Tangled Heart

by Zenina Masters

  “Ten years with my company, but I have always been walking among them since I lost my tree.” Aster sighed. “Hundreds of years.”

  “You have human seeming now.”

  “I do. It seemed that the green skin and leaves for garb made folks a little wary. I have set up about fifteen green woman myths in the new world, just because I was careless.”

  Dira snorted. “That is funny.”

  “I know. You would think that I could take a bath or relieve myself without someone screaming and throwing a stick at me. I think I probably opened up the shop just because of digital photography.”

  “Too many selfies?”

  “Too fast to take photos. My other self is still starring on a number of creature videos.”

  Dira laughed. “You got sloppy.”

  “They were everywhere, so I picked up some gold and bought a property, starting to grow things in a space where they were not allowed to set foot. It was rather freeing.”

  Her friend chuckled. “Now you understand the concept of territory.”

  “I am from a people who live in one spot their entire lives. I understand it. I now know that I can defend it.”

  Dira nodded. “So, what are you going to do to the god?”

  “I am going to ask him for my tree.”

  “If he says no?”

  Aster smiled. “I suppose I will just have to find a way to buy the property. It might be sacred land, but it is still land, and if I own it, I have rights to visit it.”

  “You have thought this through.”

  “Only in the last few days. I hadn’t thought much about it until the bride made her offer.” She shrugged. “That set off a lot of plotting and scheming.”

  Dira nodded with a wry smile. “And here you are. So, the bride sent you? She is making tremendous strides.”

  “Apparently. She is going into her union with a plan, which is surprising considering her age.” Aster grabbed another cookie.

  “Speaking of age, you are going after those cookies like a toddler.”

  “I like cookies. I have never gotten the hang of cooking in the human way, so I eat the tasty stuff when it presents itself.”

  Dira snorted. “Smart. Well, you can eat the cookies or muffins that we keep around here whenever you wish.”

  “Hooray! Well, I suppose that I should go and see if I can spot my target. Do you have any hints for finding him?”

  “He isn’t a fan of being confined, so he will look irritated or anxious.” Dira chuckled. “If he is anything like my husband, he might snort a bit. Stamping is also not out of the question.”

  “Right. I don’t want a mate; I just want to ask him to release my tree.”

  “Well, you are going to have to find a mate to leave. You are a rarity, and they are not letting you out now that you have signed a contract.”

  Aster growled. “They are going to hold me to that?”

  “They are. While looking for your god, keep your eyes out for a possible mate.”

  Aster got to her feet. “So, shall I go tanned? Or green?” She shifted her skin to the chlorophyll-filled colour that she spent most of her life in.

  “Tanned. Let them wonder what you are.” The dragon grinned.

  Aster returned to her outdoor tan. Her olive skin in human form darkened easily when she worked outside, and she always worked outside.

  She asked her friend, “How do I look?”

  “Cute, flirty, definitely not like an ancient dryad.”

  Aster gave her two thumbs up and turned to swish her silky skirt with every step.

  She left the building and headed for the bar, keeping her eyes out for any flare of familiar power. If the forest god was inhabiting the shifter, it might be hard to spot. She was going to have to elicit a response, and she wasn’t quite sure where to start.

  Stepping into the bar seemed like the obvious point to begin.

  Chapter Three

  Drinking alcohol curled her leaves, so she ordered something heavy on fruit and sugar and took a seat in one of the booths.

  Aster sighed. Her timing may have been off. It seemed like everyone who was at the bar already had a mate in mind. She appeared to have arrived first thing in the morning.

  She finished her fruit juice and brought the glass back to the bartender.

  The pixie smiled and said, “Come back in four hours. The place will be jumping by then.”

  “Thank you. I had no idea what time it was when I arrived.”

  “It is currently around eleven in the morning. If you want to eat, the café is around the corner.”

  “I am good. I filled up on cookies. I am just going for a walk. I will be back later.”

  The pixie smiled. “I will see you then.”

  The walk would have been more comfortable if she was either wearing a lot more clothing or had been perfectly naked. Aster headed for the woods that she could see from the pathways of the Crossroads, and she headed for the trees. She knew that none of them were very old, but she loved to just sit and whisper the gossip with them. If she was lucky, one might have seen the forest god.

  Aster walked through the meadow and straight into the thick of the forest. This was where she felt most at home.

  Since no one would see her, she let her glamour slip and wore her skin and hair in its natural green. Aster climbed one of the taller trees and whispered her question. “Has the forest seen the forest god?”

  The whisper ran through the leaves and came back to her in just over an hour. Trees were not fast.

  We have seen one this morning, the horned one walks on the ground near the brook. He is moving back to the pathways of the walkers now.

  Aster stood up and hopped from branch to branch until she was on the ground. There was one main pathway, and he would have to cross it to return to the Crossroads. She stepped down the path, further into the woods, and she waited.

