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Now I was starting to see why Ezra might have come here. In Ezra’s mind, he and I had unfinished business. “So when Ezra returns to his family, ya think he’ll never be able to come back here.”

Shrugging, Dylan smiled at me. “My great-grandmother told my grandmother who told my mother that seeing the land of her fairy ancestor had tempted her but knowing they could trap her there kept her from agreeing. She feared she would have lived out her far darrig life alone and powerless against her captors. Luckily for her, and our entire family, my great-grandfather talked her into staying here with him. His love for her was strong.”

“So some know what fairies are really like but the majority of us still accept when they show up volunteering to help. Why are we so gullible about them?”

Dylan shrugged his small shoulders. “Fairies cleverly use their charm to make the people they interact with forget to question their motives. Humans never find out the truth. Magickals seldom notice and can’t be bothered when they do, since fairies don’t openly threaten them in any way. The only reason I don’t suspect the fairy is behind the relic’s death is that he was genuinely afraid of the angel magick that might still be in it.”

I snorted. “I never heard about any of this fairy stuff in school. Someone needs to write this down. I’m ensuring there are records of what it’s like to interact with guardians. Now I’ll be submitting this stuff about fairies too.”

Dylan blinked at me. “I do not know much about the ones you call guardians. My family calls them ‘ancient ones’ and they warned me to avoid them any way I could.”

“Ya don’t have to avoid Rasmus. But watch yerself around his brethren.”

Dylan blinked. “The ancient ones have brethren?”

“And sister-en,” I said, grinning at him.

Across from me, Mulan snorted. “That is not real word.”

I turned to smirk at her. “Are ya seriously throwing stones atmyword choices? Really? Don’t be tossing yer underwear around all over until I leave, Mulan.”

I couldn’t help smiling widely when a true smile bloomed on Mulan’s face. Goddess, I wish Conn had been present to see it. He was losing his mind dealing with her angst.

Dylan chuckled at me and Mulan arguing. “Visiting fairies work hard to make the truth seem like a false tale. I don’t see the power in the fairy that the Mighty Wu sees with her clever eyes. Truth sight is an enviable skill.”

Mulan lifted an eyebrow at Dylan’s compliment but said nothing back to him. Typically, she would have preened when someone praised her powers. Sometimes she even smirked if she thought it would annoy me. At the moment, Mulan acted as bored by the discussion of fairies as Ezra had seemed with my request for his help.

Goddess, the Wu Shaman was such a brooder.

I turned back to Dylan. “So fairies use subtle influence over a very long period to make us forget what they’re here to do,” I summed up with a shrug. “Humans do that as well, just not with magick. They use boring television, repetitive news, and social media rants to plant ideas in each other’s heads. Ya should never underestimate the power of normal words to influence people.”

“Exactly,” Dylan replied.

Yes, I understood all that quite well, but I didn’t like thinking about Ezra fooling me into thinking he was nothing but a helpful fairy. How badly had he fooled me?

I lost that train of thought when a seething Conn stomped back into the room. “Why the deep frown?”

His gaze drilled into mine. “Ezra is hiding something big, Aran. He told me to stop you from going after Hisser. Why would he tell me to do that? You were the only magickal capable of catching him. I was unsuccessful in getting the fairy to tell me his reasons.”

I had no idea either and I said so. “I got the same feeling but can’t imagine what he’s covering up. Tell me something, Conn. Do ya think Ezra’s power is as great as yers?”

“Yes. It’s been that way since you met him,” Conn said.

I blinked in surprise. “If ya knew that, why did ya never tell me?”

“Because you took him as a lover and The Dagda forbade me from getting between you and the men you bedded.”

“Well,that’sa stupid rule,” I said. And then I gasped in realization. “That’s why Ezra never shared magick with me. I would have known the truth about his powers if he had.”

Conn nodded. “Fairies serve humanity for the sole purpose of gathering power which they take back to their people. Ezra is at the end of his service in our realm. He can’t afford to use any of his power. Whatever he promised to deliver to his people, that’s what he has to carry across the veil.”

I threw up my hands. “And ya didn’t think that was something I needed to know?”

Conn shrugged. “Not as long as he left our realm peacefully, and you never suspected. Ezra was both a lover and friend to you, but I was not surprised when he refused to help us with Hisser. I expected him to confess to you the reason why, though. He likes to think he has the upper hand and to brag about what he’s done.”

My head was shaking in denial. It did that sometimes even when I knew it was a useless action. “Would ya lose a fight with him if he engaged ya?”

Shrugging, Conn looked off. “A fight between us would be brutal, but I doubt he would risk one. If he loses any of his power, his entire family will suffer for his actions. Fairy society is both strict and self-serving. This is common in societies run by the children of gods.”