buckskin boots he wore and the smell of ancient forest.
“It’s been a month.”
I tucked the feather into my bag and faced Cernunnos. He wore a pair of leather breeches and no shirt today. His antlers rose high in the air, moss dripping and sparkling from the tines. Around his neck lay a leather necklace with a silver spiral charm.
Sometimes the Fae King showed up in joggers. Sometimes he showed up looking every inch the feral forest god. Today, he’d chosen the latter.
Meanwhile, I barely slept at all last night. I needed a shower and fourteen cups of coffee, and I was not in the mood to deal with Cernunnos.
My father.
Perish the thought.
“I never said yes.” The greenhouse welcomed me when I stepped in, every plant in the vicinity of the door reaching out to brush my skin. I set my bag down and went straight to the worktable, needing to dig my fingers in the dirt for a little while before I showered and made my way to the shop.
I hadn’t lied to Caelan. I was late to work, and my friends were getting frustrated with me, but the greenhouse sustained some of our shop’s work, and I needed this time.
Preferably alone.
“You are my child.” Cernunnos ducked as he followed me inside, his power tingling over my skin.
Someone like him, no matter how tightly he cloaked his power, could never contain what he was.
Even a human would realize there was something otherworldly about Cernunnos, even if they couldn’t put their finger on why.
I pulled a flat of arugula seedlings over. The weather was cool enough to plant some of my favorite greens, and I’d overcompensated, planning on giving the others a bunch for their homes when they were ready.
“I wasn’t your child until a month ago,” I said in a cool tone. He might have offered the genetic material, but Cernunnos wasn’t involved in my life until only a few months ago.
Cernunnos blinked in surprise, hurt flashing over his face. “Evie.”
I held up my hand. “You can’t not show up for eighteen years, pop in to help me a few times, refuse to answer my questions, then boom, all of a sudden hand me a damn crown and be like suuurrrprrriiiise!!”
He opened his mouth, frowned, and snapped it shut.
“And another thing, if you haven’t noticed, I am completely ill-equipped to rule the fae. I wasn’t raised with them, nor have I had any real contact with the fae unless you count my mother. Which I don’t.”
His expression grew thunderous. “Never?”
I slapped the trowel I held down. “How many times did you check up on me?”
If he had, he would have known humans raised me.
“I—” He scrubbed a hand over his jaw, a thoughtful look on his face.
I barreled through. “When Mom got tired of me, she dropped me off with two humans who raised me as their own. I had no friends, and Mom told me my father was human.”
Cernunnos stared.
“There was no way for me to know what I was or what I was capable of. I figured some of it out on my own. Mom never bothered to teach me much, and I spent my entire childhood wishing I was special like her.” My voice broke, and I swiped away a stray tear I didn’t realize was there.
I had never spoken about my life like this.
Moira and the others knew because I tried not to keep secrets from them, but standing here with my father had opened old wounds.
“So excuse me if I don’t accept some destiny you want to thrust on me because you want to retire.” I glared at the Fae King.
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?”
Amusement glimmered in his eyes. “My stuff might be a little more challenging.”
I scoffed. “You know what I’m saying.”
Cernunnos rose and dusted off his hands. “I am sorry for thrusting you into a position you don’t want. While I do wish to retire soon, you’ve opened my eyes to the error of my ways. I still need someone to train, and I want that person to be you.”
“Cernunnos—”
He exhaled. “It is your birthright, Evangeline. If there is anyone who can figure out a way to have it all, it’s you.”
“You have way too much faith in me.”
Cernunnos shook his head. “You don’t have enough faith in yourself. I will return once a month.”
When I opened my mouth to protest, Cernunnos stepped forward and put his hands on my arms. “I will move the timeline to accommodate you as you learn our ways. You need to know who you’re dealing with.
Our people are powerful and complicated.
Even if you decide not to accept what I’m offering, I’d like to make up for my past failures.
Allow me to teach you about our people and my kingdom.
At minimum, it will only serve to help you. ”
I frowned. “You’re saying if I refuse you, you will let it lie?”
“I will move the timeline.” His enigmatic smile and non-answer made me roll my eyes. “Thank you for teaching me this morning, daughter. I like learning with you.”
With a wink, he disappeared in a flash of green and golden light.
I’d managed to move the goalpost but not the goal. If he wanted me to take his place as the fae ruler, he was going to have to wait a lot longer than a few months.
Maybe even forever.