Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
The urge to strangle Rachel with a pothos vine stayed with me for the entire walk to Caelan’s study. His soft laugh told me he knew exactly how I was feeling.
This felt different than Gianna. The swan shifter hadn’t wanted Caelan. She only wanted his power. This woman…I think she wanted both, and that was enough to send a burning thread of fear into my heart.
When the doors shut and Caelan pulled me against his chest, I melted into him and sighed. “She’s awful.”
“I’m well aware,” he murmured.
The rhythmic thump of ceramic on wood made me smile. I pulled away from him and held my arms out, waiting for Seymour to launch himself from the edge of the desk.
His traps opened wide as he sailed through the air. I laughed and caught him, hugging him close when he landed in the circle of my arms. “Hey.”
Seymour bumped me with his main trap and made an odd clicking noise.
I grinned and held him out at arm’s length, studying the way his roots tumbled over the edge of his pot. “Hmm. You need a bigger pot again.”
Seymour waved his traps at me.
“Maybe Caelan will let you come home with me. You can hang out in the greenhouse while I work.”
“I’m sure we can arrange a visit,” he rumbled.
Caelan reached over and plucked Seymour from my hands. “It’s getting late. You need to go to bed. Evie and I have a lot to talk about.”
That clicking noise turned annoyed.
Caelan chuckled and carried him over to a spot by the window. There was a mister, some fertilizer and—
“A cat bed?” I laughed.
Caelan’s smile turned sheepish. “He likes it.”
“And a blanket?”
Caelan tipped Seymour’s pot on its side and covered the flytrap with a blue flowered blanket.
I covered my mouth with my hand so he couldn’t see me grinning.
He bent down and murmured a few words to Seymour before he straightened.
“Aren’t you worried about the dirt in his pot spilling?”
“I keep extra in the cabinets and fill him up when he needs some.”
I might explode with the cuteness of it all. “He doesn’t need to lie down.”
The sight of him tucking Seymour in for the night was so adorable I wanted to lean over and squeeze his cheeks.
“He likes it,” Caelan grumbled. The first time he did it, I thought the pot tipped over by accident, so I lifted him back up, only for him to thump right over again. The next time I reached for him, he growled at me.”
I’d created Seymour out of anger and fury at Caelan’s behavior and ended up creating something never seen before. The Red Dragon flytrap had somehow become sentient and was evolving into not quite a pet, but something. A companion, maybe.
Once Seymour was settled in, his traps turned away from us and facing the window, Caelan gestured toward one of the sofas. After I kicked off my shoes and sat, he settled beside me, pulling my legs onto his lap.
I leaned against the edge and sighed.
“She won’t be here long,” he rumbled. “I’ll ensure it.”
“Why is she here in the first place?”
His expression darkened. “She won’t come out and say. Rogue shifters are becoming an issue across the world, and she claims she’s here because of them, but she’s lying.”
Caelan shook his head. “Whatever the reason, I don’t think it bodes well.”
I agreed. Caelan’s fingers dug into the arch of my foot, sending a delicious ache through my body. “She wants you.”
The Shifter Lord sighed. “Evie—”
“I trust you,” I said hurriedly. “I know we’ve had our issues, but I can’t help but think this situation is different from Gianna.
She’s here because she has her sights set on you, for whatever reason.
And with the history between you, she sees you as an easy catch.
” I eyed him. “I don’t know everything that went on between you, but if there’s anything I need to worry about, I hope you tell me now.
I’d like to avoid flying off the handle again. ”
I gave him a somewhat sheepish smile. He was wrong to keep Thalia’s heritage from me, but I should have also understood how much pressure he was under from my father.
Caelan couldn’t think only of himself or me.
He was a Shifter Lord, responsible for thousands of shifters all across a swath of the country.
And with Donovan’s territory still in dispute…
“Rachel is a viper,” he said to my relief. “I’d rather cut off my arm than be involved with her again.”
“Then I think you should assign someone to keep a careful eye on her. Can you get her out of the Keep without an incident?”
He sighed. “Protocol is allowing her here for five days. Then I can move her to local lodging.”
