Page 89 of How To Tame A Trickster Fae

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.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

CAELAN

Hash Beauchamp’s old inn isn’t too far from Familiar Friends, further from the bustle of the downtown area of Wild Oak Woods and settled on the edge of the Ever Forest. Sprawling willows line the edge of the forest, boughs laden with delicate leaves swinging gently over the green grass.

“I think I should hang lanterns in those, don’t you?” I ask, staring pensively at the edge of the forest. Beyond the willows, oaks and junipers fight for space, rose brambles in their last white bloom before autumn sets in. Their thick, thorny vines climb up trunks and cascade across the ground, making the Ever Forest nearly impenetrable.

“That would be lovely,” Wren says, her cool hand tucked into my elbow.

Boner bounds ahead of us, his limp fully disappeared, chasing a bright blue butterfly.

“I’m worried,” she says, then stops and stares.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I promise her. “You are everything to me.”

“This… this is the inn?”

A laugh trips out of me, some of the burden of the knowledge—what little there was—that Rosalina imparted to us lightening at the shock and awe on Wren’s face.

Fenn chases after Boner, his thick furry tail low behind him—he pounces on the dog, and the two of them roll around in the grass in front of the inn, yipping as they play.

“It’s… wow.”

I chuckle again, raising an eyebrow as I study the place. “That’s how I felt this morning.”

Gone is the sagging wood porch, in dire need of tearing down, more willing to be a bonfire than an actual structure. In its place, a white-washed stone patio, perfectly fitted together, no mortar needed, a hallmark of fae construction. Fluted stone columns hold up seven archways on the patio itself, mature coral and peach-colored roses climbing them.

The inn itself is full of high arched windows, stained glass depicting scenes from famous fables in the three largest that now look into the main room. More white stone forms the walls, lush plants dripping from artfully placed ledges.

“It’s stunning. This is… this was here the whole time? I can’t believe it.”

“You should have seen my reaction this morning. Imagine waking up in a completely different room.” I snort in amusement.

“How did none of us know it was glamoured the whole time?”

“I don’t know. A town full of magical creatures, witches, and now fae, and none of us knew it was here. Whatever glamour Hash was able to cast, it was like nothing I’ve ever felt. And I thought the Dark Queen was the master of illusion.” It irks me, in fact, that I had no idea.

I’d like to blame it on being so entirely distracted by the beauty on my arm, but I know, deep down, it’s more than that.

I snap a rose off one of the climbing vines, and she blushes as I hand it to her.

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