Page 4 of Pointy Ears and Purple Glitter (Quirk of Fate #5)

“I don’t understand what’s happening to me.” It was the next morning, and Tynan was frantically trying to clean up purple glitter from the kitchen counter. “I’m not even trying to use magic, and this stuff keeps appearing out of nowhere. This is worse than last night.”

“Don’t get that stuff on the fruitcake.” Sparky hopped across the counter, using his beak to slide the slice of cake Tynan had already cut for him away from the disaster area. “Glitter’s not good for birds.”

“It’s not good for me, either.” Giving up, Tynan leaned his elbows on the counter and rubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t understand. What’s going on? I’ve had barely any sleep…”

“Too busy dreaming about that hulky hero?” Sparky pecked at his cake. “He’s definitely worth dreaming about. Did you see those muscles? The way he manhandled those thugs?”

“No.” Tynan groaned. “All right, yes. But see, that goes to prove there’s something wrong with me.

Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was him.

” He straightened and started pacing. “I’d finally drop off to sleep, because you know I walked a lot of miles last night, and then he’d be there, looming over me in my dreams and I…

I…” No. There were some things that his raven friend didn’t need to know. “It was very disconcerting.”

“It was probably because he was a shifter. You don’t come across many of them in your day-to-day.” Sparky sounded very certain.

“I’ve come across them before. I’m sure I have.

This purple rubbish never happened then.

Oh, my goodness. Do you think me being on the Earth realm is infecting me somehow?

Am I just going to fall to pieces every time I come across a shifter now?

” Tynan was horrified. “I could never go out. I wouldn’t be able to work.

I’d… I’d… Oh, my gods, this is terrible. ”

“I’m pretty sure it’s not every shifter.” Sparky was wrestling with a cherry, getting it stuck on his beak, and then opening his beak so the piece fell in two on the counter. “Score.” He quickly ate them both, fluttering his wings. “Hmm, I love this stuff.”

“Excuse me. I thought we were talking about my problems. I can watch you eat fruitcake any day of the week.”

“Seriously, you need to find a friend with two legs.” Sparky smoothed down the feathers on one of his wings with his beak. Or he might have been cleaning his beak from cherry debris.

“You have two legs.”

“Meh, fine. A friend without wings. Someone like…your drool-worthy hero from last night, for example. Seriously, why weren’t you drooling over him? Did you see that chest?”

“I couldn’t miss it. He forgot his shirt.”

“He was rushing out to save you. You should’ve been drooling and offering to lay his eggs.”

“I’ve not had nearly enough coffee to deal with your nonsense this morning.” Tynan tentatively reached for his mug, checking inside for purple bits. Not that he thought his own magical glitter was going to do him any harm. Coffee safely poured, he peered at his companion.

“I don’t lay eggs, neither do most shifters.” He considered that statement for a moment. “Okay, maybe bird shifters do. I have no idea. Why would I go and talk to the shifter from last night?”

Sparky tilted his head, ruffling his feathers. “How old are you?”

“What’s that got to do with anything? Seriously, what?”

“I’m a simple bird, with a simple bird brain. Remind me of how old you are again.”

“There’s nothing simple about you.” Tynan sighed, leaning against the kitchen counter. “I am a hundred and sixty-five years old. I told you that when I explained why I left the fae realm and came to Earth in the first place.”

“Hmm, that’s right, I remember now.” Sparky pecked at the fruitcake slice, which was more than half gone.

“Such a sad story, people mocking you for years over your erratic magic, and then, that wonderful rite of passage apparently all fae go through, you got your mating mark, and you got mocked even more. That’s what you called it, right?

A mating mark? What did the mark look like?

Did you mention something about a horn shape? ”

“Yes,” Tynan said slowly. “A horn mark appeared on my right hip. The fae seers told me it was my mating mark – an indicator of what type of shifter my fated mate would be.” Putting down his cup on the counter, Tynan stared at the bird.

“Are you suggesting…? No. That can’t be true.

What sort of shifter was the man from last night? ”

“Malik. Use his name.” Sparky wiggled his head from side to side. “I think he could be important. Malik, our hunk with all the chest muscles and very commanding presence, I might add, is a rhino shifter.”

“Rhino?” Tynan was going to have to Google it. He’d never heard of a rhino before – shifter or otherwise.

“Huge animals. Very majestic, they have very few natural predators.”

“Sounds lovely. What else?”

“I didn’t say lovely. Oh, no.” Sparky shook his head.

“They have the face only their mother’s would love, however…

” Tynan sighed as Sparky paused for dramatic effect.

“Your Malik’s animal side does have horns.

