Page 25 of How to Claim A Shadow King

"No. Well, yes, you can eat while I talk to you, how about that?" Wren narrows her eyes at me.

Piper rolls her eyes and blows out a breath, then laughs a little bit when I nod.

A red fox slinks into the room, then pads over to the fire, stretching out before curling up into a fluffy circle.

"That's just my familiar," Wren tells me in a worried voice. “He won’t bother you.”

"Mine's here too.” Piper refills my cup. “She doesn’t like commotion though, I think she’s out back eating grass.”

“Piper’s familiar is a doe,” Wren explains.

"That's the thing; I don't have a familiar.” I spread my hands wide.

A great black bird flies out from the high ceiling and lands in front of me.

"She's in denial," Ter says.

"See? You even have a talking familiar," Piper tells me heartily, as if this is excellent news.

"All right, enough coddling. She needs the cold, hard truth,” Ter snaps.

I sniffle, nodding, feeling foolish—but absolutely wanting the cold, hard truth, as the raven put it.

"She needs to know what's going on," Wren agrees.

"Please. Please tell me what's going on.” I rub small circles on my temple.

Wren blows out a long breath then looks to Piper for help. Piper, however, just piles more food on my plate.

"Well, the truth is, we don't really know what's going on other than there's some kind of problem." Piper exhales, pinching the bridge of her nose.

I get the feeling that this is not how they planned to have this conversation.

"The problem is, my dears," Hash says, merrily materializing on the chair across from me, "is that we are in the midst of an eons-long power struggle between the Seelie Courts and the Unseelie Courts. And while that’s nothing new, what plagues us now is that they have decided to make this the Wild Oak Woods issue, because the Wild Oak Woods has long been the barrier and anchor of reality here on this plane that helps to keep the Fae influence out."

"Oooh." Piper puts her chin on hands, sagging a little into the table.

I take another bite, munching. They're not doing much to restore my confidence.

"We said no men allowed," Wren finally tells Hash, an eyebrow arched.

The huge yellow dog bounds in, tongue hanging from its mouth, gazing adoringly up at Hash and boofing in greeting.

"That's a good boy, Boner," Hash tells the dog, ignoring Wren completely. He takes a sandwich and pops it in his mouth. "Well, I'm not a man, am I? I'm one of the Seelie Fae, how about that, Miss Tiersen?"

Wren gives me a look that's fully exasperated, and I choke on a laugh as I swallow down some of the flaky pastry of the meat pie I'm eating.

"That's not the letter of the law.” Wren wags a finger at him.

"That's the thing about dealing with the Fae, ladies." Hash grins. "We're not so concerned about the spirit of the law nor the letter, which is why..." Hash pauses to give me a long look. “Well, it’s why we’re all in trouble. Because Fae tend not to care about the spirit of any laws that they haven’t personally brokered.”

He pauses to take a bite, and the fox at the hearth stares at the huge dog, who’s sniffing its fluffy tail.

"Three of the witches in your coven have been taken by these Elder Gods; the crossed bloodline is an old agreement between your coven and the magic here."

"Three?" The word vomits out of me. “Two more?” It's not my coven, but I don't feel the need to tack that on when clearly Piper and Wren are extremely upset about this turn of events. "I'm so sorry," I tell them.

Both women turn and regard me with strange expressions.