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“So the fae have leaders based on where they live?” I asked Aaron, figuring the eagle alpha was the one most likely to have in-depth knowledge on this sort of subject. “I guess there aren’t different types of faeries like the shifter kin-groups.”
He nodded. “The fae have a unique equilibrium with nature. When one is born, they come into being alongside a plant or natural spring or something of that sort. They sort of sprout up in colonies, with all their connected trees and so onnearby.”
A chilling thought struck me. “What happens if they’re forced to leave the place where their connected thing is? Like if humans movein?”
“I’m not sure,” Aaron said. “Speculation is that they would wither away after a certain amount of time if they were forced away. We have a few reports of fae dying if their connected object is outright destroyed. The tie is verystrong.”
That meant human encroachment affected the fae even more than it did us. Shifters could get up and move, as long as there was empty land to move to. The fae didn’t have thatluxury.
A glossy whisper carried through the breeze, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. I pushed myself completely upright. A second later, a glinting fae man appeared in the middle of ourglade.
He wasn’t as impressive as the fae monarch I’d encountered near Aaron’s estate, but I guess that was to be expected. He was just the local leadership. The fae man still shone brighter than the lesser fae who’d directed him to us. He held himself with chin high and shoulders squared. Like all the fae, his body was tall and slim, but he was taller than most, that knobby chin of his nearly level with Nate’s forehead. I’d have bet the bear shifter had a hundred pounds more muscle on him,though.
“My name is Cerimon,” the fae man said. “I tend to this part of the woods. What is your business here, dragon shifter andalphas?”
He didn’t bother with any sign of respect, but the fae monarch hadn’t bowed even slightly to us either. It didn’t really matter to me. I’d rather just get down tobusiness.
“I don’t know how much you’re aware of what’s going on outside this part of the forest,” I said. “But we shifters have come under attack by the vampires. They’ve already slaughtered everyone they could reach in several villages. They nearly killed one of my mates. They’re using guns of the worst kind, and they seem determined to keep at us until they’ve destroyed all ofus.”
Cerimon made a tiny dip of his head. I couldn’t tell whether it was acknowledgment that he’d heard of this happening or that he was hearing me now. “And how does this matter concernus?”
I suppressed the urge to grimace at him. “I’ve learned that the dragon shifters and the fae were once allied.” I touched my throat. “I hold the power that my kind and yours created together. I know in the last century relations have been… strained between us, but I was hoping there might be room to at least talk about working together to tackle ourenemy.”
“Yourenemy, it sounds like,” the fae leadersaid.
“Likely to become the fae’s too, if you stand by doing nothing,” Aaron saidevenly.
“Do you really think you could defend yourselves if the bloodsuckers took a mind to rid the country of fae too?” Marcoasked.
I waved at my mates to stand down. Cerimon wasfrowning.
“You can say that,” he said. “But we’ve had more troubles with your kind than with the vampires in recent years.” His gaze slid to Nate. “What of the group of your kin that set up new homes at the edge of our territory in New Mexico and cut down one of our trees forfirewood?”
A shiver ran down my back. Nate spread his hands. “The fae in that area hadn’t appeared to my kin at all. They didn’t realize the tree wasspecial.”
“It was marked,” Cerimon snapped. “A life waslost.”
“And we did everything we could to makereparations.”
How did you make up for a life cut short? My stomach was starting to churn. The fae leader’s gaze shot to Marco. “And your feline kin. I can’t even count the mentions I’ve heard of your kind snapping branches and trampling bushes while they roam around, without concern for whose land they’re venturingonto.”
“Believe me,” Marco said dryly. “I know just how frustrating my kin can be. I’d keep them on a shorter leash, but cats don’t take well to leashes in the first place. I do what I can. And we’ve offered compensation as needed too. I promise you it was only carelessness, not malice. There was no intention to harmyou.”
“And you.” Cerimon’s attention moved to West. “Your people took over an entire stretch of forest that had been ours not far from your estate, and attacked us when the fae there tried to take itback.”
West’s lips drew back to bare his teeth. Uh oh. “The fae there tried to ‘take it back’ by blasting every shifter they saw with their magic,” he said in what was close to a snarl. “And it was land that the last we’d heard you’d abandoned. If the fae had come to speak with me about it peacefully, I’d have seen the new village moved. Instead you killed eight of mykin.”
“And how many of ours do you think we’ve lost to your ‘mistakes’ and your ‘carelessness’?” the fae leader retorted. He turned back to me. “I know you are new to your position among the shifters. I will not blame you for what was done before you had any command over your kind. But I have every reason to feel you shifters can no longer betrusted.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, meaning it. I didn’t know exactly what had happened in any of the situations he’d talked about… but I could see how it had looked bad to the fae. My alphas trusted that their kin had good intentions and that the fae must be at fault. How could I blame the fae for assuming the same thing? I was starting to suspect that if we looked at any of those incidents carefully, it’d turn out the truth was somewhere in themiddle.
“All I can do is appeal to our history,” I went on. “We’ve clashed, we’ve fought—but we also appreciate the same things, don’t we? Life, roaming around in nature, lands where we can be ourselves away from human beings. From what I’ve seen, the vampires don’t care about any of that. They probablywantmore cities, more people, so they have more victims to feedfrom.”
Cerimon’s jaw twitched. His eyes had clouded. No, he didn’t like the vampires at alleither.
I felt a brief burst of hope. Then the fae leader spun on his heel, giving me hisback.
“This is what shifters do,” he said over his shoulder as he moved to leave us. “They ask and they take and they take, but when do they ever give to us? If you want a compromise, any sort of collaboration, I can tell you one thing for certain. It’s going to require more than talk for us to believe inyou.”