Five days could be a lifetime with a toxic presence living in close quarters. Rachel could do a lot of damage in less than a week if left to her own devices. “Maybe you should make yourself scarce during that time.”
A flash of teeth. “Are you inviting me to stay over?”
My blood thrummed. “Always.”
Caelan’s deep chuckle made me grin. “I can’t leave for the entire five days. Things are still unsettled with the Lords.”
After the events of a few weeks ago, Caelan had finally exploded.
I didn’t know everything that had gone on, but I hadn’t seen a Lord around since then, and none of them had contacted me or tried to force my hand in any way.
The breathing room was a long time coming, but Caelan’s actions had led to a rift between him and the other Lords.
He’d been totally justified in standing up for me, but it had cost him. “Are they coming in?”
Caelan nodded. “Rowan is coming in late tomorrow. Soren is due in the morning.”
I clicked my tongue. “He didn’t tell me he was coming!”
Everyone knew I had a soft spot for the handsome Lord.
Rowan’s powers were similar to mine, and we’d clicked over our shared love of all things plant.
He’d given me some wonderful cuttings of apple trees and gorgeous flowers, and I’d gifted him with a few things he’d never seen before.
There was a long-standing invite for me to visit his property, but I hadn’t yet taken him up on it because of everything I had going on here.
“He wanted it to be a surprise.” The growl in his voice made me smile.
I eyed him. “Don’t be jealous. You know Rowan and I are only friends.”
“That’s because of the boundaries you’ve set. If you gave Rowan an opening, he’d drive a semi right through it.”
I wasn’t so sure of that. There was something between us, but it wasn’t the roaring bonfire Caelan and I had. “I hope he brings me more cuttings.”
Caelan snorted. “I’m sure the pretty Lord will bring lots of gifts for you.”
I grinned before remembering why I’d come tonight. “We had an unexpected visitor today.”
His eyebrows rose. “Oh? Do I want to know?”
“I’m not sure. Back when Rhona and Finn and my mother showed up on your property, you remember the amount of magic flying around?”
Caelan grimaced. “How could I forget?”
“Some of that magic hit Moira and has coalesced in unusual ways.”
His attention sharpened. “What kind of unusual ways?”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “A portal opened up in my shop and a fae fell through the roof.”
Caelan blinked like an owl. “I’m sorry. What?”
In a world of magic and shifters and Chimeras, I dealt with unusual things every single day. But the portal was an unusual occurrence. Topped off with Moira being able to flick a wrist and boom, naked fae dude getting yoinked through space was a little bit unbelievable in the scheme of things.
“Do you need a moment to form a picture in your brain?”
Caelan tweaked my toe and snorted. “Sometimes these words come out of your mouth that shouldn’t make sense, and yet, I do not doubt that your strange vampire friend summoned a fae who fell through a portal in your shop.”
“I bet I could kick total ass if we ever decided to play two truths and a lie,” I said off-handedly.
Caelan let out a long breath. “No doubt. Who was he?”
“Said his name was Lou.”
“Lou?’ he repeated. “Like an Italian Lou?”
“He didn’t look Italian. He was very pretty and had fae magic clinging to him.”
Caelan’s eyes narrowed. “Pretty?”
I waved a hand. “Pretty in the way that all the fae are. Too perfect.”
“Go on.” A ring of gold shone through Caelan’s irises.
“He asked to stay for five days.”
“This just gets better and better,” he muttered. “Did you tell him he was required to check in?”
“I did. He said he would find you. Whatever that meant.”
I could almost see the wheels turning in his mind. “Did he seem powerful?”
“Hard to say. Some fae can hide their power signatures.” I was one of them.
My tattoos had been repaired and hid the truth of what I was, and for some reason, they seemed to affect my fae power signature as well.
Not a bad thing, considering whose daughter I was, but if other fae could hide their power in a similar way as I could, Lou could be anyone.
“Do you think he’s here to harm anyone?”
I slowly shook my head. “He seems more curious than anything.” It was the truth, though curiosity in the fae and gods had caused more harm to humans than any other force in the world.
I could only hope his curiosity stayed with food and drinks and women rather than meddling in any of the other hundreds of things that could make life go sideways for us all.