plastic-like look of all fae-favored vehicles—no fae liked to be trapped inside a metal box. No, the surprising part was that she wasn’t alone.
A man, well, a troll, towered behind her and I had to wonder where he shopped for black suits in his enormous size. More than that, though, I wondered what he was doing here.
I stopped, eyeing the pair.
“Craft, this is Tem. He is an agent,” Nori said with a toss of her head to indicate the large troll.
The troll stepped forward, holding out his hand. “It is nice to meet you, ma’am.”
Ma’am, huh? Well, at least he wasn’t pulling the cocky power play Nori seemed to be running. Also, it surprised me that he spoke with a thick accent. Something European, his words crisp and shockingly well articulated around the two large tusks protruding from his mouth.
I plastered a smile on my face and stepped forward to accept his offered handshake. I’d never actually shaken hands with a creature as large as a troll before, and there was an awkward moment of trying to figure out how I was supposed to accomplish the task. His palm engulfed my entire hand, his thick fingers wrapping up my forearm halfway to my elbow. I tried not to grimace as I shook my entire arm in a strange parody of a handshake.
“Would Tem be a first or a last name?” I asked by way of pleasantries, though in truth I was still wondering what he was doing here. Nori had told me she would be picking me up for my first day—she hadn’t mentioned bringing backup.
The large troll lifted one shoulder without letting go of my arm. “Little of both, I suppose. It’s the only name I got. Is this your first time shaking hands with a troll? Most folk Sleagh Maith size opt to shake just a finger.” He lifted his other hand and wiggled one very large finger for emphasis. “’Fraid I’ll break their arm, I think.”
That possibility had crossed my mind, and my teeth gritted behind my smile, but I didn’t jerk my arm away. He released me with a grin that made his scaly yellow lips slide over his tusks, and I wasn’t sure if he was happy I hadn’t flinched away or if he was enjoying making me uncomfortable. Not even off my own property yet and I was already questioning my life choices.
“And which handshake do you prefer?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips to prevent myself from crossing my arms.
The troll smiled even broader, showing an impressive number of teeth, which I was surprised to see were rather square and blunt aside from the two large tusks. “Amongst my own kind? Nothing that wouldn’t snap your bones. With the frailer folks like yourself, I don’t much mind either way, but I do like having a boss who isn’t afraid of me.”
He gave me an approving nod. So, I guessed the handshake was a test. At least I’d apparently passed? It was a good thing troll ears weren’t sharp enough that he could hear my heart hammering in my chest.
Nori rolled her narrow eyes and opened the driver’s-side door of her black sedan. Small talk was apparently over. I slid into the passenger side, and then lifted an eyebrow when Tem opened the back door. The troll was at least eight feet tall, and while the sedan was bigger than my little convertible, I wasn’t sure how he was going to fold his huge bulk into the backseat.
Tem had introduced himself free of his glamour, which, now that I thought about it, was odd. Very few fae walked around in the mortal realm without a protective coat of glamour. For starters, glamour helped them blend into humanity more, but it also provided an extra layer of insulation from the metals and technology that didn’t agree with fae physiology. I’d been spending a considerable amount of time in Faerie of late, and few fae glamoured their appearance while there, so it hadn’t immediately struck me as odd. As he ducked into the car, though, his glamour folded around him, shrinking his frame by at least two feet and changing his skin from a leathery yellow to a more human tone. He still didn’t look comfortable cramped in the backseat, but he did fit, which wouldn’t have been true in his unglamoured troll form. Presumably he’d arrived in the car, which meant he’d intentionally dropped his glamour to meet me. Was that a form