Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
After changing into joggers and a long-sleeve shirt and sliding my feet into some slip-on tennis shoes, I grabbed a bottle of water and went out to the greenhouse to siphon some of my magic and try to shake off the day’s weirdness.
But as I got closer, an odd energy pierced the air. Stopping just before the door, I sent a silent thread of magic into the greenhouse. Every plant inside had shrunk in on itself, wary of the intrusive energy.
Every hair on my arms stood up. Someone or something was inside. I sent my power seeking, searching until it landed on something new.
The magic felt somewhat familiar, but I’d never sensed it before. Anger rose within me. My greenhouse was the one place I felt safe in, the place I knew I could come and relax. I dropped the thread of power and reached for the door, careful not to make myself a target.
When I opened it and nothing happened, I went up the steps and peered around the door’s edge, tightly leashing my power to my body, a ploy to make who or what was inside underestimate me.
A red-haired woman stood by the Dutchman’s pipe vines, one finger lifted to stroke the edge of its strange flowers.
She didn’t acknowledge me when I walked in, and I could only see her face in profile.
A sharp, straight nose, high cheekbones, and crimson lips made her look like she walked off a movie set, but when she turned, I realized she was much more than that.
The woman was drop dead gorgeous. Her hair was in perfect coiled curls, her makeup flawless.
Her eyes were dark, almost obsidian. She wore a rust-colored shirt, green corduroy pants and a pair of leather loafers.
No rings adorned her well-manicured hands, but she wore a gold chain around her throat.
A lion charm dangled from the end.
She smiled the smile of a toothpaste model, friendly and open. “Evie Quinn. I was beginning to think you were a figment of Finn’s imagination.”
I stilled, struck by the knowledge of why her magic seemed familiar.
“You must be the other Chimera.”
The woman clapped politely. “He said you were beautiful but failed to tell me you were intelligent, too. No wonder he’s so fixated on you.”
“I take it he’s not dead?” My plants came alive at my presence, their pots creaking and groaning as they strained to find me.
The woman’s eyes flickered as she noticed, a hint of unease on her face there and gone so fast I thought I imagined it.
“You should know killing a Chimera is extraordinarily difficult.” She ran her fingers over the other flowers, and I felt the greenhouse’s unease like a living thing inside my body.
“We are quite resilient, and with our ability to turn into anything, we can become a tiny atom and burrow deep until we heal.”
“If that’s true, why did your kind go extinct?”
“You may call me Rhona.”
I didn’t plan on calling her anything.
“Extinct is the wrong word as you well know. Though my kind was decimated, all it takes is one scratch and one bite and our numbers are replenished.”
“Finn lied to me then.”
“You care what Finn thinks?” Rhona asked, disappointment brimming in her dark eyes.
“No, but it would have been nice to know if there were others like me.”
“Others who were not him?” Her deep chuckle resonated around us. “Finn does have some sadistic tendencies which are not ideal for keeping our species a secret.”
I couldn’t stop my disgusted snort. “He’s vile.”
“And yet, he is my child.” Rhona clicked her tongue. “Not of my womb,” she said when she saw my expression. “Of my bite. Unfortunately, his personality was formed long before he became what he is.”
“He thought you were dead?”
“Finn thought everyone was dead, which is why he made his ill-advised decision to come here.” A flicker of distaste on her face. “This is a small place, a nothing town.”
Hope flared within me. “Then you plan to leave?”
Rhona laughed. “At first, until I saw the delicious Lord who claims this territory.” She ran blood red nails across the wood planting shelves. “If I were to align myself with him, I’d never need to scrounge for power again.”
Realization struck me. “You were the one posing as Gianna.”
Rhona lifted a shoulder in a careless shrug. “Not at first. Not until I saw her goal. She was easy enough to manipulate. People like her usually are.”
“And placing her body on my property?”
Rhona smiled. “Insurance, but you are a clever girl, aren’t you? Not a single trace of DNA on your land. How’d you do it?”
Finn hadn’t told her how strong my Floromancy was. Confusion simmered in my mind. Why wouldn’t he tell Rhona something that important?
I kept my heart rate steady. “Fire destroys many things. I brought new dirt in and replaced it with the dirt I dug out and sent away.”
Rhona’s eyes narrowed. “Seems awfully strategic for someone who’s supposedly not a killer. Finn mentioned you were gentle.”
I almost laughed. That might be a word to describe the old me, before the world had so handily stepped in to fuck me over, but no one who knew me now would ever describe me that way. Not even Finn.
What was he playing at?
“I watch a lot of true crime documentaries.”
Rhona moved around the greenhouse, occasionally reaching out to touch a plant, and I moved with her, ensuring I never put my back to the woman. “Why are you here?”
“Curiosity, mainly. Finn’s unhealthy obsession warranted a look from me.
” Genuine amusement brimmed in her eyes.
“But all I see is a woman with a strong green thumb. When he said you were a hybrid, I was interested in seeing what would happen with the Chimera blood when it merged with a hedgewitch.”