  The soft footfalls were a deliberate tread. She stepped out and faced the forest god, hands on her hips. “Pardon me, sir, but you are in possession of my tree. I would like it back.”

  The huge elk raised his head, his horns woven with moss. He shook his head slowly. She heard his words in her mind. What is in my lands is mine.

  She scowled. “No, the ancient oak that is in your lands is mine. When I planted it, the ground became sacred.”

  The elk tilted his head. And I woke with that power protecting the world around me.

  Aster waved that away. “Fine, great. I want to visit my tree.”

  You do not talk like the tree folk.

  She huffed. “Cut off from my tree, I have become something else.”

  I cannot give you what you seek. You cannot touch your tree on sacred lands without binding yourself to me.

  She stalked up to him, her head under his chin. She shrieked, “What?”

  That is the price. You must be bound to me, to the land, to walk upon it again. It is your choice, now out of my way, little sprout.

  He simply walked over her, forcing her to duck as he ambled past.

  Her hands were clenched into fists, and she wished to be violent. Instead, she walked deep into the woods, and she created an archway, a sacred and quiet space. She had done this for weddings, for meditative gardens, and now, she was doing it because she missed her tree.

  Noon turned to afternoon, and the light faded. She worked on finding natural plants and asking them to change their properties. When she was finally finished, she was exhausted, her rage had dissipated, and she was ready to go and eat.

  She returned to her human skin and walked back toward the Crossroads. The wildness was rioting in the Crossroads. Men and women were mixing and mingling in the streets, some on the street. This was peculiar.

  Aster went to the bed and breakfast to change clothing, and Dira grabbed her arm. “Aster, how are you feeling?”

  “Irritated but fine. Why?”

  “The forest lord has let loose a w
ave of lust that is causing folks to make inappropriate decisions. They are screwing the closest thing to them.”

  “So? Isn’t that what this place is about?”

  Dira hissed, and her grip tightened. “No, it is about finding mates. Proper, true mates. I want you to go out there and fix it.”

  Aster blinked. “How?”

  “You met with him this afternoon.”

  “I yelled at an elk this afternoon.”

  “Right. Well, that elk is dumping psychological hormones throughout the Crossroads.”

  Aster groaned. “I don’t even know what he looks like.”

  “He will be the only one not making out with someone.”

  “Can I change?”

  Dira closed her eyes, and a silky green gown was made out of Aster’s grubby skirt and top. “It should get the point across.”

  “I wouldn’t even wear this to sleep in.”

  “I know, but it is sexy as hell. Now shoo. Go and un-horny that elk.”

  Aster grimaced and stalked out in bare feet and a green gown, her hair fluttered as she moved around the men and women who were grappling and sighing. Gods were a pain in the ass.

  She stalked into the bar, and the bartender was barely visible. She was hiding under the bar in a haze of pixie dust. Someone had groped her wings, and there was nothing like agonizing pain to break a romantic mood.

  Aster looked around and found two likely candidates. One was a man with a vacant expression, sitting in a booth. The other was a gloomy figure on the far side of the dance floor, leaning against the wall with dark shadows in his expression.

  When she saw the high heel under the table, she understood the reason for the seated man’s expression. That left only the gloomy, handsome shadow in the corner.

  She looked at the lightly bearded face, the dark brows, and the closely cropped hair. Aster stepped around the folk on the floor, and she walked up to him and smiled.

  He turned his head. “I am not interested.”

  The echo of the hard slap that she delivered caused everyone in the room to freeze in place.

  “This is not about you. This is about all of the folk around you who are going to be paralyzed with shame because you were pumping out lust hormones. They came here for a chance at their mate, and now, they are hitting the floor with the closest person.”

  His head slowly turned back to her, and he frowned. “You aren’t affected.”

  She snorted. “No. Now, stay here while I clean up your mess, and we are going to have a chat.”

  She walked to the bar, the folks around her were beginning to pull away in confusion. The bartender, like many others, kept mint behind the bar, so Aster hopped onto the bar, took the pot of mint, and she whispered to it softly.

  Take the dust of the pixie and fly, cleanse the night, and give a fresh dawn to all.

  The mint struggled, and its vines reached toward the cloud of pixie dust. It took the dust, and the leaves flew apart, each piece shattering into multiple pieces and resting on the foreheads of those who were slowly standing.

  Everyone began to slowly move toward the exit as the leaves turned black and dropped away.

  Aster leaned down and spoke to the bartender. “They are all going to their residences for the night. Things should remain quiet.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Mint is excellent for cleaning the air. I used some of your pixie dust to make the leaves fly. The leaves will attach and remove the residue of the artificially induced lust and give them little to no memory of it in the morning.”

  “What caused it?”

  “I am dealing with that next.” Aster looked toward the corner, and he was still standing there. She looked to the pixie. “You might want to leave the bar to us for this evening, or I can take him out of here.”

  “Please. There may be new arrivals, and this is the first place they come after they have settled in.”

  Aster nodded. “I did the same this afternoon. Understood. Sorry about the footprints on the bar.”

