“Nope!” Dern slapped that table and the wrongness of my words shuddered through me.
“She’s not afraid of wolves. It’s not like she’s running around with a phobia of rabies. She’s a bigot who believes wolves are lesser creatures.”
“I know. I… I don’t know how to---”
“If you can’t say it without sounding like you’re supporting a bigot, you probably shouldn’t say it,” Dern said, tapping his fingers on the table.
“Will it help, though?” I asked.
“Eh, let her walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,” he said, pouring more tea into my cup. “You want some ice in that this time? It tastes good cold too.”
I nodded and Ormund appeared to bring ice to the table. He stole a kiss from his mate before disappearing back into the rest of the house.
“I wasn’t defending a bigot,” I sighed.
“You were because bigotry still exists. It’s not okay but you still have a lot of learning to do. It’s not our responsibility to make them feel comfortable. They kill people. In her case, lots of people. So, if she feels uncomfortable, that’s okay. Most folks didn’t feel all too cozy and validated while she killed them, tortured them, or caused their death, Zigmore.”
“Shit,” I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “Do you know how long it’s been since someone called me that?”
“I wanted to remind you of your namesake, kiddo,” Dern shrugged. “Really, he wouldn’t have put up with it either. If you’re going to help people heal or carve out a better fate for Earthside and the other places you visit, you’re going to have to get very comfortable making others uncomfortable.”
“So, Creon is going to have his mother as his daughter?” I asked.
“No,” Dern shook his head. “Finish your tea.”
“This stuff is really good,” I said, cutting him a break and finally complimenting the tea.
Dern didn’t speak again until I had finished every last drop. Then he poured more over the ice and told me to drink up and I did. It was hard to resist the sugary sweetness of the tea washing down my throat.
“Good. Now that we’ve done that,” he said when the third mugful was empty.
“Done what?”
“Had your tea. Three cups ensures the magic takes,” Dern said.
“What magic?” I stood up, ready to throw fists because he’d already gotten me body slammed by my cousin’s evil dead grandmother.
“Sit down. Mori, you wouldn’t have won a fight against me while I was in the old folks’ home dying. You certainly won’t win one now. I never lied to you about who I was. I practically told you that to trust me one hundred percent of the time was foolish. I told you who I was and how I dispatched assholes to the afterlife and enjoyed it. I’m not murdering you. You’re not an asshole. There’d be no vengeance to taste in your blood. What I am doing is ensuring that what Frost and Juda want to happen can unfold in a way that I might not have to off that tyrant of an elf in her next life. It’s just a very potent ‘bite your tongue’ potion. You won’t be able to tell anyone that you’ve seen her or anything else I’m about to tell you.”
I opened my mouth to protest but Dern held up a hand to stop me. I sat down and stared daggers at him again.
“The last time you were here you accused me of not giving you enough information about your next assignment. This isn’t exactly your next assignment but I’m feeling generous enough to give you a few more details. That way, you can’t mess things up by trusting the wrong person, but you also know enough to help things along. Technically, it might be your third assignment but it’s probably more of a long-term venture.”
“Do you lay awake at night and think up new ways to be cryptic?” I asked him, trying to shove my frustrated wolf down. “Because in case you didn’t know it, we were attacked tonight. Do you really think this is the best time to be yoinking me out of my body?”
“I never want to be as young as you are again,” Dern said and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Everything is connected, Mori. Not just the things we discuss here. It’s all connected. Existence inhales and exhales and everyone feels it. Now, do you want tohelp me with Floria or not? In case you want to know what’s in it for you – it’s about Crilus.”
“What about him?” I grunted.
“Floria’s tried for him a few times. She’s known for a while what Frost and Juda’s plans are for her. She knows he’s the one who agreed to be her parent before he was born. This has been in the works for a long time.”
“So she’s going to try to kill him?” I asked, narrowing my eyes on him and glancing at the kitchen window. It was pitch night outside but if I jumped out of it would I find myself still in the Other World or would I land back inside my body in the car with Preston?
“No,” Dern shook his head. “She can’t. We’ve taken her into custody, and she can’t get out of the house until she’s ready to be reborn. What she’s done is plant enough doubt in your cousin that he’s going to have a hard time handling his mating response. It’s not his fault. It’s hers. She’s playing generational trauma like it’s a game of Bullshit.”
“You called me here to say be a good friend to someone I’m already friends with and made me drink tea so I couldn’t tell anyone I’m trying to be a good friend?” I arched a brow at him.
“No, I told you so that you understand that Crilus’s fears are real. He’s not imagining things. All those horrible things have happened in his family lineage and this time it could happen again because he’s running from his mate. That’s the bad thing. He can run forever and never be happy.”
