Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
My father sat on my front porch when I got home from work that evening.
I walked up the steps and opened the door, juggling my keys and a few bags of groceries. Cernunnos took two of the bags and followed me inside.
“Set them on the island, please.”
I tossed my purse onto the table by the door and went straight to the kitchen.
Dinner would be a simple, comforting affair.
I rarely made this because it was fatty and cheesy, and I tried to eat as naturally as possible, but it was colder than usual outside and some of the restaurants had closed early.
“Hope you like enchiladas and mac and cheese.” I started unpacking the groceries.
Cernunnos gave me an odd look. “Together?”
“It’s better than it sounds.”
I was still furious at him, but I could share my meal. He was my father, and I couldn’t just write him off. I wanted answers, though.
I chopped a shallot and set it aside for a can of enchilada sauce. As I cooked, my father took a seat at the island and watched me intently.
“Do you ever cook for yourself?” I asked.
He blinked in surprise. “Erm. No. I have people for that.”
I snorted. “Don’t you worry they’ll try to poison you?”
Cernunnos frowned. “I wasn’t until just now.”
Royalty. So smart and yet so clueless. “You probably have poison sniffers you don’t know about.”
“My chefs have been with me for years. I don’t worry about it too much. Why do you enjoy cooking?”
“Well, first of all, I don’t have ‘hire a private chef money.’”
My father rolled his eyes. “You do.”
My hand stilled in the act of stirring the cream into the enchilada sauce. I’d forgotten about this supposed account he had for me. “You were serious about that.”
“Evangeline.” His tone was chiding. “You are my daughter. Of course I’m serious about providing for you. I will send Birch over later with the pertinent details.”
“I have money.” My voice sounded a little more petulant than I wanted it to be.
“Never said you didn’t.” He smiled. “But you now have private chef money.”
“I like cooking. There’s something therapeutic about taking something in its rawest form and transforming it into something else, something delicious that provides comfort and sustenance.”
My father’s face softened. “Spoke like a true Floromancer. Life begins as a seed and produces some incredible things, does it not?”
I thought of the massive jacaranda tree still blooming in Caelan’s yard. “It certainly does.” Once the pasta water was on, I softened the onions and added the ground beef, seasoning the mixture as I thought about when to chew my father out for his actions.
The conversation could wait until after dinner.
Dad and I made small talk as I made him a bowl.
I’d discovered the recipe several years back, gave it a hesitant try, and ended up loving everything about the dish.
Seasoned ground beef with a little sauteed shallot mixed into a heavily seasoned enchilada, cream, and cheese mixture, and poured over the top of elbow pasta sounded weird but tasted like heaven.
We carried over our bowls and drinks and settled into the living room. The house was a little cool, so I pulled a blanket over my lap.
Dad took a bite and grunted in surprise. “This is delicious.”
“Thanks. It’s one of my go-to comfort meals.”
“I can see why. Maybe I’ll pass the recipe to my chef.” A sly grin curved his lips. “I tire of greens for every dish. This would give the poor man apoplexy.”
“Can you source ground beef in fae?”
“I can source anything I wish to.”
“Ah yes,” I said dryly. “With all your private chef money.”
Dad laughed. The sound warmed me, almost making me forget I was pissed at him. We ate in companionable silence after that, and when the meal was finished, and I’d poured us another glass of wine, I curved my hands around my glass and studied him.
He sighed. “Have at me, Evangeline. Your disapproval shimmers through the air like fairy lights.”
I stared at him over my glass, thinking of all the questions I wanted to ask, all the things I wanted to say to him, but none of it mattered except for the most important one. “Why?”
Surprise flickered over my father’s face. He’d expected something else. An emotional outburst, maybe? I was way too tired for those.
He leaned back in his seat and steepled his fingers together. “I’m afraid I must ask the reason for your anger.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re stalling. Trying to come up with an answer that won’t make me kick you out of my house? You know exactly what you did and why I’m pissed off.”
“You’re the future queen of every fae walking the worlds.”
“And that means you get to dictate my life?’