  “Not a problem. Thank you for clearing them out.”

  “Is there a back door?”

  “There is.”

  “Good. See you tomorrow.”

  She hopped down from the counter and walked upstream to grab the elk by the ear and haul him out into the fresh air behind the bar. She lifted her head and whispered to the woods. He stumbled after her as she hauled him through the forest.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Somewhere with enough trees to negate your rut-inducing chemistry.”

  “Why are you pulling my ear?”

  She snorted. “I needed a handle.”

  “I promise to walk with you.”

  She let him go, and he rubbed his ear as he walked next to her. She linked arms with him and led him deep into the woods.

  “You are the woman who spoke to me earlier.”

  She snorted. “I am.”

  “Why aren’t you green?”

  “Why aren’t you ten feet tall with horns? I am old enough to blend in with humans. You were raised by a shifter family, and therefore, you look like a human except when you don’t.”

  “I wasn’t.”

  “What?”

  “I wasn’t raised by a shifter family. I was found by a park ranger, and I grew up to be like him.”

  “Oh. That is... different.”

  “He is a good parent and an elk shifter. I took after him.” He chuckled. “He taught me a lot, and when he told me I should be seeking a mate, I decided that his words were wise. Here I am.”

  “How did he adopt you?”

  “It wasn’t necessary.”

  She sighed. “So, you don’t have a legal identity.”

  “Not that I have checked, no.”

  “Right. You need to fix that. There are programs to have the fey absorbed into modern society. I believe with some coaching and the right sponsor, you could step forward and claim your territory as an ancestral fey.”

  “I am not fey.”

  She snorted. “I know that. You are far older than most of the pointy-eared morons prancing around.”

  “Not that much older.”

  “You were already there when I planted my tree. If you hadn’t been, it wouldn’t have happened that way.”

  She hauled him into the clearing that the forest had told her about.

  She faced him and glared at him. “Now, why were you giving off a lust aura?”

  He looked down and to the left. “Uh, I don’t know. I just saw your other form and returned to my human form, and that is what happened.”

  She sighed and touched his face, making him look at her. “What do you want? Why are you here?”

  “I am here to find a mate. I don’t know what to look for beyond that.”

  “And yet, you turned me away when you thought I was a standard shifter.”

  His dark brown eyes were full of confusion. “I don’t know why I did that.”

  She stroked his cheek, feeling the beard under her fingers. “I will be here for a while; I have to find a mate as well. You can speak to me instead of getting frustrated like you were.”

  He nodded. “Thank you.”

  She sighed and removed her hand from his cheek, extending it to him. “My name is Aster.”

  “I am Huron.”

  “Glad to meet you. Do you know when you are putting out the lust pheromone?”

  He frowned. “No.”

  She nodded and knelt, touching some of the sleeping creepers and making a coronet. “Here. Bend down.”

  She slipped the crown onto his head. “Wear it at all times and don’t take it off until you want to seduce a partner. It will filter your influence.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why are you helping me?”

  She paused. “I am not. You are fine. I am helping everyone around you. It is hard to be around nature gods. The
y send out waves and ripples that they don’t even see.”

  He blinked. “I didn’t know that is what I was.”

  “I talked to your other side. He knows. You two should talk.”

  He nodded and looked around. “Why did you bring me out here?”

  “You needed to calm down, and for that, you needed a forest.”

  “How did you know?”

  “I am old, and I was born to an ancient tree. She taught me what I needed to know, and I have many friends, including nature gods, who have completed my education.”

  He nodded, and the leaves in the coronet flapped.

  She frowned. “That won’t do. Bend down.”

  He did, and she touched the crown, and it thickened and turned into more of a masculine headband. “That is better.”

  “How did you do that?”

  “I asked the plant to give me a vine, I asked the vine to take a shape.”

  He smiled. “You are good at this.”

  “Thank you. I have practiced. Now, where are you staying?”

  “At the Open Heart.”

  “Good. So am I. Let’s go. Today has taken a weird turn.”

  She linked arms with him and found the path in a few minutes.

  He asked her softly, “Would you be my mate?”

  “I will think about it.”

  “That is fair. Will you have breakfast with me?”

  Aster nodded. “I can do that. The bed and breakfast or the café?”

  “The café. They have a very nice selection of foods.”

  “Very well. I will meet you in the lobby at dawn.”

  He smiled and inclined his head. “Thank you.”

  “You are welcome.”

  They walked together for ten minutes until the Open Heart came into view. Dira was on the porch with a pot of tea. “You two look cozy.”

  Aster smiled. “I am holding onto him for warmth. Please, switch me back to my normal clothing.”

  “But you look so cute.”

  “I am frosting my leaves here.”

  Huron wrapped his arm over her shoulder, and she felt the heat that his body was blazing out. “Here, take what you need.”

  She looked up at him, and she wanted to sigh again. He was attractive, rugged, and part of him was functionally immortal.