Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
Caelan’s words about being his wife still rang in my head the next afternoon.
All four of us stood around the worktable putting together some ideas for the Keep holiday centerpieces using fake flowers while we practiced.
The shop had had a steady stream of business the last week, but today was especially busy for some reason, so the brainstorming session stopped and started multiple times as Moira and Tess broke away to help with customers.
Worry about Poe and Fee churned through me, and I was about to text Caelan when my phone beeped. I opened the message to see a picture of Fee flying high in the sky, a riot of color against the afternoon sky. My breath caught.
“Evie?” Moira asked.
I flipped my phone around and showed them.
“She’s stunning,” Ash breathed. The dryad had never seen her in flight before, though he spoiled her with treats as much as he could.
“And you’re sure she’s safe?” Tess asked, her hands deep into a basket of succulents.
“Caelan promised me he’d protect her with his life.”
Moira whistled low. “What did he demand in return?”
My stomach warmed. “Not a thing if you can believe it.”
“I don’t,” Moira said immediately.
Ash snorted. “Me neither.”
I held my hands up, flinging dirt around. “Me either, but he left without asking for a single thing. No demands. No contract. No nothing. Trust me. I’m as surprised as you are.”
Moira’s lips turned down. “It’s dangerous to become indebted to him.”
“I’m well aware. But I had no other choice. He is the only one powerful enough to keep her safe. Caelan has the means and the land to protect her.” I shook my head. “Also, I’ve never seen him act needlessly cruel. Even Seymour has softened toward him.”
Ash laughed. “I thought for sure Seymour would have everyone in that Keep paralyzed within the first month he was there.”
“He popped about twenty-five percent,” Moira said with a chuckle.
Tess pulled out a silvery gray succulent and tested it against the fall basket before frowning and putting it back. “Maybe we should try to sell some of those.”
“Like Seymour?” Ash asked.
“Too much liability. If we accidentally sold one to a human, they’d sue us into oblivion.”
“Not to mention inadvertently exposing magic to them,” Moira added.
Ash’s hands stilled. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and Tess’s idea makes me think there’s a market for an online-only marketplace for paranormals who want to shop for exotic plants.”
“Plants like Seymour?” I asked.
“For a little of everything.” Ash frowned. “But if I may say this, I don’t think you should do more plants like Seymour. You poured a little too much of yourself into that one.”
Tess nodded in agreement. “He’s right. Seymour has too much sentience to belong to the plant world anymore. He’s something completely original now.”
Moira grunted. “I’m with the rest of them. Boost them for health and growth and possibly some ability to communicate what they need, but don’t go as far as you did with our bitey little friend.”
“It takes too long, too,” I agreed. “Seymour took weeks to create. But you’re right. He has become something other than what he was meant to be. As long as Caelan cares for him, I won’t take him back.”
“Not that Seymour will let you,” Ash added dryly. “He’s just as violent as the Shifter Lord.”
Seymour and I were permanently linked. I’d know if something happened to him, and I knew I could compel him to return to me if I wanted to. Not that I would. He’d found a better caretaker and companion in Caelan than he ever would in me.
“We’d have to find a website designer and sketch out some ideas, but I’m open to it.”
“No need,” Tess said. “I’ve sketched a few things out. I’ll grab my tablet from my apartment after lunch if you want to see them.”
My gaze flicked to Ash who wore a self-deprecating smile. “Tess and I have been talking about it for a while.”
“Just ideas,” Tess promised. “I like drawing anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal to put something together.
” She ducked her head and focused on the succulents she was digging through.
Tess was a staple in the shop and our friend, but I was beginning to realize Tess was much more complicated than she seemed on the surface.
And we still hadn’t talked about what she’d done to Neit.
“Happy to take a look.” Ash’s idea was a good one, but I wasn’t sure if I’d have the time to maintain it.
“Do you have a running list of what we could sell through the site? If we did one.”
“My bonsais for sure.”
“Your turtle vines were popular with the Keep,” Moira said. “We’d make a killing with those on Valentine’s Day.”
“As long as they don’t bite,” said Tess.
“Evie saves all the biting things for Caelan,” Moira said with a sly grin.
“Don’t even start.” I put the last fake flower into the foam and adjusted some of the wiring to see what it looked like when every plant in the office went quiet and still.
