Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
“Of all the heavy-handed, oafish things to do,” I muttered under my breath, clipping off the woody stem ends before sticking them into wet floral foam. “Arrogant wolf.”
Moira snickered from her spot by the register. “Still fuming over the Lord’s proposal?”
“Moira! Shhh.” She was the only one who knew about Caelan’s insane semi-proposal last night.
“Proposal?” Ash exclaimed from the succulent area; hands paused over his work. “Caelan proposed to you?” His eyes were comically wide. “Is there going to be a wedding?” He clapped his hands together. “This is wonderful news!”
“Ash.”
“Can you imagine the floral display we can do?” Ash grabbed a pen and a clipboard. “Dahlias.” He scribbled something on the clipboard. “Everywhere. A riot of color.”
“Ash!” I barked.
The pen stilled. “What? I’m assuming you want to get married sooner rather than later. We should start planning now.”
“There is no wedding. No marriage. No nothing. Caelan is being presumptive.” I thumped my shears on the table. “He thinks a quickie wedding will solve all our problems. Insanity.”
Tess appeared through the wall, a trick she’d been using more and more lately. When I first saw her do it, I damn near jumped out of my skin.
“A betrothal!” she said in her whispery voice. “How romantic!” Tess floated over. “And tragic, too.”
“Tragic?” Moira asked. “Weddings are anything but sad.”
“Tragic because Caelan will find out where Gianna lies.”
I went motionless, my heart caught in my throat.
“Excuse me?” Did she know? How could she know? I’d told no one and scattered Gianna’s ashes to the wind.
Tess hovered by Ash. “I felt her spirit leave her body.”
A tense silence fell in the shop. “Gianna is dead?” Moira blurted.
The clipboard slipped from Ash’s hands, the crack of sound like a bullet in the quiet shop.
“Her body lies on Evie’s property. I sensed her spirit the last time I was there.” Tess floated toward the coffee pot like she hadn’t just dropped a bomb.
“Evie?” Moira’s face was white with concern. “Did you know?”
The shop hadn’t opened yet, thank the gods, but we only had a few minutes before I had to unlock the doors.
My pause went on too long.
“Holy shit.” Ash stared at me in horror. “Did you—” he swallowed. “Did you kill her?”
“What? No! Of course I didn’t kill her. Geez.”
“Then why is her body on your land?” Moira said quietly, no judgment on her face, but a concerned curiosity.
I glanced at the clock and wished I could speed it forward, so I didn’t have to have this conversation. “Cernunnos told me. Otherwise I never would have known she was there.
Moira and Ash swore in unison, the vampire coming out from behind the register to stand right in front of me. “What did you do?”
I couldn’t bear the look in her eyes. Dropping my gaze, I whispered, “Sent her back to the earth. No one will ever know she was there.”
“Except for me,” Tess said as she added an ungodly amount of sugar to her coffee.
I clenched my jaw. “Except for the meddling banshee,” I grumbled.
“Does Caelan know?” Moira asked.
A bark of laughter escaped me. “You want me to tell a Shifter Lord that I found his fiancée’s dead body in my yard?”
“He’s going to find out,” Ash said. “Whoever put her there means to bring trouble to your door.”
“They’ll never find her. I made sure of it.” The grim assurance in my voice didn’t dim the worried light in Moira’s eyes.
“I’m the only banshee in this town,” Tess said as she floated back over. “No one else knows where she lies.”
“And no one can know,” I said quietly. “A secret like this might get us all killed.”
“Which is why you didn’t tell us,” Moira said archly, a strong note of disapproval in her voice.
Ash turned away, shoving both hands through his hair. “Who would have done something like that?”
“Evie is the one who had motive,” Moira said.
At my squawk of indignation, the vampire rolled her eyes.
“Relax. No one here thinks you killed her, but it’s true.
Anyone with two working eyeballs would have seen the sparks flying between you and Caelan, and you were not exactly inconspicuous when he escorted you out and you two teenagers slipped away into a hidden alcove. ”
I blinked. “Um.”
“Yep. I heard about it later. You fools thought you were so sneaky.”
Heat colored my cheeks. “In my defense, I was walking to the door and was yanked into said alcove.”
“Mm hm.” Moira clicked her tongue. “Regardless, you were the spurned wannabe lover of a Shifter Lord and thought if you got Gianna out of the way, he’d return to you.”
I gaped at her like a fish. “That’s insane!”
“But it fits,” Ash said. He settled heavily against the wall and sighed. “We owe Cernunnos a debt of gratitude. If he hadn’t pointed Gianna’s body out, Evie’s property might be crawling with cops.”
“And our lovely little Evie would be in the clinker,” Moira finished.
The thought of a magical prison made me shudder. “I don’t look good in orange.”
“You really don’t,” Tess agreed and floated away.
Ash chuckled. “You always know where you stand with her, don’t you?”
“Is that a banshee trait or just a Tess trait?” I wondered aloud.
“I’m not sure I want to meet another banshee,” Moira said. “Two women moaning about death all the time is too much.”
Ash snorted. “Flowers are a way of life for Evie. Death is Tess’s. She can’t help herself. For Tess, death is as natural as the sun rising in the east.”
Guilt flooded me. “Ash is right. I never think about how annoying it must be to hear me talk about flowers all the time, and I didn’t give Tess the same courtesy.”
Moira grunted. “True, though my caveat is corpses are way different than dahlias, but I get your point.”
Tess’s voice came through the wall. “You know I can hear you.”
“Sorry, Tess!”
“It’s fine.” Her voice trailed off before adding, “But maybe we could buy fewer lilies? They remind me of a funeral home.”
Ash burst out laughing.
“I—yes,” I said with a huff of amusement. “Fewer lilies and more patience on all our parts. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“I think we should redirect this conversation toward ways of getting Caelan back for his presumptuousness,” Moira said.
I held up a hand. “Absolutely not. Antagonizing him only seems to excite Caelan. I’d like him to focus on other things. We’ll deal with the Lords when they show their hand.”
Tess floated back in with her coffee mug. I wish I knew how it didn’t fly out of her hand when she went incorporeal.
“Another flytrap?” Ash suggested.
“Already did one in his boutonniere.” I rolled my eyes. “He loved it.”
“Maybe instead of being violent, you could go romantic and befuddle him,” Moira said.
“Nope. I’m happy with the way things are. It’s fall. He gets two events per year. Hopefully, he’ll write the rest of the year off and start things up next year.”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Ash said.
“Especially since one of the Keep vehicles just pulled up.” Tess pointed to the window as a dark SUV pulled into the front parking spot.
All of us spun toward the door at the same time.
My shoulders fell in relief as Simone stepped out. But that relief was short-lived when the driver’s side door opened, and Caelan stepped out.
“Here we go,” Moira murmured.
“Hush. Let’s plan on a normal visit,” I hissed as I reached toward one of the vines and had it reach over to unlock the door.
All three of my friends started laughing.