Cernunnos hopped onto one of the potting benches. “Evie loves her greenhouse. She spends most of her time there.”
“When she’s not trying to overcome yours or the other Lord’s schemes?” I drawled.
His laugh sent my hackles up. “I’ve always played the long game, Nature Lord.”
“Yes, well, I prefer coming in from the front so I don’t have to keep my lies written down.”
Cernunnos grinned, and the sight sent my hackles up. “You have a refreshing sort of honesty about you, something I rarely see in someone of your kind.”
“Fuck off, Cernunnos.” Speaking such to the Fae King was dangerous, but this fucking guy had been visiting me at least once a week trying to get me involved in another goddamned scheme concerning his daughter or the Lords or…anything, really.
The king was a walking MLM scheme. Or at least it felt that way. Granted, he always had a plan, but I was either too stupid or too honest to see it. Every time he started talking it felt like I was a crazy person standing in front of one of those police string boards trying to explain how aliens were going to invade New York City in two days’ time.
I adored Evie. Her father was a completely different matter.
“Why are you not afraid of me?” Cernunnos asked, but this time he was genuinely curious.
I set the trowel down. “I’ve never been afraid of dying, but I am afraid of losing myself. The moment I allowed you to manipulate me, I would lose a piece of myself. That is a road I am not willing to start walking. The first request is always small, right?”
Cernunnos smiled.
“The second one is a little bit bigger. The third, a little more. I start getting nervous, wondering what I’m doing. Then you come in with a fourth and a fifth, and soon enough I’m running for my life and being chased by the paranormal mob. No thank you. I’m content with my territory, my life, and my plants.”
“There’s one lie in that statement,” he said.
I picked my trowel back up and stabbed it in the pot of dirt I was filling. “Oh?”
“You never wanted this territory.”
“True, but now that it’s running well, I don’t have to do much except ensure order.”
“That’s not quite true either, is it?”
“It’s a job, Cernunnos. That’s all. We all need one, unless we’re fae royalty, right?”
He tilted his head and studied me. “Would you like to be royalty?”
I laughed. “I’d like nothing less.” The thought of that much power sent a cold shiver of fear rolling down my spine.
Cernunnos smiled. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Isn’t that the statement?”
“Something like that. I don’t want a crown. Even this territory is too much some days. I’m content where I am, so stop trying to manipulate me. There’s nothing you can offer me that would make me take you up on any of your harebrained schemes.”
“Harebrained?” Cernnunos placed a hand over his heart. “How you wound me.”
“Cut the shit. What do you want?”
“Do you have some coffee?”
I eyed him. “I do.”
When I didn’t offer him anything, Cernunnos laughed. “You’re a hard nut to crack.”
“There’s no cracking happening now or ever.”
“I believe some changes are about to occur. Serious changes with the potential to upend the current power structure.”
I set my trowel down and turned to fully face him. “Spurred on by you?”
