The Pillars Of The World

said
    —I came to the human world for diversion and amusement of all kinds. Young human gentlemen call it getting some town bronze. The Fae don’t have a name for it, but it amounts to the same thing. Seasoning.
    Experience. I was a randy young stallion. And I enjoyed myself.
    “Then one day, I met a young woman who was quite unlike anyone else I’d ever met. She was forthright and bright—and not at all impressed that a Fae Lord found her interesting. A challenge for a young man who was impressed with himself. So I did my best to woo her. And I succeeded a little too well. She loved. I cared. Can you see the difference?”
    “Yes,” Neall said softly.
    Ahern nodded. “Thought you would. I visited the Clan near where she lived for a couple of months, but I spent most of my nights with her. Then, one day, I got an itch for ... a different experience. So I left.
    Traveled. Grew into my power and became the Lord of the Horse. But I never forgot her, compared every other woman to her. So I decided to go back, sure I would be welcomed with open arms. After all, I was a Fae Lord and she was just a human female.
    “Except she wasn’t just a human female. She was a witch. I knew that. As I said, she was forthright. I just didn’t understand what it meant.
    “When I trotted up to her cottage one evening, I saw a small child, a girl, playing outside. She was holding a bowl and was making the water inside it rise and fall. She had my dark hair and her mother’s woodland eyes.”
    When Ahern didn’t say anything more, Neall said, “What happened?”
    “I wasn’t welcome. And it hurt. I still cared, but she no longer loved. I had tossed that aside like a trinket when it had been new and shining. I never got it back. Even when we eventually became lovers again for a while, I never got it back. She cared. That was a pale emotion compared to what she’d once given me.
    “I couldn’t live with her family, and I couldn’t go back to the way I had lived my life. I tried. So I made an agreement with the matriarch of the family to lease some of the land. I built a house, and I brought some fine Fae horses with me. I bought a stallion and some mares from this world, and I began to breed horses.
    “And I watched that girl child grow up into a fine young woman. And I watched that young woman fall in love with a selkie man, a Lord of the Sea. And I watched her bring a daughter into the world, a little girl with the gifts of earth and fire.
    “I watched from a distance what I might have shared in full.”
    Neall gripped the fence rail with both hands. “Does Ari know you’re her grandfather?”
    Ahern shook his head. “And she doesn’t know her father was a selkie man, just that her mother had a love for the sea.” He paused. “Tell me something. You must have gotten the Fae blood from your father.
    Do you know anything about him?”
    “He had a quiet laugh. When we took walks, he would tell me stories. I didn’t realize at the time how much he was teaching me about the woods with those stories. And I remember the way he and my mother would look at each other and just smile.”
    Ahern gave him a strange look. “He lived with you. She was a witch, and he lived in her house.”
    “Yes.” Neall saw Ahern’s face tighten with some strong emotion. “I want to have with Ari the same thing my mother and father had. I want to love . . . and be loved.”
    “You’re going to Brightwood tomorrow?”
    “Yes. I’ll go over to see if she’s made her decision yet.”
    “You can stay here until she does.” Ahern closed his eyes. “Find the right word to convince her, young Neall. Find the right words.”
     

 

     
     

Chapter Twenty-six

 

     
     

     
    When Ari saw Aiden riding down the road early the next morning, she set the water buckets down by the garden wall and waited.
    Did they use the glamour magic and ride down human roads because they didn’t want to alarm any humans they might deal with? Or was it nothing more than a deceit that made it easier for them to get what they wanted, a deceit that would be maintained until they chose otherwise?
    “Good morning, Mistress Ari,” Aiden said.
    “You must have been up at dawn to get to Brightwood so early,” Ari said. “From what Dianna has said, I had gathered you have a ways to travel to get to ... where you’re staying.”
    She saw his puzzlement and caution. She hadn’t given him the expected greeting. Hadn’t actually responded to his.
    “My