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“Yes. You are late,” she informed Kent. Approaching him, she presented her cheek to be kissed.
“I told you I might be.” Kent obediently kissed her. “I brought Rue to meet you. I wasn’t expecting us to be hosting company. Is this fae harassing you?”
Kent’s mother glanced over at the large fae in the center of her kitchen and shook her head. “He brings unwelcome news, but he does not mean me harm.”
“On the contrary, I mean you well. Human-stealing fae on the other hand…” The dark man’s deep voice carried an ominous warning.
“He didn’t steal her,” I protested, stepping out from behind Kent. “She is my charge.” I didn’t know what a Dullahan was, but I was not letting him take Mela from me.
“And they are both under my protection,” Kent added. The magic tightening around those binding words made all four of us adults flinch.
“Must you?” I groaned. “I told you no more bindings.”
“Son,” his mother admonished without heat.
The stranger remained silent, but his dark brows lowered as he studied Kent.
Kent’s mother sighed. “No one means anyone harm. Now, settle yourselves while I make you all some eggs. The chickens were generous this morning, so there will be plenty for all, even if the child wakes.”
We all complied. Kent moved across the room to place Mela in the bed. She transferred from his arms to the mattress without murmuring. The dark stranger kept a watchful eye on the entire process and did not reclaim his seat until Kent had moved away from Mela and approached the table.
I kept back, trying to stay out of the way until Kent’s mother passed by me. After I offered to help one too many times, she admonished me and directed me to sit and be still.
“My kitchen is too small for two. You will get underfoot despite the best of intentions. Besides, I work best alone.”
Obediently joining the silent men at the table, I sank onto the stool next to Kent with a foreboding sense of wrongness. Studying my folded hands, I tried to reassure myself that Kent had promised me a job. But the nagging thought that his mother might not want my help niggled at me.
How I felt that in the heavy air surrounding the two males at the table with me, I didn’t know. Kent sat beside me radiating worry, along with agitated annoyance, which was at odds with his general appearance of stoic patience. To be honest, the stranger appeared outwardly calm with far more skill. If I were only reading him with my eyes, I would think he didn’t have a care in the world.
However, my other senses contradicted that assessment. His excitement, tempered by a similar worry and annoyance, pricked at me like tiny burrs.
“Name?” Kent asked.
The Dullahan’s dark head lifted, and he regarded Kent from beneath dramatically thick brows. “They call me Greyson.”
“Who are they?” Kent asked as he studied the fae.
Greyson raised an eyebrow at him. “Everyone calls me Greyson except my wife and children.”
“And your purpose?”
Greyson straightened in his seat and narrowed his gaze at Kent. “I wish to ask you some questions.”
“Why?”
“I am searching for someone, and I suspect you are him.”
Kent crossed his arms over his chest. “On what grounds?”
Greyson’s other eyebrow rose to join the first. “A conversation with your mother.”
“Stop being difficult and speak with the man,” Kent’s mother instructed her son. “He is who he says he is, and he has legitimate business with you.”
“How can you know he speaks truthfully to you?” Kent asked. “He is fae.”
His mother sighed as she cracked eggs into a skillet over the fire. “So are you, son. He offered an oath of truth and has not broken it yet.”
“I added a visible failsafe. Should I lie, my face will turn purple,” Greyson added. “It is an addition my wife added to the basic spell wording. It works very well on fae children and adults alike.” One corner of his mouth rose and hinted at an amusing memory that I suspected was about his wife, considering the pleasurable emotions my magic was catching.
