A Little Green Magic (The Little Coven #1) - Isabel Wroth Page 0,79

about seeing a strange bug cross their path, but curious nevertheless.

“You didn't hesitate to call me father,” he finally stated.

Uriah gave her thigh a squeeze beneath the table. They'd talked extensively about how they would communicate, and it was one squeeze to keep quiet, two to speak.

Uriah didn't have any emotional ties to the forest god, and Ivy was going to rely on her mate to help steady her impulsive feelings.

Rowena's lawyer had given them a wealth of knowledge when it came to dealing with Fae. Apparently, he’d dealt with more than his fair share of Fae clients over the years, and Mr. James Giles explained Fae never outright lied.

They spoke in riddles, questions, twisted words in all sorts of complicated knots, tricked their victims into open-ended agreements, and were clever with omissions, but never flat out lied.

Fae caught in a lie could face judgment so severe, not even a god could survive the experience.

The advice Astrid’s mother gave her made sense then, at that moment, when Mr. Giles had taken great pains to write out a contract for Ivy in the event she had no other option than to make a deal with her father, exactly what lie she could get her father to tell.

Ivy needed to get him in a position to ask him for the truth and a name. She had to be patient, keep her wits about her, and not let the seething rage she felt burning in her chest spew out and ruin everything.

When Ivy didn't speak, Donnatar's lips quirked ever so slightly. “How did you know to recognize me?”

Uriah gave her two gentle squeezes, and before she answered, Ivy took a measured breath. “My mother described you clearly enough. Though she implied she thought of you as less than a father and more of a sperm donor.”

This made the giant male frown, glancing at his son sideways, as though he would know better.

“I am not familiar with that term: sperm donor.”

Rowena piped up with a cool, pleasant smile. “A sperm donor gives only his seed to aid in the conception of a child and disappears. A father is lovingly involved in every step of the process and sticks around to fulfill the responsibilities of having created a child.”

Up went one of the forest god's thick brows, his beard jutting forward as he narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw.

“I see. Your mother clearly painted me as quite the villain and made it seem as though you were unwanted by me.”

Uriah gave her another squeeze, forcing Ivy to think before reacting. She wanted to spew all sorts of bile and tell her brother what a vicious brute their father had been to use and abuse their mother and abandoning her in the woods soiled and hurt.

“She took responsibility for her decisions and expressed the only regret she had was in having not been a bit more detailed in the bargaining process,” Ivy managed to say evenly, but some instinct inside her made her look to her brother.

The scar on his cheek was white with how hard his jaw clenched, and if not for the discoloration in his flesh, she wouldn't have been able to see the emotion churning beneath the surface.

She didn't know him to say what that emotion was, but in his place, Ivy imagined she might have felt resentment or even outright hatred toward her mother for the bargain she'd made.

There was a reason Ilex had twice left Ivy warnings, and no one could have convinced her in that moment it was with malicious intent. Ivy couldn't stop herself.

“In her journal, Mother expressed her desperation to have a child. She said bargaining with you, Father, was easy.

“In exchange for carrying the child you wanted, she would get the baby she longed for. At the time, she expected your offspring to have horns and hooves, or some evidence it was a creature like you.”

Donnatar definitely smirked at his son, and Ilex dropped his gaze to the table to hide whatever his eyes couldn't hide. Uriah squeezed her leg harder, but Ivy ignored whatever his sense of smell might be detecting and pushed on.

“She said to look at such a monster and be reminded of what you did to her in the forest the night we were conceived would make it an easy task. Then, one night my brother and I must have been fighting for space inside her belly.

“Mother said she saw two perfect sets of tiny hands and feet pushing up against her