“Evie.” Ash’s brow furrowed as he stared outside. “There’s something off about that woman.”
I laid my wire cutters down and wiped my hands off. “Everyone stay here. There’s a reason she’s not coming inside.”
“The wards?” Moira said.
“If it is, we know who it is.” Little Shop of Florals was a public shop, and the wards were mostly used once we closed, though we’d blocked my mother and Finn from entering at all.
Cliona wouldn’t bother with a disguise, so I knew it wasn’t her.
She was far too in love with her own reflection to choose something other than the form she was born with.
But a Chimera, on the other hand, could and would choose another form, one of the many reasons they were excellent spies.
I gathered my magic close around me, funneling so much power, my eyes cast a light over the shop. Dimming it down so as not to freak out the humans, I steeled my shoulders and stepped outside.
The stranger made no effort to disguise their scent.
“What do you want?” I asked.
The woman was my height and blonde, resembling Gianna, Caelan’s now deceased former fiancée. The nose was a little off and the eyes were a different color, but she still had that pale and icy hair and the aloof manner. But the scent told me exactly who stood before me.
“I’m not here to fight. Only to talk.” The woman gestured toward a bench several feet away. “Mind sitting with me?”
I eyed Finn with suspicion. “Why should I trust you now?”
“Because there is a much larger threat out there than you or I.”
“Rhona.”
Finn’s lips thinned. “Please, Evie. You will come to no harm.”
The absolute last thing I wanted to do was be on the same continent as the Chimera who made me what I was, but I was curious. If he had information about Rhona, I’d squash down my disgust and listen to what he had to say. But if he tried to attack me in broad daylight, all bets might be off.
“Fine.” I gestured for him to go first. No way would I turn my back to Finn.
He gave a smirk that looked odd on the woman’s small face and strode over to the bench.
“Your female walk needs some work,” I said.
Finn stiffened. “It’s not a form I take often.”
“Obviously. You look like a toddler trying to wear its mother’s shoes.”
Finn shot me a dark look as he sat down. “Your mouth is going to get you in trouble one day.”
“My mouth gets me into trouble every day,” I corrected as I sat on the opposite end of the bench, as far away from him as I could get.
“It wasn’t long ago when you wanted to crawl inside my skin,” Finn observed.
“Fuck off, Finn,” I snapped. “Say your piece and leave me alone.”
He clicked his tongue. “You are not the Evie I remember.”
“That Evie died when you—” My voice broke, and I choked down my sob as the memory of that night under the stars played in my head in violent color. “You have five seconds to start talking, or we’re done.”
Finn sighed. “Fine. I wrongly assumed we were the only two Chimeras left in the world.”
“Rhona implied there were many more of us. Do you have numbers?”
He shook his head. “You may think I’m cruel, but you have not known true cruelty.” Finn looked away, his eyes holding too much knowledge. “Rhona is the worst of us.”
“I dunno, man. You’re pretty terrible.”
Finn blew out a breath and looked heavenward, as if I were the exasperating one here. “We are creatures filled with ancient magic. Sometimes our basest instincts control us.”
I stared at him for a long moment, rage making me clench my fists. “Is this your idea of an apology?”
His jaw tightened. “Despite everything, I never meant to harm you.”
I blinked. “Which time, exactly? Because I remember multiple murder attempts.”
His dismissive snort pissed me off even more. I rose and stepped away from the bench.
“I never planned to kill you, only convince you that you needed me.”
The sincerity in his voice was galling. People really thought the way Finn did, as if people were their property and they were somehow entitled to their time, their mind, their bodies. He’d found me at the lowest moment in my life, charmed me, and ruined what little self-respect I had left.
After everything I’d gone through, when I would have taken the smallest crumb of affection or genuine care, and Finn arrived and not only offered it but made me feel I was beautiful, cherished…well, I thought there’d been a boulder to step onto from my place at rock bottom.
And then as soon as I stepped onto that boulder, Finn kicked it right out from under me.
I chewed on the edge of my lips debating how much trouble I’d be in if I stabbed him through the heart in public.
Power rolled through the street, a punch of visceral, violent strength.
Finn froze as Caelan came into view from around the corner, Simone trailing after him.
The Shifter Lord didn’t look at me. His eyes were trained on Finn, eyes blazing with golden magic.
