Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
I’d been irrationally pissed off all day and had no idea why. Besides the weird dream last night, the day had gone well. Customers came in and out. We sold a bunch of arrangements, booked two additional weddings, and had zero god sightings.
By my standards, that’d be cause for a party.
Except I couldn’t enjoy any of it because I’d been in a rage since eight this morning.
“It’s the way you like it,” Moira said, gently pushing a steaming cup of coffee over.
“I want milk and sugar, and we don’t have either.”
“I forgot to go to the store, but I’ll get some in the morning.”
I clicked my tongue. “That doesn’t help me today.”
Moira’s lips twitched. “Evie.” She lay a hand over mine. “You know I never ask this, but are you about to start your cycle?”
I gasped in horror. “Moira!”
She cackled. “You are a raging bitch today. What is going on?”
I rubbed the space between my brows. “I don’t know.” My shoulders ached, and my jaw hurt like I’d been clenching it all day. “I feel weird. Angry and scared and hot and cold.”
Moira glanced at Ash. “Is she okay?”
The dryad came over, Tess floating beside him. “You’re linked to the Lord through the pendant.”
Ash sent her an annoyed look; one I’d rarely seen on his face. “Tess. We may need to talk about your…gifts.”
Tess’s pale brow furrowed. “What. I’m right, aren’t I?”
I held up a hand. “Wait. I’m linked to all of you, right? Technically.”
Ash sat down. “Let me see the pendant.”
I unclasped it and dropped it into his palm.
Ash studied it, his eyes flashing emerald for a moment.
When he was done, his lips twitched. “Tess is right. You have a deeper bond with the Shifter Lord than any of us. Our magic is on the pendant, but the necklace belonged to the shifters. Once Caelan’s magic sank in, he laid claim to it.
By wearing his necklace, your emotional resonances have attuned to each other. ”
“English, please,” I snapped.
Moira laughed.
“I suspect Caelan is having a trying day and his emotions are bleeding over.”
I stared at him for a beat. “I’m sorry. Are you saying I’m pissed off because Caelan is influencing me?”
Ash’s nod made my heart drop to my stomach.
“I’d rather have PMS,” I snarled.
Moira refastened the necklace around my neck, even as my fingers itched to rip it away and stomp it to pieces. “How do I stop it?”
Ash’s expression softened. “I don’t think you can.”
“Great. Can he feel what I feel?” This was not good. Not only was it a major invasion of privacy, it had the potential to reveal my secrets.
“I believe it’s a channel. You’ll broadcast to him just as he will to you.”
I sat back. “Shit,” I breathed. “Then we have to find another way to hide the seed.”
Ash’s lips thinned. “There is no other way.”
“What about the property? It’s large and soaked in my power.”
“Cliona will break your wards.” Tess floated to sit by Ash.
“She is my queen. I have seen evidence of her unfathomable power.” The banshee’s hands trembled.
“Keep the pendant on, Evie. Don’t risk her wrath.
Emotional resonance with the Lord is a small price to pay.
” Her eyes filled with tears. “It will not be forever. The wheel of time spins quickly around you, and I see…much change in the future.”
What had she gone through to make her so fearful of Cliona? “She’s my mother, Tess. I’m well aware of her depravity.”
But was I? She’d been cruel to me, but my mother had never harmed me. Not physically. She’d threatened me. A lot. She’d played mind games, disappeared for years at a time, and had even all but forgotten about me sometimes.
“And if Caelan discovers my secrets?”
“I’d say he’s discovered enough to make life difficult already,” Moira mused. “He knows you aren’t only a Floromancer, and he knows who your father is. The other Lords would love to have that kind of dirt on you, and I haven’t seen a single one come knocking.”
“True,” I grumbled. “But being a Chimera means instant death.”
“And yet he hasn’t killed you,” Ash said. He rubbed his face. “Keep wearing the pendant for now while we research other means of hiding a world-ending object.”
“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm.” A groan escaped me.
“I need to shift soon.” The itch had begun as a tingling at the back of my neck and intensified over the last several days.
So far, I could go a full two weeks without using the Chimera magic until the power buildup became unbearable. “What if he senses the change?”
“Then we deal with it,” Moira said. “Caelan has not been unreasonable in his dealings with you. In fact, he’s been more than cooperative.”
I bared my teeth at her.
Moira held both hands up. “Whoa. Listen. You have your reasons for not getting emotionally involved. And we all get it and do not blame you.”
My brows drew together. “Why does this sound like you’re about to, though?”
Moira took both my hands and held them. “Maybe it’s time to trust someone else. You’ve had only us to rely on. Caelan is powerful.”
“And he wants you,” Ash added. “Men that head over heels are willing to overlook many things.”
I stared at my friends. “Do you honestly believe Caelan won’t turn me over to the Council or worse once he finds out?”
“I do,” Moira said. “Things might be rocky for a while, but they have a way of working out.”
Fear had driven all my decisions for so long. I knew they were right. Maybe it was time to take a leap of fate.
“And…” Moira hedged. “You’ve been kind of a baby about this for a while now. It’s time to take a chance.”
Ash winced. “Moira. There’s a better way to say what needs to be said.”
She let go of my hands and held them up. “Sometimes you gotta rip off the bandage even if it takes some skin off.”
My gaze bounced between them. “You both think I’m acting like a brat?”
