Page 39 of How To Tame A Trickster Fae

Piper follows my gaze, and her eyebrows shoot even further up her forehead. “Oh no.”

I roll my eyes and make my way from The Pixie’s Perch onto the street.

“You can’t tell him,” I warn her as soon as she appears. “You can’t breathe a word of it to him.”

“What kind of coven sister would I be if I told?” she asks, highly scandalized.

“We’re not a coven,” I tell her.

“Oh, please. The only thing we’re missing is the stamp of approval from those dusty bigwigs who think they have the right to limit us.”

It’s my turn to be scandalized, and I stare at her open-mouthed. She’s never said a bad word about the High Coven, but here she is, looking ready to shoot sparks from her eyeballs.

Thunder rumbles again, and we both glance up at the billowing grey clouds overhead.

“Come on then,” I tell her, and we set off at a brisk pace to Willow’s greenhouse and apothecary.

“Well?” Piper asks, injecting a world of meaning into the single syllable.

“I have a plan,” I say grandly.

A rain drop spatters against the tip of my nose, cold and wet.

“And it involves Nerissa? And closing your store early? And something my new employee can’t hear?”

“I am going to bind Caelan to me using a demon trap.” The words come out blithely and unbothered despite the fact actually voicing them makes me feel sick.

“Why?” She rounds on me, her eyes huge. “Why would you do that?”

I ignore the censure in her voice and walk faster. I also take a massive bite of lemon square to give myself time to consider how I’m going to answer.

“If you think you can get away with eating instead of answering me, you’ve misjudged my willingness to knock that lemon bar out of your hand.”

I glare at her and swallow.

“Because I need an Unseelie fae’s help in finding a rare vein of ore, and he’s the Unseelie fae I have on hand.”

“You could have picked the other one,” she says, narrowing her eyes at me. “The one with the wings.”

I shrug a shoulder. “I know Caelan better.”

“How?” she scoffs.

“We had dinner together last night.”

“Oh, and now you’ve decided you’re just going to bind him to your will? After one dinner? He must have been good with his mouth.”

“Piper!” I stare at her, aghast. “That’s not at all what this is about.”

“So he is good with his mouth.” She smirks at me.

“That’s not what I—no. I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know! We walked around and he was clever and he has the ability to find the damned gemstones and that’s all I need him for, so I can find them, we can mine some, and I can finally get in the goddess-damned guild and make a real go at living my life the way I want.” A sharp pain hitches in my chest, and I suck in a breath, suddenly fighting back tears.

“Right,” Piper says, nodding her head like she expected nothing less. “Well, in that case, we definitely need Willow.”

“And I’m not sorry for it,” I continue. “I’ll only bind him for a few weeks, you know, temporary, and then I’ll unravel the spell and he can be on his merry way doing whatever Unseelie courtiers do.”

“He’s a courtier?” Piper asks, her nose scrunching up.

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