Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
Moira choked. “Oh Evie,” she breathed. “No.”
Ash gasped in horror.
My mother went chalk white, her fury erased by her surprise. She reared back and fell flat on her ass. “You stupid child.”
Cernunnos’ eyebrows lifted. “That’s one way to do it, I suppose.”
For a moment, nothing happened, and all I could feel was relief. Maybe I could treat myself like a puppy and wait to shit it out, then pretend none of this ever happened.
But, alas, my luck was not to hold.
A flash of intense white light set the world aflame.
Every single neuron in my body was set ablaze.
My muscles ached as my DNA rewrote itself, all the channels of power inside my veins expanding, magic flooding my veins.
Floromancer, goddess, Chimera, bits and pieces of my mother and father, and I knew the truth in my blood.
Cernunnos was my father, and the forest lived in my cells.
Something long blocked dislodged, sending a fiery blaze of staggering power through me, and my muscles began to stretch and elongate.
A scream tore from my throat, my body bending in impossible ways as the seed changed my very essence. I tried to open my eyes, but I was blind, everything cast in deep gray shadow.
When the shift came, all I knew was power and horrified screams for a long moment until I locked on the two people I wanted dead more than anything.
A red haze over my vision disoriented me. Everything living glowed a soft white, but there—two people glowing white and red.
I stumbled, not used to my cloven feet, but it didn’t take me long to figure things out.
A horrified Rhona gaped before she turned and hauled ass toward the forest. Unrelenting burning in my chest screamed for release, and I answered the call, sending a streaming blaze of angry crimson fire at her back.
Rhona’s pained scream echoed through Caelan’s land for the seconds it took for her body to catch fire and disappear in a hail of ash. My eyes swept the property.
Moira and Ash stood there, staring upward, an identical expression on their faces I couldn’t decipher. Caelan was locked in battle with the other Lord but holding his own.
I would not interfere. Donovan was not mine to kill.
But the other Chimera… Where was he?
My roar shook the buildings. I tested the membranous wings on my back, flapping once, twice, until I crookedly lifted off.
“The left!” Moira shouted.
I veered left, my night vision so much better than it ever had been, sweeping my gaze across the forest to acquire my second target.
There.
A hint of white and red speeding through the woods. I dipped low, edging the tips of the trees, and realized the bastard had fled through the heaviest cover to evade me. Amusement tinged my lips.
Fire from…another head—somewhere on my body? I didn’t know, but I took advantage of my new powers and scorched the trees, to uncover Finn.
Guilt speared me at the damage, but I’d heal them later. Right now, I had to take care of this threat, this thing that had brought so much trauma into my life.
Finn veered right. I lowered my bulk closer, tearing through trees and brush in my pursuit. A primal scream ripped from Finn’s throat when he made the mistake of looking back. Whatever he saw scared the shit out of him, but I didn’t care. I’d worry about it later and hope it wasn’t permanent.
He shifted into a sleek panther, dark as night with jade green eyes, and attempted to slip away.
But I could still see him. I could see everything.
I could feel everything. Power roared through me, but all I felt was the urge to kill, kill, kill the threat.
Finn. I had to kill Finn.
I toyed with him, keeping my speed steady enough to keep up with him but not overtake him, even though I easily could.
When he attempted to veer away, I’d send a blaze of fire out and make him head the other way.
I pursued him for what felt like hours until the edges of his ribs heaved, his tongue hung out, and his speed slowed.
Eventually, he stopped and collapsed, rolling onto his stomach.
Finn shifted into human form; fear etched into the very bones of his face.
“Evie,” he croaked, his chest heaving and nostrils flaring as he sucked in oxygen. “Please. It was never anything personal.”
Not personal to him. That was the difference. Everything he’d done to me was personal. It affected every single thing in my life. His actions kept me from living, kept me hidden away, afraid of myself and my power, afraid of love.
Simply afraid.
I loomed above him, staring at him dispassionately.
“You—” His throat worked. “You are stunning. I’ve never seen the Chimera’s true form. None of us have ever been able to shift into it.”
A sliver of calculation brimmed in his eyes. “I can help you become what you were meant to be. I can show you what you can do.”
I roared, the sound shaking the tops of the trees.
Finn snapped his mouth shut and stared at me. A wet spot soaked the front of his jeans.
I felt no sympathy or empathy. I was past the point of such human emotions. This thing had ruined me and deserved to pay.
“Evangeline,” a voice said quietly.
I shuddered. Caelan came into the clearing, proudly nude and bloody. Scratches grazed his face and chest, but nothing serious. His gaze traveled over my form, his lips pressed tight. Golden and green magic shimmered around him, and his eyes blazed with power.
He exhaled and nodded to himself as if he’d come to a long overdue conclusion. “First rule of shifting, Evie. We don’t play with our food.”
I huffed, a puff of fire burning the leaves off the tree to my left. My back feet had hooves, but my front were tipped with retractable lethal claws. I lifted one up and sent my claws out with a powerful snick.
Caelan’s lips edged upward. “Yes, pretty kitty. I see how beautiful you are. How lethal.”
I was a cat? Cool. But no. I had wings and hooves and…paws. What in the actual fuck?
He jerked his head toward Finn. “Would you like me to finish him?”
Another roar that blew Caelan’s hair back. The Lord held his hands up and took a step back, a huff of laughter escaping him. “Fair enough.”
