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“Your sister?” Macey asked, realising that she was once again the one speaking for all of them. Maybe that was her role in the Warden dynamic. Maybe her diplomacy training hadn’t been for naught after all.
“She’s dying. I asked the Staran for help and you arrived. Please, make her better.”
For someone looking like an adult, his language was surprisingly simple. Maybe he wasn’t used to being in his human form? Macey knew that from some older kelpies who refused to even half-shift. Their thought processes would change, become more kelpie, more primal.
“I’m not quite sure what we could do for her… none of us are doctors,” she said, feeling terrible about having to disappoint him. He was as sad as he was good looking.
“If the Staran sent you, you will be able to help. Everything happens for a reason. Come, follow me.” Without even waiting for a reply, he turned and walked away with the elegance of a cat.
“I don’t like this,” Cam muttered. “He’s a cat sìth, they’re not known for their trustworthiness.”
“A cat fae? Really? I thought they were just a legend. Nine lives, black cats being unlucky, cat sìth stealing souls and all that...” Macey should really stop at being surprised that most myths seemed to be true. She was wondering why her grandmother never said that all the beings from her stories really existed. Surely, she would have known that?
“Incubi aren’t trusted either, and here I am, a Warden,” Jared said. “Let’s follow him, and if he means us ill, we outnumber him.”
“You don’t know that, there could be more of them,” Cam replied, but Macey ignored him.
“He wants our help, so let’s see if we can be of assistance.” She walked into the mists, following the cat-man, not waiting for her men. They would come with her, even if just to protect her. She realised that she could use their instinctive protectiveness to make them do what she wanted… fun.
Cam continued to whisper doubts and complaints, but Macey left him behind, catching up with the cat sìth.
“What is your name?” she asked him and he gave her a curious look with his glowing eyes.
“Us sìth never reveal our names, did you not know that?”
“Ehm, you’re the first cat sìth I’ve met. Why not?”
“A name gives you power over the named. That’s why we have nine, one each for partners, children, parents, family, neighbours, friends, colleagues, strangers and enemies.”
“Wow, that must be hard to keep up with,” Macey said wide-eyed. She was terrible with names, and remembering nine of them for each person would be more than a challenge.
“So you can’t tell me your name for strangers?”
“No,” he said simply, not giving an explanation.
“Well, I’m Macey. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too, Kelpie.”
She sighed. “Why does everybody always know what I am and I have no clue about what the
y are?”
Cat-man chuckled. “I’m a cat. My sense of smell is excellent.”
“Have you smelled many kelpies?” Macey asked incredulously.
“You’re the first. But you smell like the sea, and you’re not blue and don’t have a fishtail, so kelpie was the logical option.”
“Oh.”
“We’re almost there,” he said and they walked in silence, Macey still pondering what she smelled like. Maybe she should ask the guys if she smelled fishy? Then she’d have to do something about it.
A growl that was distinctively non-cat carried through the mist. She stopped in her tracks, suddenly suspicious.
“Why did that sound like a dog? You said we’re going to see your sister.”
“We are. We’re twins, in fact, but fraternal. She’s not a cat sìth, she’s a cù sìth.”
