“Hardly,” Mom said. “As the humans say, all of God’s creatures, blah, blah, blah.”
“Yeah, well, I’d kill all the mosquitoes too if I could.”
Mom slid a glance my way. “You could, you know.”
“Really? I could take all of them out like a giant bug zapper?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Sure. If you want to wipe out the food supply while you’re at it.”
Moira’s brow furrowed. “That’s the bees, right?”
It took a moment for my brain to click into on mode. “Mosquitoes are pollinators.”
“Those little fuckers,” Moira mused. “They know we want to murder them all, so they made sure they served a purpose.”
“Mosquitos are critical for pollinating cacao. Can you imagine a world without chocolate?”
Moira’s gasp made Mom laugh. “Orchids, too,” she added. “Even ticks serve a larger purpose in the world.”
“I changed my mind. I vote to destroy ticks and live with the consequences,” Moira announced.
We walked for quite a while debating which species was worse and almost didn’t notice when the road began to curve to the left. As we went around the bend, small stone houses appeared. “Tess is somewhere in this village,” Mom murmured. “Be on your guard.”
I’d brought no weapons and didn’t look like much of a threat. None of us did. Mom pulsed with power, but many fae did that. Maybe when you lived here, you didn’t notice stuff like someone else being at the power level of the freaking sun anymore.
“How’s my hair?” Moira whispered.
I wheezed a laugh. Mom gave us a pointed look. “Remember, you are not in the human lands. There is a decorum that must be followed.”
Moira nodded solemnly and put her hand over her heart. “I hope it’s second breakfast.”
I elbowed her. “Just don’t say anything, okay?”
“But how will everyone know about my dating life?”
Mom flicked her fingers over her shoulder. A zap of white light hit Moira in the shoulder. The vampire hissed. “Shit! What was that?”
“There’s more where that came from if you don’t get it together,” Mom murmured.
Moira sighed and mimed a zipping motion over her lips.
A few minutes later, we stepped foot into the fae village.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Absolutely nothing happened. I thought maybe Tess might be in the middle of the town square, being crowned queen or something, with the way everything was playing out these days, but there was no sign of the banshee. Fae milled around the shops, dressed in a bright array of shimmering fabrics. Some of the females wore dresses with swirly skirts, and others made do with sensible pants and leather moccasins.
The men dressed in more drab colors, earth tones in shades of brown and green. No one pretended not to be staring at us, but no one made a move to approach.
“Do they know who you are?” I whispered to Mom.
“Maybe, though it’s also likely they don’t. I do not travel outside my own realm much, unless it’s to see you.”
Her azure gaze swept the air, not lingering on anything until it settled on a nondescript house closer to the edge of the path, slightly offset by another, larger shop.
“I believe she’s in there, but we should look around first, pretend to be tourists so no one has the chance to warn the inhabitants of the house.”
