Iron Master – Jennifer Ashley Page 0,51
taken it far, far away. To the human world, maybe. They’d get rid of something iron and spelled as fast as they could.”
“It kept them from dokk alfar lands, right?” Peigi asked, trying to understand. “I know you and Cian were saying they sent Shifters to steal it, but how are the Fae able to even be around it?”
“Good question. They must have not only sent minions to grab it, but minions to hide it or get rid of it.”
Peigi laughed. “Minions.”
Stuart shared her amusement. “That’s what hoch alfar call them—actually, they call anyone who isn’t hoch alfar that. We call hoch alfar dickheads.”
“When you’re being polite.”
“Exactly.”
Peigi moved closer to him. “Did you bring me out to explain you’re going to stay with Cian?”
“No.” He looked at her. “I came to explain that I don’t know what to do. Going after the karmsyern will be a hopeless quest.”
“Cian doesn’t seem to think so.”
“Because Cian is a powerful man. If Dimitri isn’t exaggerating, he’s a crazy warrior too. According to Dimitri Cian was imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and ordered to fight Dimitri to the death, and still he got up and kicked ass. Cian must not understand why I haven’t grabbed some armor and headed out the door to beat up the hoch alfar and bring the karmsyern home under my arm.”
Peigi let her voice go soft. “So why haven’t you?”
“Because.”
Stuart faced her and took her hands. His were hard, scarred from his life of fighting, both here and in the human world.
She wanted him to say, Because I’ve found you. Because nothing would ever take me away from you.
And she’d be totally selfish. Stuart had done so much for her, and she could not let him throw away all he believed in, all he loved, to remain in the little house in Shiftertown, working for whatever salary Diego paid him. In the lands of the Fae, he was a leader, a man of strength and honor. The hoch alfar had taken that away from him, but maybe Peigi could help give it back.
She’d tried once before, years ago, when he’d wanted to work the spell so he could return to Faerie. Even then he’d done his best to stop her …
A movement caught her eye, and Peigi stilled, words catching in her throat.
An old tree completed the line that followed this path, a stumpy tree with rough bark and a few shoots of leaves. The movement had been wind in the larger trees that made branches sway, but none of the smaller tree’s twigs had so much as budged.
Peigi released Stuart so fast he blinked at her in surprise. Then she was walking away from him, striding faster and faster down the path toward the stumpy tree, which abruptly turned and tried to run.
Chapter Fourteen
Reid stared in open-mouthed shock at the small, squat tree scurrying across the lawn with Peigi chasing it.
For something that solid, it could move fast. Peigi tossed away her shirt and unzipped her jeans, letting clothes and shoes fall away as she morphed into bear.
It took her a moment to shift, and the tree gained ground, but then Peigi came down on all fours and took off after it.
The fleeing tree didn’t have a chance. Reid jogged down the path toward them, gathering up her clothes as he went, and watched her tackle it.
His girlfriend, in bear form, was taking down a running tree. If anyone from his past had told him this would happen, Reid would have laughed and said the speaker must be smoking something good.
Reid hit the grass and ran to where Peigi was sinking her teeth into a branch, just as the tree shrank down and became Ben, complete with the man’s tatts, clothes, and battered sneakers.
“Shit,” Ben yelled. “Peigi, quit! It’s me!”
Peigi lifted her mouth away and shifted to her between beast, growing larger, fiercer, angrier. “I know it’s you. Why is it you? What are you doing here, and why did you run?”
Ben coughed, pushing at Peigi’s strong, furry body. “Which question did you want answered first?”
“How did you get here?” Reid put in.
“Another question. Well, let’s start with why I’m me. A long time ago—”
“Cut the crap.” Peigi took on the tone she used when she had to make Donny admit he’d gone off where he shouldn’t—except she never said “crap” or anything stronger to the cubs. “Why did you run?”
Ben sat up, cross-legged, and brushed grass from his shirt. “Because you were having a moment. I didn’t want to