Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
Cliona handed Moira something that looked suspiciously like a blunt.
“Mom,” I hissed. “What the hell is that?”
“Something Hazel and I have been working on in our spare time.”
Moira took it and lifted it to her nose to smell. Her eyes lit up. “You naughty little minxes. Is this weed?”
“What the fuck?” I whispered. We sat in the town square watching people walk by. On the surface, nothing in Joy Springs had changed. But there was a taut tension in the atmosphere now. Little laughter rang in the town square and things weren’t as busy as they normally were.
“You can’t light up here,” Moira said. “Texas is weird about drugs and basically anything fun.” She tucked the handmade cigarette into her pocket. “But when we get to Evie’s, game on.”
Despite where I’d grown up, I’d never smoked weed or done any form of drugs, mostly because they didn’t work on a paranormal’s metabolism. But if that thing was anything like the booze coursing through my system giving everything a light haze, we were all in for it once the stuff went to market.
“I brought half a dozen,” Mom said.
Moira cackled. “Your mom is so cool.”
“You both need a handler,” I muttered, but I couldn’t stop the laugh bubbling from me.
“How long are we going to sit here?” Moira asked.
“Long enough to see if we’re being set up,” Mom said.
She’d glamoured us within an inch of our lives. Mom had gone for a sophisticated silver-haired look. She’d shrunk her height down several inches and turned her long flowing hair into a sleek, silver bob. Her eyes were now a pale blue peeking out behind dark rimmed glasses.
Moira was blonde and willowy with pale amber eyes, and I was a red-haired, curvy vixen. We needed to do this more often. Playing magical dress up was fun.
Sirena’s gelato stand was several feet away, far enough away where she wouldn’t catch our scent and give us away. Mom could put up a shield, but that might make people suspicious, wondering what we were trying to hide.
Caelan’s scent was nowhere to be found, and there was no sign of any shifters.
Fortuitous for us. Their noses were too sensitive to miss our presence.
Getting kicked out of Caelan’s territory meant any shifters we ran into would become immediately hostile.
Anger rose in me, and it took a moment for me to calm down.
Moira reached over and touched my knee. She’d always been sensitive to my moods. Vampire senses or some other inherent magic she refused to talk about. “He’s not here,” she assured me. “I don’t think he’s been to town for a while.”
Interesting. Caelan was normally very involved in the goings on around town.
Mom sat up straight. “Sirena’s line is gone. We can approach if we hurry.”
Moira and I followed Mom over to the gelato truck. Sirena’s eyebrows rose when she spotted us, and when we got close enough, she burst out laughing. “Nice glamour,” she said quietly, leaning out the window of her truck.
Sirena was gorgeous and she knew it. The siren had night black hair and vivid sea foam green eyes glimmering with a keen intellect. With a body that could stop traffic, she possessed her own dangerous brand of magic. Topped with her stunning beauty, she could be a dangerous foe.
None of us wanted to tangle with her. I think it helped that the gelato she made and sold from her food truck was as close to magical as something inert could be.
“Moira always wanted to be blonde, but it’s not going quite the way she thought it would,” I said.
Moira patted her hair. “Not one single person has approached me and asked me to have fun.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “Can you meet now, witch? Every second we spend exposed leads us closer to discovery. We cannot stay long.”
Mom’s words would have sounded sharp and cool if she hadn’t been wearing a grin and swaying back and forth on her feet.
Sirena’s eyes narrowed. “Cliona! Are you…tipsy?”
Mom’s eyes widened comically. “No!”
The siren slid a narrow-eyed look our way. Moira and I stayed silent.
“What’s in that thermos?”
“Coffee,” Moira blurted.
Sirena’s lips twitched. She produced a coffee mug from thin air and held it out the window. “Mind sharing?”
Mom swore under her breath. “Fine, you aggravating witch. We’ll share as long as you tell us what we need to know.” She gestured for Moira to pour some in Sirena’s mug.
Moira barely poured her any.
Sirena’s brows lifted. “Meet me in an hour on Evie’s land. You’ll have to open a door to let me in.”
“A temporary door,” I said. “One-time only, and you’ll be under full guest rights. No funny business, Sirena. I’m too tired to deal with fae shenanigans tonight.” My buzz was wearing off, and that was annoying.
Sirena’s eyes flashed. “Fine. It won’t take long, but I can’t be seen with you. One hour. I’ll come in on the back side.”
“Watch for shifters. They’ve been testing the wards for weeks now.
” I could feel them pinging in the middle of the night and early morning hours.
Not every day and not all of the time, but enough to be annoying.
Dad had gone over to shore up the wards and had assured me none but the most powerful of mages would be able to shatter them, and the last time they had a mage that powerful, Arthur was king.
If I’d ever felt confident in anything, it was that statement. So far so good. The wards were holding well with no weak spots, and Caelan could not access my land no matter how hard he and his people tried.
But Sirena asking to enter was…odd.
