Page 14 of Fae Mates

“Four seasonal courts.” He settled between the branches. “But there are weather courts, shadow courts, temporal courts, and animal courts. Most of their leaders are residing in the Otherworld these days.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“King Oberon.” The cat stretched his front legs up a branch and dug his nails into the bark. “Well, he was a prince at the time. He and a group of rebels led the outsiders up here and created a barrier of magic. Then outsiders sprayed that stuff they use to make poison fog—”

“Iron salt?” I stared up into the tree, wondering what an earth McVittie was doing.

“That’s the one. Well, while the outsiders weakened the faeries with that awful stuff, King Oberon and his friends transformed everyone present in the High Council.”

“Into what?”

“Put it this way.” McVittie parted his jaws into a long, relieved gasp. It was the kind of noise men made when peeing against the wall outside the pub. “This tree was the wretched faerie who cursed my mother to give birth to a cat.”

I turned in a circle, examining the twisted patterns on the trunks. “They’re all faeries.”

“Yup.”

“How can he be sure the enchantment will last?” I asked.

“Too much time has passed.” McVittie grunted. “Even if these poor sods got turned back into faeries, they’d still think they were trees.”

My brows drew together. McVittie had been born a kitten and had now spent just as much time as a cat as the High Council had been trees. Didn’t that mean he would also become an old man who thought he was a cat?

“Come on, then.” He jumped down, scattering pieces of leaf litter.

I followed him out of the dark woods into a sun-lit meadow and down a steep valley. A wide stream gurgled beside us, spraying droplets of cold water. On our other side stood a familiar-looking forest.

My brows drew together. “I think I’ve been here before.”

“Maybe down this stretch of water,” said the cat from my side, “But definitely not where we’re going.”

“Are you taking me to some kind of hideout?”

“You could say that,” McVittie replied with a chuckle.

We continued along the river, where fish with scales of each color of the rainbow leaped out from the stream and blew iridescent bubbles into the air. The clip-clop of hooves reached my ears, and I glanced into the adjacent forest for signs of centaurs.

“Scared?” asked McVittie.

“I thought I heard someone.” Wrapping my arms around my middle, I let my gaze wander into the trees. There was no centaur and no attacking wood sprites.

“You should focus on the task at hand, young lady.” The cat hurried ahead and disappeared into the long grass.

“If you’d tell me what we were doing, maybe I’d be able to focus.” I hurried after McVittie.

“Trees have ears, and so do blades of grass.”

With a huff, I rolled my eyes. McVittie was much like Flora—sometimes prickly but with good intentions. I could trust him because he was family, and he had a stake in my success. If I didn’t get those princes out from Lady Gala’s clutches, I would never get the wishbone, and McVittie would remain forever a cat.

As we reached a point where the stream ran down a hill, McVittie whispered, “Here we are.”

“Where?”

I stared into the water, and something with an equine face stared back. A jolt of panic had me clutching at my heart, but I didn’t fall back or stagger.

My adventure with that kelpie had taught me that every monster had a weakness. It was only a matter of identifying it and using that weakness to your advantage.

“Lie down and crawl on your belly,” whispered the cat.