“No one said brat,” Ash responded.
“That’s because everyone is too nice,” Tess said before floating away to the back.
“Tess,” Ash breathed. He rubbed a hand over his face. “Your mother’s presence has rattled her. She’ll be better in a few days.”
“I’m not mad at her,” I assured him. “I’d rather hear it straight, and I agree with you. Maybe I have dragged this on long enough.”
“You’ll tell him?”
“I doubt it.”
Groans all around. I laughed. “Not until it comes up naturally. He’s bound to have tons of questions about Cernunnos. That’s a large enough realization. Having a god in his territory is questionable at best.”
Moira let out a breath. “A god. Spoken aloud that makes it seem real.” She squinted her eyes at me. “You seem exactly the same.”
“Which is good?” I didn’t feel any different. Not that I would. My DNA had always been this way. Even being aware wouldn’t have changed my magic. Would it?
I needed to track my errant father down and have some words with him. “Back to this pendant and resonance. I’ll tackle research on my end, but you all have different ways of finding out information I may not be able to access. Can we reconvene tomorrow and discuss any info we might uncover?”
Ash and Moira nodded, and the conversation turned to work issues.
Before I knew it, the day was over, and everyone had gone home. I stayed behind to finish up a few things and work on the centerpieces for Caelan’s fall event. When I was ready to go, I rose, wincing as stiff muscles in my back pulled. Sitting for so long wasn’t good for anyone, not even a god.
I shuddered at the thought. Now that I knew, would Cernunnos begin to demand things from me? After cashing out the register and taking care of the closing tasks, the sun had set, leaving Joy Springs in full dusk. I stepped out, locked the door behind me, and headed to the car.
“Hello, Evie.”
A voice from behind stopped me in my tracks. My grip tightened on my bag as I slowly turned to face Rhona.
“What do you want?”
The Chimera smiled. “So touchy. Did I frighten you?”
Everything about Chimeras frightened me. Rhona was dressed in high-waisted cream-colored pants, brown boots, and a thin burgundy sweater. Her hair hung loose around her shoulders. In the dark, the red color looked like congealed blood.
“No. I need to get home, so if you need something, let’s skip the small talk.”
“You hold something of great importance to me.”
I stared. “Last time we spoke, you said I was of no importance to you and suddenly I have something you want?”
Her eyes glittered. “Things change.”
“Not usually,” I said. “Paranormals like things to stay the same. Change is a nuisance for most.”
“Chimeras are not most.”
“What do I have that you need so much?” I sent a soft pulse of magic through my body to keep my heart rate from spiking. There was only one thing I’d recently gained that might ping on her radar. But the question was, how did she know I supposedly had it?
The most probable answer sent fear rolling down my spine. She’d admitted knowing my mother. Was it possible they were working together? If that were the case, I was well and truly fucked.
Rhona’s gaze flicked to the new pendant. “Pretty,” she remarked. “Is it new?”
I fingered the gold cage of the obsidian. “A gift from a few years ago. No idea where they got it. But it is pretty, isn’t it?”
“Mmm.”
“I need to go. Since I’m not sure what you’re looking for, I can’t help you.”
“You know what it is, and I know you have it,” Rhona said softly. “It’s in your best interest to hand it over now. Otherwise things might get ugly.”
I adjusted my bag to free my hands. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I hope you find whatever it is you seek.”
“Don’t worry, Evie.” Her smile was cold. “I always do.”
Rhona turned and walked away, her hair blowing like a sheet of blood behind her back.
I waited until I was in the car and a mile down the road before I let myself shiver.
I dreamed of Griffin for the first time in months.
The front door was unlocked, unusual, but Griffin was absentminded sometimes. His work as an academic went in ebbs and flows.
Must be a flow, I thought as I came inside, quietly clicking the door shut. I’d gotten off early today and stopped by the bakery to get his favorite cookies—brown sugar oatmeal.
Once the box was set on the counter, and I’d kicked my shoes off, I grabbed a plate and a couple of cookies, then padded upstairs to his office. That’s where he was ninety percent of the time, working on research or grading papers or…all of the other things he did I had yet to understand.
I smiled and reached to push open his door when a soft sound from our bedroom had me turning toward the master. Griffin never napped, but maybe he didn’t feel well.
Not thinking anything of it, I turned and went to the bedroom, pausing at the entrance as soft laughter came through the cracked door.
My blood froze. That was not Griffin’s laughter, nor was it the sound of his phone or the television. I squared my shoulders and told myself this was not what it sounded like, and Griffin would have a good reason for having a woman in our bedroom.
He’d always been a little awkward socially, but he made up for it with the care he took with my heart. I pasted a smile on my face and pushed open the door.
Love is a funny emotion. It’s found in the smallest of gestures, a smile, a touch, a cup of coffee by the bedside you didn’t make. But what no one tells you is sometimes that feeling can die with no notice and no preparation.
Some betrayals are too great for love to survive.
And while many love stories died by a thousand cuts, mine died with a soft, feminine laugh and the play of muscles as my husband rose above a woman who wasn’t me.
I woke with a pained sob, feeling that same crack in my heart that I felt when I realized what Griffin had done, was doing. My palm pressed over that spot, healed but still a little tender.
I survived his betrayal and the fallout, and I knew I would make it through the worst of things. What came after almost broke me.