“Please be careful, Linne.” The human Chad’s concern was touching, and I smiled as he rolled into a long, newly paved driveway. His knuckles paled against the wheel during the turn, and he frowned deeply underneath flared nostrils. “I’m not keen to lose my best worker over these assholes.”
“Human Chad – you worry too much. Do not forget that I come from a different realm, and I have hidden from much stronger opponents. Shifters do not scare me. Maybe, one day, you will witness this for yourself, and it will put your mind at ease.” Affection bloomed in my voice, and I reached across the center console to pat his arm reassuringly. “You are a good man.”
“…Thank you. I do trust you, Linne – it’s them I don’t trust. The shifters in this town are going to tear it apart. Just last night there was this whole thing on the news about a fight, and two policemen got critically injured trying to break it up.”
“I did not know that.” The warmth in my tone disappeared as the human Chad nodded sharply, and I furrowed my brows. Sourness coated my tongue, but beyond the windshield, the front door of the large farm house swung open. My gaze snapped to the rather large male that stepped out of the threshold, and I vaguely recognized him from around town. His face was set in a grimace, arms straining as he crossed them over his broad chest, and the fabric of his shirt bunched up to reveal a bare peek of thick abdominal muscles.
“Why does he just not do the work himself? He is certainly capable…?” My question only darkened the human Chad’s expression, and he sucked in a deep breath to hold before exhaling slowly. The loaded truck jostled to a complete stop, but the cabin reverberated from the second truck that Jon drove as it sidled up next to us.
“Because they’re lazy, good for nothings that think that because they’re strong due to their other forms, that they’re gods.” Bitterness laced the human Chad’s voice, and I hummed absently before he managed to reign in his emotions.
Apparently, the shifters hatred of humans wasn’t one sided, and I wasn’t sure the human Chad had any proper reasons to harbor such a sickness.
“This is gunna suck.” Grumbling as he put the truck in park, the human Chad turned off the engine and slunk out of the car. For a moment, I only watched him and contemplated the resemblances between our realms. Humans and shifters were much like Seelie and Unseelie – maybe a little too much.
Maybe I’d been cast out of a world on the brink of war only to be thrust into another conflict.
‘You are wearing that face again, Linne.’ Jumping slightly at the unexpected caress on my mind, I looked around frantically to find Muss standing in the human Chad’s seat. Cocking his head, he ruffled his shimmery feathers as surprise raced through my veins. Very rarely did he visit me twice in one day, and I cocked my brow in silent question. ‘I only came to check in on you. You did not seem to be in a good mood this morning. There is no news worth mentioning to report.’
“I am fine. I had a good morning.” Carefully pulling my tumble of brown locks into a pony tail, I frowned when Muss blinked his largest eye at me. “Did you really come here only to ‘check in’ on me?”
The sensation of annoyance seeped into the crevices of my brain, and Muss ducked his head in an avian nod.
‘You are my favorite, Linne. I miss you. No one else cares for me beyond my ability to help them with who I can watch or what I can report. Now that you have been banished, I find it harder and harder to stay sane around my master and her cohorts.’ Muss spoke as if the answer should be obvious, and my cheeks heated while fondness wiggled into my heart. ‘I have been contemplating staying here, even if it means turning into them.’
“No.” My response was instant and firm, and Muss bristled as he threw his sharp beak back and forth in discontent. “I need to know what is happening beyond the Veil. More than that, I do not think I could live content knowing you turned into one of those creatures. I am becoming more human by the month – there is not enough magic here to sustain you even for that long, Muss.”
‘This is exactly what I’m talking about.’ Hopping onto the center console, Muss stared at me through all five, shining eyes, and my fingers itched to touch him – to console the sadness I found there. ‘I could live content here with you, Linne. Does what I want not matter?’
“…You don’t understand, Muss…turning into this – it is like slowly going insane. I can feel it happening. I will never fly again – my body is too dense now. Could you truly live content being reduced to your most basic of instincts?” Seriousness permeated the truck’s cabin, and I reached to slip my fingers through Muss’ form to watch him shimmer. He only ducked his head at my question, ruffling his feathers in dejection, and I sighed heavily. “You would not be Muss if you stayed here unprepared. However…if you happen upon a Reliquary while serving Kaslni, I would certainly assist you in the infusion.”
Muss perked up at that, and I smiled broadly as he hopped on the center console.
‘You are right! Kaslni is not short of Reliquaries. I will find where she hides them.’ Just like that, Muss disappeared as fast as he had come, and I wrapped my hand around the door handle with a slight shake of my head. Sometimes, he could be so dense, only seeing what was right in front of him. Of course, that was what he was bred to do; he and the others like him had spied for their unseelie masters since the beginning of their creation.
Reliquaries were not easy to obtain, and Kaslni trusted no one with her secret collection. Before my banishment, I didn’t even know if the rumors of her hoard were true until she offered me one to help me get back over the Veil – which I refused. My master was kind like that, and her concern for me had touched my heart.
But, as much as I disliked the human realm, at least I was safe here. One step across the Veil, and Bareiijnr would know – I would be dead for what I had discovered of his deadly secrets.
“Let’s go! We’re all set!” The call came just as I shut the truck door, and I drew on my magic to send tendrils to snake into the shifter male’s ears. He noticed instantly; I didn’t try to be subtle as I walked towards the bed of Jon’s truck. Even so, he couldn’t figure out what he was feeling, and he only looked around, tense and alert, I saw out of the corner of my eye, from his porch.
“What kind of shifter is he?” Whispering to Jon as Kevin shoved bags across the bed floor, I frowned slightly when the man only furrowed his brows in thought. Jon never seemed to care about the things happening around him, and he certainly didn’t care about his coworkers’ prejudices.
“I don’t know. I do know that this clan is predominantly predator – wolves and bears and a few cats. They’re all segregated, and the reason we never had any problems was because they always fought amongst themselves. Now that the town is essentially split in two, though, they’re starting to come together. The other new clan basically snuck in right under their noses, and they don’t like that. They also don’t want to admit that if they weren’t so busy fighting each other, this never would’ve happened, so there’s a big blame game going on. It’s all a mess, really.” Mumbling softly back, Jon shrugged as I reached to grab a bag of mulch. Magic flowed thickly through my veins, and my wings struggled against their sheaths to distract me.
I’d need to find a new way to make them comfortable when I used magic in this way.
“I don’t particularly care. As long as I get left alone. I remember once when I first moved here – before I even got this job – that the clansmen tried to tousle with me. I beat the shit out of them, and they never tried again.” My brows shot up in surprise, and Jon offered me a savage half smirk that rattled my nerves. “I had just gotten out of the military and hadn’t acclimated to civilian life. I had all kinds of issues, and I just took it out on them. A shifter is considered mature once they shift, so no one took pity on those guys.”
“I did not know you were a warrior…” Trailing off as I picked up my bag, I watched Jon shrug a second time. Slowly walking away from the truck, curiosity tugged at my ribs until he finally offered a response.
“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me, just like I don’t know much about you. But, now you know I was in the military.” Nodding firmly, I rubbed my tongue against the roof of my mouth and ignored the urge to ask Jon another question. Instead, I focused on the work that needed to be done, and my gaze flickered to the porch where the shifter stood, watching like a dog.