Once we ordered gelato and wandered away from the food truck, we walked through the town square, careful to avoid getting too close to anyone. Twenty minutes before Sirena was due, Mom motioned for us to enter the forest through a concealed path.
By then, almost everyone had gone home, and ninety percent of the shops were shut down, leaving us free from nosy small-town gossips.
With a final check to ensure we were alone, Mom gestured for us to grab hands. “We’ll pop right into the backyard.”
A tingle of magic over our skin and we stood close to the back porch. My land hummed in my senses, joyous at my presence.
I touched my fingers to the ground and sent a soft glimmer of magic into the soil. “I promise I’ll tend to you in a bit.”
I straightened and wiped my fingers on my pants. Mom walked closer to the fence and closed her eyes. “Two shifters prowling the backside of the property. They’ve sensed nothing amiss. Might be better if we went inside.”
Moira pulled out her key and opened the back door. We tiptoed inside, and I went through the house ensuring all the blinds were down. Dad had left the lamps in the living room on. The soft warm glow cast a comforting golden haze over the living room and kitchen area.
But the air inside was a little stale. Frowning, I went over to the kitchen and cracked open a window, then to the living room and opened two more.
“I’ll close them before we leave.” The place was empty of almost everything, but a few chairs, an old coffee table and some mugs left over in the cabinet.
Dad had transported most of my things to Rowan’s, leaving only necessary things I might need if I ever had to come back.
I walked through the rest of the house to check on everything and noticed nothing amiss.
I’d loved this house for so long, and being back here made my chest ache. I thought I’d finally found a real home, somewhere I could plant true roots and live out my days.
Funny how things could change in a heartbeat.
Caelan’s scent lingered in the bedroom and living room, a faint tinge of his presence left behind, reminding me of better days.
He wasn’t a bad person or a bad Lord, though he’d certainly felt like one when I’d been in the thick of things.
Everyone, given the proper fuel, could lean toward cruelty, and I, through no fault of my own, had been that fuel for him.
Seeing me opened the wounds of his own lack of self-confidence, his worry I’d somehow usurp him and steal what he’d gain or won. Instead of seeing me as a partner, he started seeing me as an obstacle. Once that happened, everything about me became flawed.
I was no longer angry about what happened. How could I be? None of it was my fault. Not my genetics, or my power, or my inheritance. Mostly, I felt a deep sense of exhaustion and disappointment, though the second was slowly disappearing under Rowan’s careful ministrations.
The disappointment wasn’t over losing Caelan, more that I’d finally opened my heart again only to have it crushed under the weight of another’s insecurities, and that it had so effectively ended my way of life.
The possibility of something better, cleaner, purer beckoned to me if only I was brave enough to allow it to blossom.
A light hand landed on my shoulder, shaking me from my thoughts.
“It’s only a house,” Moira said quietly. “You’ll make more memories elsewhere. Better memories.”
I smiled at Moira. “Rowan asked me to build on his land.”
Her eyes were dark and solemn. “Oh Evie. What if you don’t accept the bond?”
“He will grant me the land, but I cannot step onto Keep land again. Things will become difficult for us. The friendship we have will end.”
Moira nodded. “Don’t build at all for a while. Give it some time.”
“We agreed on six months.”
“Wise. By then, your heart and mind will be your own again and no longer tangled in the what ifs.”
“I don’t miss him,” I said. “Only what could have been.” My fingers ran over the burnished wood doors as we walked through the hallway.
“Though even that feels foolish. None of what I thought would be could have ever happened. Not with me being the way I am and Caelan being him. One of us would have had to fundamentally alter ourselves.”
Moira let out a heavy breath. “I can’t love like you do, Evie. I never have been able to.”
I glanced at her sharply. Her smile was faint. “This does not mean I don’t love. I do. But I don’t allow myself to crack open the door of my heart to anyone. Only you, Ash, and Tess. You are the only ones I allow myself to love.”
I watched her for a long moment. “You liked Soren.”
Her eyes crinkled as if I’d made some secret joke. “Soren will always be a passing fancy. His heart is a stream, while mine is an ocean. If I ever open myself to the kind of love you might have with Rowan, I fear I’ll drown both of us.”
I stopped walking and turned to face her, my heart aching for my friend.
Cupping her face in my hands, I rested my forehead against hers.
“Whoever gets you to open your heart to him will gladly drown with you, Moira. You are my fiercest, most loving, and devoted friend, and you deserve all the happiness the world will bestow upon you. Only the most worthy will win your heart, but do not close yourself off from the possibility. There is a man out there who will move heaven and earth for you. I promise.”
Moira closed her eyes and put her hands over mine. “I have what I need. I don’t know if what you say is true, but it would have to be someone incredible for them to shake me from my path.”
“Someone meant for you wouldn’t try.”
We stood like that for another moment until I felt a touch on the wards.
“The booze stealing siren is here,” Mom called.
Moira snorted and stepped away. “Let’s go see what that man stealer wants.”
I linked arms with her and opened a door in the wards to let Sirena in.