He turned his head. “Others are coming. As much as I’d love to help you bring this asshole to justice, you might want to make a decision on whether he lives or dies.”
“Not living,” I bit out. My voice sounded like I was garbling rocks, deep and rough and ancient.
Caelan blinked. “And you talk. Holy fucking hell. Okay. Right.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Then kill him, flower girl. Don’t let them hold you back with legalities.”
My teeth pulled back in a smile. Caelan swore and shook his head.
“Goddamn. You are hot and fucking terrifying and if you hurry up and kill him, we can make a detour, if you get what I’m saying.”
Another huff of laughter.
Finn whimpered and flipped onto his stomach, belly crawling away. I lifted my paw and put it on his back, holding him there.
The Chimera began to cry.
I dipped my massive head low, right next to his ear, and snarled. Saliva dripped onto his hair.
Caelan laughed.
I lifted my paw again and smashed it into his spine. His bones broke like toothpicks, snap, snap, snap. Tiny pieces of popcorn in a microwave.
Finn’s scream of pain made me smile.
I used a claw to flip him over. His arms and legs were useless, but he was still alive.
He needed to see my face, to see what he’d done to me.
Finn needed to see his retribution coming right for him.
Fire blasted through the clearing. I tipped my head up and screamed, a bone-shaking primal cry of defiance and rage, the sound a deep, resonant bellow announcing I was the apex predator tonight. The trees and ground shook, Finn’s crying softened to whimpers, his eyes round with terror.
I reached for him, split the Chimera wide open with a wicked, black tipped claw and dug my muzzle into his chest, searching for his energy source. I found the still beating meaty piece controlling his life and tore it from his ribcage, tossing it into the air before I swallowed it down.
Then I turned that sonofabitch into ash.
An eerie quiet settled around Caelan’s land. Energy slammed into me from Finn’s heart. I took a deep breath, reveling in my new power and focused on returning to myself.
A few moments passed until the familiar magic shimmered around me. My bones and muscles shrank until I was me again or…maybe not the me I once was.
The new me.
Caelan stood a few feet away watching me. Our eyes met.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” he whispered.
Cernunnos stepped into the clearing.
“Go away,” Caelan and I snarled at the same time.
The fae king’s surprised bark of laughter faded a second later, but he left us a gift.
An impenetrable, opaque bubble rose above us, at least a hundred feet around, ensuring we wouldn’t be disturbed.
Caelan and I both took a hesitant step forward.
A second later, we crashed into each other, a whirlwind of lips and teeth and hands.
I wrapped my bare legs around him; my breasts crushed against his chest. My hands cupped his face as our lips met, hot and hungry. Need roared through my veins, blazing hot.
Caelan’s length jutted against my stomach, and for once, I didn’t care that I was Chimera and he was a Lord, or that we were both naked and covered in blood.
He was a man, and I was a woman, and I wanted him, and he wanted me.
Tonight it was all that mattered.
His lips trailed hot and hungry down my neck as he walked me back to one of the few trees I hadn’t destroyed. Teeth edged the hollow of my throat, my collarbone, a soft claiming bite proclaiming I belonged to him.
And tonight I did. His hand cupped my breast, teasing the nipple. Caelan hauled me higher, dipping his head to claim the place his hand had been. I moaned and arched my back, giving him everything, all I was.
“Evie,” he growled.
I ran my hands through his hair, marveling at the silky texture, trailing down his neck and powerful back. We glowed with magic, red and gold and green and watermelon tourmaline.
This was not sex. This was a claiming, and I let it happen. I wanted it to happen.
His teeth gently clamped down, but it would leave a mark. I surged forward, snarling at him. “Harder.”
He adjusted me, his fingers finding the slick heat between my legs.
“Caelan,” I breathed.
Our lips met again, our equal power casting a metallic glow across the bubble we were in.
Caelan slid home, his thick length filling me.
A primal scream, half me, half cat ripped from my lungs. Caelan threw back his head, a howl splitting the night. His hands gripped my hips as he took me, each slide a wicked, delicious torture.
My nails scraped his back, and I leaned forward, licking his neck down his shoulder to his collarbone before sinking my teeth into the hollow of his shoulder. Caelan barked, his movements turning jerky.
“Again.” Caelan snarled as he moved. “Make me yours.”
A delicious heat built in my core. I bit him again, tasting the salt of his skin, the copper of his blood, licking the wound closed.
His hands tightened on my hips, his movements brutal and claiming. Rough bark cut into my back as we moved, but I didn’t care about anything other than Caelan.
“You are mine. No one else’s.”
I lay my palm against his heart. “Yours,” I promised.
His movements slowed, became languorous, each slide bringing me to the edge.
“Don’t stop,” I begged.
He flicked my nipple, sliding his hand down my body to find the small place in my slick heat. A gentle press, and withdrawal.
My throat worked, a hoarse cry escaping. “Caelan.”
His wicked chuckle slid over my skin. “Come for me, Evangeline.”
Our eyes met as he moved, and when his hand slid against me, small motions tearing screams from my throat, stars exploded behind my eyes, and magic boomed in the skies above us, ancient stars not seen in millennia lighting up the skies of Joy Springs.
Caelan followed me over the edge, and together, we claimed the land for our own.