It’s #BookQW and Cor has to make ‘extra’ effort to fit in.
More from chapter 10:
She tilted her head toward Fern.
“Sort of, well…” Fern mumbled, turning red. “Yeah. I mean, yes.”
Lady Pina faced off with Fee, though not as aggressively as Fern’s mum had. “This is my fault for not having watched my charge as carefully as the circumstances warranted. Lady Heather had warned me, I knew her limitations and yet it never occurred to me the city could be such a dangerous place for a young witch not versed in the ways of the Windborne.”
“Well, it wasn’t that—ow!”
“Fee,” Lady Pina continued without noticing, “approve this wizard, uh…”
“Corylus Avellana,” he said quickly.
Her brows lifted, and she eyed him. “Approve…Corylus Avellana’s…”
She had to recognize the tree species—common hazel—he was named for. Cor held his breath. That should give him extra points with the old lady.
“…visitation.”
“I canna do that, Lady Pina!” Fee buzzed in agitation, his glow turning red and growing to cover half the hilltop. “Only the council may approve a visitation, outside of an apprenticeship trial.”
Lady Pina put her hands on her hips with an exasperated sigh. “’Tis my fault the witch is indebted to this warlock, so I will address the council at the earliest opportunity, and in the meantime Corylus is visiting Mistress Fern, heir to the Witch of the Meadows, with purely social intent.” She fixed Fee with a glare.
Pfft. Social intent? So much for being named after a tree. Supposed he should be thankful she wasn’t glaring at him.
“Mom was wrong,” Fern whispered. “There wasn’t any business for me to handle, just keep out of the line of fire.”
“Thank them,” Cor whispered back, “and let’s get out of here.”
They walked forward. Fern unlooped the peregrinator from around her neck and handed it to Lady Pina. “Thank you.”
The lady grasped Fern’s hand and whispered something in her ear.
Nothing good would come from more negotiation. He’d been told he could stay, so Cor kept walking. Down the steps of the hillside that turned out to have a house under it and across the meadow to the closest stand of trees. He’d hide until this blew over.
~~~
Pick up Guardian of the Pines during Pride Month to enjoy a sweet gay romance with a tree-crazy wizard teen!
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