Chapter 36
Chapter
Thirty-Six
Mom finished her inspection of Tess and declared her well and truly free from Lugh’s influence. Dad stepped outside not long after and passed out silver stag charms to everyone, instructing them not to take them off until Lugh’s threat had passed.
“Give this to your dryad friend,” he said, dropping an extra into my palm.
“What about mine?” I tucked the charm into my pocket.
Dad shook his head. “Your kind is resistant to magic, especially that of illusion.”
I tucked that thought away. “Am I seeing what everyone else is?”
“Not quite. You see Lugh for who he is.” He gestured to Moira. “Ask her what he looks like.”
Moira overheard. Her brow furrowed, but she answered. “Enormous. Built like a raiding Viking. Tall, at least six four. Black hair, blue eyes.” She shivered. “Super hot. Big hands and unshaven.”
I stared at her. “Umm. What?”
Dad snorted. “Now ask Tess.”
Tess still had the blanket wrapped around her. The shell-shocked expression hadn’t lifted from her face. “He kinda looked like Ash, but with swirling blue eyes.”
He didn’t look like that to me at all. “His eyes were violet and pink, and he was tanned and lean.”
Dad nodded. “He looked like one of those ancient statues carved from marble, correct?”
“He did. That’s what he really looks like?”
“Yes. Your kind is resistant to his kind of magic, but it doesn’t mean you are immune. Smaller tricks might get past you, so be on your guard at all times.”
“You don’t think he’s gone?”
“Not at all. Returning Tess was his way of throwing you off his trail.” His eyes took on a faraway look. “He is clever but fickle. Be wary of his offers. He will give you what you want, but it will cost you everything.”
All I wanted was a week-long nap and a memory wipe. But killing Lugh would work, too. “We should go hunting then.” There was something I wanted to do first, and I didn’t want to give her the chance to slip away before I got the chance to pay her back.
Caelan stepped outside. Everyone stopped talking.
“I’m going to find Rachel,” I told him.
He blinked in surprise. “You cannot kill her. Doing so will cause war—”
I held up my hand and interrupted him. “I don’t care.”
Caelan sucked in a breath. “Evie—”
“Even after all this, you still care too much about toeing the line.” My voice broke. “She ruined us. And still you urge me toward caution.” I straightened and squared my shoulders. “She is an enemy and shall be treated as such.”
His upper lip curled, those stormy eyes flashing with gold. “You’d kill someone for stealing a boyfriend?”
“A boyfriend.” I’d said the words, but they sounded cold. Dead. Unfeeling. “If that’s all you were to me, if that’s what you think this was, then I don’t regret what I’m about to do.”
Caelan crossed his arms over his chest.
“My words from before stand. Once you step off my property, you will not be welcomed back. Whatever this is between us is finished. Right now.”
His jaw tightened. “And if I say it’s not?”
“You hold no power over me, Lord. I am no longer one of your subjects. And even if I was, you don’t get to say when a relationship is over.”
I softened my tone. “I loved you very much. What happened to you is not your fault, but you have to admit there were problems beforehand.”
“Me asking you to marry me is not a problem.”
“Oh man,” Dad said under his breath. “It’s like trying to teach a toddler not to touch a hot stove.”
“It is when you repeatedly violate my boundaries and refuse to accept the answer.”
“This is it then?” His voice was a low, deadly growl.
I nodded. “But this isn’t the time to have this conversation. We have two common enemies.”
“And yet, you’re going after Rachel first. Who’s done nothing to you except take me away.”
“She’s done far more than that.” I gestured at Simone and Garrett. “You should be angrier than you are. I’ve gained from her betrayal, and you’ve lost more than you’ll ever know. But even if I hadn’t, she will soon learn she cannot insult the royal family. And if she does, she will pay the price.”
Mom nodded. “We cannot intervene, but we can keep your family and friends safe.”
“I’m within my rights to answer these insults even though I’ve accepted the crown?”
Dad grinned. “He started this before you’d taken your rightful place as heir.”
I smiled back. “Good. Let’s go find Rachel first.”