My father’s face went blank. “It means you are required to choose a suitable match, one who holds as much power as you do. One who will keep our bloodline—”
The glass snapped in my hand, wine flooding down my fingers and onto my lap. “If you say pure, you and I are finished.”
Rage brought the Chimera roaring to the surface. My breath became shallow, my heart beating furiously in my chest.
My father tilted his head. “Rest easy, Evangeline. You are not completely fae, remember. I was going to say ‘compatible.’” He gestured toward the window.
“Our bloodlines are tied to the natural world, though your mother is also tied to death. But your bloodline is more complicated. No fae blood has ever been tainted by the Chimera.”
He winced at his word choice before I could judge him. “‘Tainted’ is the wrong word choice. What I’m saying is your Chimera blood should be impossible, and yet, we know it is not. You and the person you choose—”
I cut him off. “Caelan. I choose Caelan.”
A muscle in his cheek twitched. “Will be compatible no matter what. But you are not thinking far enough into the future. It’s possible your children will experience…defects.”
I stared. “Excuse me?”
“A Chimera isn’t a true shifter. Their blood is pure magic.
A true shifter has one animal form and is half beast, half human.
Some shifters have magic due to dilutions of their bloodlines, i.e.
, an ancestor marrying a witch or other paranormal species, but most only have their innate shifting magic and enhanced senses and physical prowess.
” My father leaned forward. “I’m explaining so you understand the potential ramifications of breeding with a shifter. ”
I squeezed my eyes shut so I wouldn’t stab him with a flower stem. “Breeding?”
He waved a hand. “You’ve been with the humans for far too long. Procreation, then, if the word prickles you. If you have a child with a shifter, your blood might make something…monstrous. Something neither of you can control.”
“I don’t want to control my children.” But the words sounded mulish to me. Children required maybe not control, but discipline when they were young. Especially those who held magic in their blood.
“You must. You are borne from two powerful bloodlines, Evangeline. With the Chimera thrown into the mix, you must realize how dangerous procreation can be with another shifter.”
“Is this why you sent someone from Caelan’s past back into his life?”
The pause told me everything I needed to know.
“Sometimes a challenge is necessary to examine the mettle of a man,” he said cryptically.
“Or you could just stay the hell out of our business.”
“You’re the heir. Everything you do is my business.”
I glared at him. “Speaking of being the heir, that’s not quite true, is it?”
My father sighed and studied his fingernails. “Thalia is defective.”
I sucked in a breath. “Dad.”
“There’s no use sugarcoating things. A seer can never hold the throne. Someone like Thalia serves best by being at the ruler’s side.”
“So you can use her to hold onto your throne.”
“Again, my dear, you are thinking like a citizen and not like a queen.”
I bit down angry words. I’d never sacrifice my sister’s life to increase my power base, so he was right. I was still thinking like a citizen rather than a queen. A true ruler should be a citizen and should think like the people do. Otherwise, what was the point?
Cernunnos stood. “I can see how angry you are.”
Past the point of anger, actually. I was a screaming teakettle of rage. “Call off your dogs, Father.”
“Ooh, we’re at Father now. Not Dad?”
“A father donates genetic material. A dad anticipates each of his children’s needs and acts accordingly. They nurture and nudge. A father sends an old lover to tempt his daughter’s fiancé. A dad might think of a decision as a mistake, but he’d deal with it.”
“You are poised to take over a kingdom of bloodthirsty monsters, Evangeline. You don’t need a dad right now. You need a father.”
Thunder rumbled in the room, and he was gone.
I sagged against the back of the couch. Children had never been at the forefront of my mind. I never thought I’d find anyone I could trust enough with my secrets. But things were different now, weren’t they?
Yes, but could I in good conscience give birth to a monster, one who’d never stand a chance in the world of the living? Could I chance it, even knowing it might never happen?
I picked up a pillow and threw it at the door. Life was a lot simpler when my day consisted of making fun of people who went too carnation-heavy in their bouquets. Now I had enemies on all sides and was worried about world-ending spawn birthed from my loins.
I needed a drink.