“Uh oh,” I sang. “You’re in trouble.”
Finn glared and stood up, surprisingly not running away. “Your Lord needs to be in the loop as much as you do.”
“Finn.” Horror filled me.
“Do not worry, little Chimera,” he whispered so low only I could hear him, “I will not tell your precious lover what you are.”
“He’s not my lover,” I hissed.
“Tell that to the Lord,” Finn drawled.
Caelan stepped up beside me. “Evie.”
“Lord.”
He shot me a golden-eyed look. I was not calling him Caelan in public. Not with other people around.
“Who’s your friend?” he asked.
Finn grinned, the sharp-toothed smile completely out of place on those feminine features.
“You’ve met before.”
A rise of a dark eyebrow. “Oh? I think I’d remember if we’d met before.” He touched a hand to his chest. “I am Lord Caelan. And you are?”
But then his nostrils flared and that golden magic punched out in a wash of painful prickles that touched every inch of bare skin. “Finn,” Caelan snarled.
Wisely, the Chimera took a step back. “I’m not here to fight.”
“I don’t care why you’re here,” Caelan growled. He glanced at me. “Are you alright?”
“Your lovely witch is just fine. We were having a great chat before you interrupted.” Finn grinned as Caelan began to glow, his power an unearthly shimmer around him.
“Stop antagonizing him and tell him why you’re here.”
Finn rolled his eyes. “You used to be so much fun.”
A small whisper of power and a row of thorny rose bushes directly behind Finn grew and popped him on the back of his thigh. He hissed in pain, eyes flaring with crimson before he let out a harsh crack of laughter. “If I knew you were into pain, things might have been different all those years ago.”
Quick as a lightning strike, Caelan’s fist slammed into Finn’s face, the crack of bone breaking loud as a gunshot.
Finn let out a bark of pain and backed up, straight into the rose bushes where he hissed again as he struggled to free his clothing. Blood streamed down his face.
“Oh shit,” I breathed.
Several people on the street had their phones raised, recording Caelan striking a defenseless woman in public.
“Lord,” Simone urged, reaching out to touch him on the arm.
Caelan’s chest heaved with anger. “Say one word against Evie again, and I will destroy you.”
“Just like you did last time?” Finn taunted, though it came out like, “Juh ike ooh did ast time?”
“Lord Caelan, you can’t hit her again. Striking her once is bad enough. We’ll have to activate the team to destroy the footage.” Her gaze swept over the town square. “Maybe even pay some bribes,” she muttered under her breath.
“That is not a she,” Caelan barked.
“Finn. Stop being a dick.” Exasperated, I threw my hands up in the air.
“I don’t care what you say about me. We both know what you did to me, and your jokes and digs about knowing me back then are only designed to make me break.
I don’t care about you, Finn. That means I don’t give a shit whether you live or die—”
“I do,” Caelan interrupted.
“But if you don’t spit the reason you’re here out, I’m going to eviscerate you myself.”
“I’ll help,” Caelan said.
Finn’s lips quirked as Simone dug her cellphone out and frantically texted someone at the Keep, no doubt to start immediate damage control.
The optics did look bad, but there was no way to tell anyone what Finn actually was without making things a thousand percent worse.
“A new Chimera is in town. She’s intelligent, dangerous, and crafty.
If you’re smart, you’ll take her for the threat she is.
Not only to you, but to all of us. She has plans, and your Floromancer is part of them.
” A faint smile tipped his lips up. “One final tip before I leave. Consider this a gift for taking good care of my Evie while she waited for me to return.” Caelan’s deep snarl made Finn laugh.
“So grumpy,” he said in a high-pitched voice.
“Speak or die.” Caelan’s eyes washed the sidewalk in golden light.
“I see why you like him,” Finn said to me. “He’s less fun than you are.”
“Finn.” For the gods’ sakes.
He winked, and I remembered why I’d taken a chance on him that long ago night in Scotland.
“For a while there, she had more than a passing resemblance to your missing fiancée. I’d say for maybe two weeks, Rhona was a spitting image.”
Caelan froze. “Gianna. Do you know where she is?”
Finn’s gaze flicked to me, and I knew he was about to screw me over. “You should ask your lovely little flower girl.” With a quick look around, he grinned and disappeared in a flash of crimson light.
Fucking Finn.