“Just how much older are you?”

He grinned. “When you tell me your true age, I’ll tell you mine.”

“Fair enough.” I concentrated on overtaking a long truck for a minute, and then added, “What makes you think her dad sent her here?”

Because I certainly hadn’t gained that impression by anything she’d said or done in our brief meeting.

“It was something she said when I first contacted her—that she’d been expecting my call.”

I frowned. “She’s air fae. That goes with the territory, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, but Makani stepped away from reading the wind after the death of a lover some years back.”

“Meaning she read the wind wrong?”

“Quite the opposite—he wouldn’t listen to her.”

Meaning he was an idiot. “Did he know she was fae?”

A smile touched his lips. “He was fae, and he was also the one who read the wind wrong, not her. He died; she discovered two weeks later that she was carrying his child.”

I swung onto the Hume Freeway ramp, keeping the big vehicle in line as we took the sweeping turn far faster than the sign recommended.

“That would have been hard.”

“Yeah.” Jackson was silent for a moment, and then added, “Makani stepped away from reading the wind the minute she discovered that.”

I frowned. “I would have thought she’d do the opposite to keep her child safe.”

“Reading is not without its risks. There have been instances of fiosaiche losing all sense of self and becoming little more than air.”

Fiosaiche, I knew, was basically the fae term for shaman. If she’d been one, then she was a very gifted reader indeed. “So if she’s once again doing so, it’s because she’s been asked?” When he nodded, I added, “But why would her dad ask her rather than simply do it himself?”

“Because the older air fae get, the more stretched they become, until they are so thin, they appear little more than gossamer. He wouldn’t have the strength to counter whatever events this so-called flux is going to throw at us.”

“I’m seriously doubting he intends Makani to actually fight.”

“No, but she’s a fae in the prime of her life, and she’ll be able to withstand the exchange of forests for the bleakness of the city far longer than he.”

“And her child?”

“Is now in his thirties, and in training to become fiosaiche when his grandfather eventually dies.”

“So it’s a position that’s handed down?”

Jackson nodded. “But generally to the male of the line, not the female.”

“So she was training because there were no sons?”

“Yes. But to become fiosaiche is to forgo children.”

“He obviously didn’t.” Nor did Makani, for that matter.

“Makani was conceived before he stepped into the position. I have no doubt Hava will have done the same now that he is undergoing the training. As for Makani—she also stepped away from training simply because she wanted to spend more time with her son than the position would have allowed.”