If she’d bothered to do even a little digging around, she would realize I was not a normal Floromancer and definitely not a hedgewitch.
“I barely sense any of our power inside of you. A pity really. I came in at the tail end of the bonding ceremony planning, and thought you might be a strong Floromancer, but growing plants and making them move means nothing to someone like me. I could bring the world to heel if I wanted to.”
“Floromancy is a gentle art.” I shrugged.
“Sorry to disappoint you. I was born to be around greenery, not violence.” If Rhona came in at the end of everything, she must not have seen any of my other displays of power.
So secure in her own scheming, she’d ignored the threat I could potentially be, and Finn hadn’t told her otherwise.
The question was, why would he do that?
“Even with your mother’s power running through your veins, you’re barely a blip on my radar.”
I was going to kiss Hazel right on her pretty mouth next time I saw her for teaching me that trick.
That and the tattoo she’d spent weeks correcting had given Rhona the wrong impression about me.
On most magical “radars,” i.e., scent or power sensing, I appeared as a hedgewitch or mid-level Floromancer, nothing out of the ordinary or too extreme.
The thistle tattoo on my arm kept my Chimera blood hidden from all but the most powerful of senses.
Finn had damaged the tattoo last time we tangled, and Hazel had to slap a temporary magical bandage on it while she worked to find the fix. From Rhona’s reaction, the thistle was back to full power and working better than expected.
But…there was one thing she shouldn’t know. That Finn shouldn’t know.
“How do you know my mother?”
Rhona’s smile reached her eyes. “We go way back. Sometimes we find we have mutual interests.”
“Like now?”
“You are of no use to me and have no need to know my plans.”
With that rebuff, Rhona exploded into hundreds of crimson moths and swept out the door in a wave of blood-red wings.
I slid down to the floor, wrapping my trembling legs around my knees. My breath came in ragged and harsh waves, and I stifled the scream threatening to tear from my lungs. Another Chimera in Joy Springs, and it was all my fault.
A kiss of loamy forest and golden magic kissed the back of my neck. The scent of pine and wildness rose around me. I closed my eyes.
“Cernunnos.”
A leather clad leg stepped into my field of vision. Craning my neck up, I beheld the vision of the fae king, in all his tanned, bare-chested, and antlered splendor. “Your timing is impeccable as always,” I said dryly.
“You were wise not to show your hand,” he said, folding his body into a cross-legged seat opposite me.
“She would have killed me.” The woman was barely leashed rage, malevolence leaking from her every pore.
“Not today, unless you provoked her.”
I buried my face in my knees. “Did you know there was more than one Chimera here to come fuck up my world?”
“The gods know many things.”
I snorted and lifted my head to peer up at him. His eyes burned with emerald and golden fire. “No joggers today?”
“I’m afraid I’m on the clock.”
I huffed a laugh. “No rest for the weary.”
“There are more where she came from.”
“All terrible?”
Sadness flashed over his face. “Are you terrible?”
“We both know I’m not a full Chimera.”
“Is Caelan terrible?”
“He can be,” I muttered.
“Evangeline,” he said, disapproval simmering in his tone. “There are good and bad beings of every kind. Chimeras are naturally volatile, but it doesn’t mean they are inherently evil.”
“But Rhona is. I’d bet my left tit.”
Cernunnos winced. Every time he did something like that, I moved a little bit closer to believing he was my father. “Please don’t bet body parts. Especially…” His voice trailed off and he waved a floppy hand at me. “Those.”
“The king of fae is uncomfortable talking about tits?” I teased. “I bet you’ve seen a million pairs.”
His pained expression made me laugh.
“Is it time for you to tell me if you’re my dad?”
Cernunnos sighed and shook his head. “You will find out when the time is right.”
“Of course. Because knowing all the secrets of your heritage cannot possibly be advantageous against two Chimera shifters who seem to have an unhealthy interest in me. Totally understandable.”
“Sarcasm is a tool for the unintelligent,” Cernunnos responded.
“Which is exactly why I should know about my genetic makeup. To figure out who made me stupid.”
The fae king’s lips tugged up. “You’re a menace.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
We sat in the greenhouse in a companionable silence for a while. “I like this place,” Cernunnos said. “Life brims in this small house. You’ve done well, child.”
“Your child?” I fluttered my eyelashes.
“Menace,” he muttered.
“Not that I’m upset by it, but why are you here? Is there a doom and gloom warning you’re about to drop in my lap before you flutter away?”
“I do not flutter, Evangeline.”
“Gallop then. On your wobbly little deer legs.” I grinned at him unrepentantly.
Cernunnos shook his head and uncurled himself from the floor. He held a hand out to help me to my feet. “Cowering on the floor is beneath you. Rhona is a threat, but she is not an immediate one. Come. Make me a cup of coffee, and I will take some of that cake that goes with it if you have some.”
I blinked, trying to remember what I gave him. “Coffee cake?”
“The cinnamon swirl thing with the delicious crunchy topping.”
I looped my arm through the fae king’s arm and led him toward the house. “You’re in luck. I have half a cake left over from yesterday.”