Page 32 of Knowing Trust

I waved off my dad when he seemed concerned, telling him what was going on and waiting until I could hear again.

Once I was steady and could hear, we left it to everyone else. I had an appointment with the bakery to be completely useless.

At least they’d finally let me off on deciding the menu. It was now Katrina or one of my aides who handled it.

However, they wanted to expand. Now that there was more available in Faerie, they had more ingredients. And after expanding, they could manage more. So to start, they wanted to make quiche.

And I got to test them all.

Yummy.

Seriously, it was so fucking yummy it was ridiculous.

But quiche wasn’t really a Faerie food. Not like we had on Earth. It was different, but they wanted to do more fusion foods and branch out, so this time I was suggesting combos or what I would add to what I sampled.

“I think chives,” I muttered after a few bites. “Yeah, I want like chives or maybe even garlic chives with this. It’s grand. That would be all I might add.”

“That’s a good suggestion, Your Highness,” Esta muttered as she wrote it down. “You love chives, but so do lots of people. Even if you don’t like chives much, they’re not overpowering, so it wouldn’t turn people off.”

“Exactly,” I agreed. “You could also have like taco quiche and offer with or without cilantro. People are so split on that.”

“This is clearly what we should have utilized you for,” she said with a chuckle as she kept writing.

“You have in the past,” I mumbled. “I did with those pumpkin-tasting cookies and stuff. I’ve helped.”

“You have, Your Highness,” she said gently, giving me a loving look. “You always help. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t tease you when it’s clearly sensitive with you. It’s just that I think you are adorable.”

Thanks?

We went over more while I pulled up ideas on my phone. I was all for them putting tofu into the quiches for protein and healthy, plus I’d seen a trend on TikTok—via Izzy—that people added cottage cheese. It all looked ridiculously good, and it was better options for people who were lactose intolerant or had tummy issues. The tofu at least.

Then I remembered that supes didn’t have things like that.

Still, always nice to have healthier options. Maybe certain shifters really liked tofu over dairy?

Lageos was getting a bit fancier wanting animals in Faerie that were comparable to duck and bison. But then I realized it was so they could charge more and be for fancy brunch more than the ducks in Faerie were his favorite. That was smart. The bakery was constantly catering brunches and having orders for that.

I’d probably eaten a whole farm’s worth of eggs I’d had so many quiches when I was done.

And I couldn’t be happier about it.

“Now, the first auction is coming up and we’re going to work on a bit of both classes combined in a field trip,” Lageos told me when we were done. He turned to Esta. “If you could do me a favor and slip Kyle Edelman one of those samples with an apology from me that I didn’t submit the off-campus request thing, I would appreciate it.”

“We will handle it, Prince Lageos,” she promised. “And also with Dean Pillay.”

More like the hobgoblins loved both of them and would love to give them some happy as well. Still, I was grateful and excited to learn what we were doing. I had to wait a bit until we were in Faerie, but then I looked at my dad expectantly when dozens of people were also gathered.

“You’re going to get a bit of biology lecture in with this as well since you only had a lot of book learning and not enough field instruction or examples,” he told me. “My magic can find the nearest of any species or animal I want. If I know them.”

I read between the lines. “That’s how you found the demons.”

Pride filled his eyes. “Yes. Very good. So this is a necessary skill for you in multiple ways. The new magic is I want you to expound upon it for the purpose of events like your auction.”

I stared at him when he didn’t say more, understanding part of this was a test to figure out the logic and purpose. Then it hit me. “You want me to find the largest grouping, not just find the closest. So I can find the largest wild herd or something and that’s safest to take from.”

He held up a hand to someone he clearly sensed about to speak. “Yes, and what other applications can that magic have?”

I blew out a harsh breath. “Many. The basics of this magic could have us locate the rest of the fae dogs on Earth. I could double check that every hobgoblin is safe. I could have them all come from Faerie for an allotted day and completely comb the planet.”

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