Skyborn (Dragons & Druids #1)(34)

Eva smoothed her crisp black suit. “These druids weren’t like the others I’ve met passing through town. They were organized and brimming with power. I think they work directly for Ardan.”

Nadine physically flinched at the name of the evil master druid. Logan started pacing. “I’ve sent Keegan to add on two more shifters to our pack, and I also requested he hire a sorcerer.”

Eva nodded. “Smart. Danny would be perfect. He’s powerful.”

Logan made a gesture with his hands. “Yeah, well, I’m not sure Keegan is going to go for that.”

Eva made a tsk-tsk noise. “Love shouldn’t be so hard to figure out. If you love someone, you be with them. End of discussion.”

My eyes flicked to Nadine, whose eyes flicked to Gear, who was staring at his shoes.

“I’ll try to see if any of my other sorcerers would be a good fit for your pack. Meanwhile, I have evaded their truth witch’s questioning by saying I had an important appointment. But I fear if I don’t go back to answer his questions, it will raise suspicions.”

Logan nodded. “Did your bartender say anything?”

Eva flinched. “Logan, it was a truth witch. He had to. He’s untrained in the art of trickery. So he said that a new wolf in town, with red hair, had recently been to the bar.”

“Dammit!” Logan smacked his fist into his palm.

“But…” She held up a finger. “He also listed off half a dozen other redheads that he knew. Turns out he has a thing for them. Notices every redhead in the room. One of my dancers is new and has red hair, so they started questioning her first.”

Alright, I couldn’t take it anymore. “What’s a truth witch?”

Logan turned to face me, stress lining his features. “You know the bouncer at Eva’s club that was manning the front door last night?”

His eyes had glowed an eerie copper, like Eva’s. I would never forget it. I nodded.

“Well, he is a truth witch. Keegan had to use his words VERY carefully so Grub wouldn’t detect a lie. Keegan said you were one of his new shifters. Then Grub smelled the wolf pee on you and assumed you were a wolf.”

I cringed. So that’s what Keegan was talking about when he told me in the alley that the bouncer could tell truth from lie. He was a truth witch. “Can we never speak of the wolf pee again? Thanks.”

Keegan had also said some other things but I didn’t mention that.

Eva quirked her mouth into a half smile and strode over to me. “There are only a few dozen truth witches in existence. I pay Grub whatever he wants to stay with me.”

And yet we had to pour vodka and pee on me to get past him. “But you don’t trust him with who I am?” I asked Eva.

She shrugged. “No. I don’t fully trust anyone so motivated by money.”

Great.

“So when the druid’s truth witch asks you about me…?” I asked her nervously. She was close enough now that I could smell her delicate floral perfume.

Eva winked. “I’m advanced in trickery. He won’t get anything out of me. But it takes some mental preparation, which is why I wanted to come here first and tell you. Get my head straight before going before two such powerful druids.”

“Trickery?” I asked dumbly. Someone just give me a freaking supernatural dictionary already!

Nadine seemed to lean forward on the balls of her feet as if she too didn’t know what trickery was.

Eva straightened. “The art of trickery is to look a truth witch right in the eye and answer their question with a lie without their detection.”

My mouth popped open and I leaned forward slightly. “How?” I’d always been curious by nature. Hell, I hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up again, alone, just because I was curious what was down there, and to see if my lazy ass could do it.

Eva looked at Logan and smiled as if they were sharing a personal joke. “Remember when I taught you this?” she asked him.

He chuckled. “I was nine years old and I thought it was a fun game.”

Eva smirked. “How many times has it saved your life?”

Logan grinned. “Countless.”

I was going to go mad if she didn’t tell me. Finally, she turned to me. “Ask me what color my suit is,” she stated.

What? Her suit was black, everyone could see that. But I indulged her. “What color is your suit, Eva?”

She paused a moment. “Purple,” she said calmly.

I frowned. “Okay, you lied.”

“Did I? A truth witch wouldn’t have thought so. The key is to reframe the question to yourself so that you are answering with the truth. You said, what color was my suit, and I quickly asked myself what my favorite color was. I answered purple, which my brain perceives as true and the sorcerer does too. But if you pause for too long or can’t reframe the question so that you believe your answer, you’re dead. They will know you are practicing trickery or lying.”

“Jesus.” I felt sweaty just thinking about it. Cooper again made the sign of the cross in front of his chest from where he stood in the corner, and I reminded myself to stop saying Jesus all the time. Bad habit.

“It’s a sign of the times if some sorcerers are aligning with the druids,” Logan muttered.

“Won’t the sorcerers suffer the most if the druids find the last dragon … or dragons I mean.” The sorcerers were the most populated in the supernatural realm, or so I had been told. So the majority of them would die or be enslaved, since they were part human. At least that’s what Logan had told me. I still didn’t understand that part.