Depending on the type of rhino shifter he is, he’ll have either one or two, but that hunk has horns. ”

Shit. And I ran away from him. Great first impression, Tynan. Tynan glared at Sparky, who was clearly waiting for his response. “You’re a bird. How do you know so much about rhinos? I’ve never heard of them before, and I doubt you’ve ever seen one in the wild.”

Sparky shook his head. “YouTube. National Geographic. I have extensive viewing habits, and it beats watching you wrestling with your non-existent filing system.”

“It’s not like I learned about filing systems on the fae realm.” Tynan frowned as he took another sip of his coffee.

“Regardless, I do think your hunky rhino is the reason you can barely scratch your butt without showering everything in purple glitter.” Sparky arched his neck and spread his wings in a stretch.

“It’ll be a fae mating quirk. Your magic is trying to send you the signal ‘hey, this person is worth making a spectacle over.’ Or something like that. ”

“You didn’t learn something like that through YouTube or National Geographic.” Tynan glared. “How would you know anything about fated mates, or how a fae feels when they come face-to-face with their mates for the first time? You’re. A. Bird.”

The look Sparky gave him was about as close to a sneer as was possible for a raven. A whole “look down my beak at you” attitude. “Sometimes, you wingless people are soooo ridiculous.”

“I have wings. Bright shiny things that flutter. They’re a lot bigger than yours, and yes, I can fly with them.”

“Fine. You featherless people are so ridiculous.” Sparky flew the short distance to the kitchen window, landing on the sill. “There’s a whole world out there.” He tapped the glass with his beak.

“Human-speak is not the only conversation going on out there. Birds talk. Animals talk. Birds and animals talk to each other, shocking to think, I know. If you cleaned your ears out, you could hear the plants having the most intense debates, and don’t get me started about what happens when the wind and rain chime in.

You could learn so much if only you listened. ”

Leaning over, Tynan rested his elbows on the kitchen counter, finishing his coffee. Sparky was busy looking out of the window, totally ignoring him in that maddening way that only a bird…or a cat…could do. Tynan had never had a lot of luck with cats for some reason.

When the cup was empty, he set it down on the counter – purple glitter was still scattered across it.

“Was there anything else?” he started slowly.

“Anything else apart from the glitter that made you think Malik and I could be fated?” I really don’t want to make a fool of myself.

Okay, I really don’t want to make a fool of myself a second time. But if it’s true…

Sparky hopped around so they were facing each other. “You really have to ask? Does your dick want to escape your pants when you start to run? Is that a bodily quirk of yours?”

“Now who’s being ridiculous?” Tynan pressed his legs closer together, even though his bottom half was hidden by the counter.

“I’ve got eyes. I could see it. But all right then.

Malik was definitely affected by you. Did you catch a glimpse of the outline of his lower regions?

He wanted you with a capital W. He stood on that pavement, in just his pants, and watched you until you completely disappeared over the horizon line.

I circled around twice to check. I could feel the struggle he was having with his animal half.

He truly wanted to follow you. But he was being decent.

He was respecting your space after being attacked. ”

Tynan scratched behind his ear. Truth was, after he’d made such a fool of himself with the glitter bomb, he didn’t remember much else. Although his dreams filled in a lot of details - if they were true.

“Good chemistry, maybe? Adrenaline because of the fight?”

“Meh. Fine. Think what you like.” Sparky tapped on the window again. “Can you let me out, please? I have the urge to stretch my wings.”

“Yeah. Sure. I should probably go into the office.” Tynan straightened and went over to the window, leaning over and grabbing the catch. “Are you going far? Did you want me to wait for you?”

“I could be a while. I’m going to talk to Malik.” That raven’s eyes were positively gleaming as Tynan froze, his hand still on the catch. “Why shouldn’t I? Someone has to thank him for saving your ass last night.”

“I did that. I shook his hand and thanked him – that’s when the glitter bomb happened.”

“And what did you feel when your hands touched for that very first time?”

Groaning, Tynan let go of the catch. “I felt buzzed for the first time in my life. Fine. We’ll go into the office first – it’s business hours so Malik could have humans around, other people working with him, and that sort of thing.

But we’ll both go this afternoon. No dashing off and telling stories about me before I get the chance to talk to him myself.

Sparky,” he warned when that gleam in Sparky’s eyes didn’t dull at all. “We’ll go together. Later. All right?”

“Fine.” Sparky ruffled his feathers and then hopped onto Tynan’s shoulder. “I need to do some YouTube research anyway. I want to find out what this social media platform business is all about. I seriously think it could help your business.”

“I don’t need it,” Tynan said, although at the same time he was thinking I need all the help I can get. But it wasn’t his business he needed help with.