I turned to go, but Caelan reached out and gripped my arm. “Don’t do this. You’ll bring the wrath of Europe down around my head.”
I jerked my arm away. “Your fight with her is your own. She insulted the fae. Our fight is not with the Lords.”
“She insulted you,” Caelan growled. “Are you so prideful you’d resort to this criminal behavior?”
“Watch it,” Dad warned. “You’ve been in power far too long if your kind do not recognize us for what we are. We allow you all of this,” he said, sweeping a hand out to encompass the land. “None of it belongs to you. Be careful not to remind us of how easy it would be to reclaim it all.”
“Stop talking,” Garrett muttered under his breath, his focus on Caelan.
The Lord shot him an incredulous look and opened his mouth to reprimand him only to blink as he undoubtedly remembered Garrett was no longer under his command.
I shot Caelan a look. “I’m happy to involve the Lords in a fight if they pursue their petty grudges. They should be glad I’m removing someone dangerous from your territory, since you’ve been unable to.”
He took a step back as a crimson sheen rolled over my iris, the Chimera magic thrumming through my bloodstream, eager to come out and show everyone what we were made of.
“Come,” I said to my people. “Let’s go hunting.”
We found Rachel in the town square, sitting in the covered area next to Sirena’s gelato shop. Moira laughed under her breath.
“This woman either has balls of steel or she’s so fucking stupid I almost feel sorry for her,” she said under her breath.
“Maybe both,” I agreed.
The night sky was clear, stars sparkling high above us.
A gentle wind kept the temperatures lower than normal, but I was too boiling mad to feel the cold.
People milled about the area, though Rachel was the only one enjoying a cold treat.
Most walked around with coffees or hot cocoas, steam milling lazily from the tops of their drinks.
She hadn’t seen us yet, and the wind did us a favor by blowing our scents away. Sirena stepped in front of us.
The owner of the gelato shop was stunningly beautiful, and she knew it. Her dark hair was long and loose, flowing in waist-length lazy curls. She wore an emerald-green sweater that brought out the bright color of her eyes and dark wash jeans that hugged every dangerous curve.
“Hello, Evie,” she said in her low, husky voice.
“Sirena.”
She smirked. “We all know about your stunt earlier. Seems congratulations are in order. You managed to pull the wool over our eyes for a long time, but now the secret is out. How does it feel being a queen?”
“I could use a nap and a few weeks’ vacation, and this is only my first day on the job,” I admitted.
Sirena smiled, genuinely this time. “I’m here with a warning and a boon to request.”
“I’m listening.”
Sirena’s eyes flicked over my shoulder and lingered on the party with me. Moira, Garrett, Simone, and my mother and father. At our urging, Tess had chosen to go home, and Ash had swung by the house to grab her, giving me the opportunity to pass him his charm.
He’d asked no questions, only wished me good hunting. Then he brought me in for a tight hug before bundling Tess into his car and hurrying off into the night. Moments after Ash left, Caelan had shifted and disappeared into the night without another word.
“Your quarry is here somewhere, sowing chaos behind the scenes. Something is off in the air this evening. Be careful. Not everything is as it seems.”
Nothing I hadn’t already known or expected. “Thank you.”
Sirena nodded. “Please lure her away from my shop before you confront her. I can’t afford one more insurance claim.” She grimaced. “Living in a magical town is hard on my rates.”
I blinked at her. “That’s your boon?”
Sirena shrugged. “Making gelato isn’t keeping me in jewels, but it’s an honest day’s work.”
“I would have done that regardless.”
“Good.” She inclined her head in a small bow and started to turn when she halted and looked over her shoulder at me. “I can feel your broken heart.”
I stilled.
“Sometimes the wrong people interrupt our path with necessary lessons before the road curves and leads you to the one who was there all along.”
My throat clicked, and I couldn’t find any words.
Sirena grinned then. “But even if this doesn’t happen for you, the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.”
Moira barked a laugh.
“Goddammit, Sirena,” I growled.
She wiggled her fingers at me and disappeared in a shower of blue sparkles.
Rachel looked up from her gelato at that moment and froze.
I walked up to her and smiled.
“Hello, bitch.”