Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Ifollowed Caelan’s lead, staying low to the ground and hidden in the shadows. When we reached the patio, Caelan gestured for me to stay around the corner. I hunkered down at the edge of the house, hands buried deep in my coat pockets.
It didn’t take him long to return. “I can’t see who has him.”
“But he’s still alive.”
Caelan nodded. “Unfortunately.”
We grinned at each other.
“How do you want to play this?”
He glanced up. “Two fireplaces. One goes to the living room. The other goes to the master, I bet. We can try shimmying down that way, but I’m too large. You’ll have to do it and open the window. Then we can try to take them by surprise.”
“Sounds like a lot can go wrong.”
“True. But we don’t know what we’re walking into. Ethan hasn’t struggled or tried to free himself from his bonds, which tells me he knows exactly what that person is capable of, and it isn’t good.”
It made sense. “If we go in headfirst, we lose the element of surprise, and we’ll have to hit them hard and fast.”
“Preference?”
“I’m not a warrior like you. I’ll always choose stealth. But I’ll let you lead this one. This Cagney and Lacey stuff isn’t in my wheelhouse.”
Caelan scratched his chin. “Or we could split up. You take the fireplace. I’ll wait for your signal, then go in. You’ll act as backup if I get in a pinch.”
“How will I signal?”
He pointed to a second-floor window. “Up there. Flash the lights twice, then start heading downstairs. Ready?”
I nodded, my heart pounding. “Ready.”
He brought me in for a hard and fast kiss, then slapped me on the ass. “Start shimmying, flower girl.”
I rubbed my bottom cheek. “You’re having fun,” I accused.
“It’s been a while since one of us has been in trouble. I’m looking forward to Ethan getting bent over a barrel.”
I grinned. “Me too.” Calling up my Floromancy, vines slid from the earth and wound around my legs and abdomen. Once they were steady, I tapped a thick vine around my waist. A second later, I was in the air, Caelan gaping at me from the ground.
I winked and let the earth carry me to the roof, where the vines gently deposited me and slowly sank back into the ground.
On silent feet, I made my way to the second chimney and peered inside.
I couldn’t see any blockages, but the space was tight enough to make me worry.
Although I was much smaller than Caelan, at five feet seven, I couldn’t be considered petite.
Reaching into the chimney, I carefully extricated the screen and perched on top of the stone. Calling more vines, I wrapped one around my wrist and called the other down to steady my waist. Then I carefully scooted off the edge, allowing the vines to take my weight.
Controlling the vines with a slow but steady pace, we moved down the chimney until my feet were an inch below a pile of wood. Careful not to disturb it, I stepped over until I was on the stone floor and released the vines once more.
I let out a relieved breath and hurried to the window. Caelan stood right outside, expression tense until he spotted my silhouette. I reached over and flashed the lights twice, then went to the door, easing it open before peeking out to ensure I was alone.
Voices came in from the kitchen.
“We can sit here all night, Lord,” a feminine voice said. “Where is my cousin?”
I froze. The voice was familiar. But it was the second voice that piped up that gave me pause. I’d left my cell back in the vehicle because phones were expensive and I wasn’t sure it’d survive the shift.
Shit. I snapped out a thin thread of magic to get Caelan’s attention before he barreled in and screwed us all. Pressed against the wall, I moved the small vine to wrap around the Lord’s ankle and gently tug. He was smart. He’d know to wait.
After a tense moment, I realized he’d gotten my message. Creeping back into the room, I shut the door, cracked open the window, and took my wren form. Seconds later, I met Caelan outside.
Once I shifted, he came closer. “What is it?”
Even I had trouble believing what I saw inside that house. “Donovan is in there.”
Caelan froze. “Impossible.”
I’d agree but there was no mistaking that weasel’s voice. “Not only that, so is Nadia.”
Of all the people who might take Ethan hostage, Nadia wouldn’t have been in my top five. The woman was on a desperate search to find out what happened to Gianna. She knew she was dead, but she didn’t believe the “official” story, which wasn’t much of a story at all.
I didn’t blame the woman. Gianna had died a terrible death.
He swore quietly and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Donovan is dead.”
“I didn’t see his face,” I whispered. “But that was definitely his voice.”
“You think the fae resurrected him?” His face was a mask of confusion. I’d seen the battle, seen Donovan go down. I assumed he was dead, too.
The fae could do a lot of things, but I’d never heard of one being able to resurrect the dead. It wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility, but I’d never met anyone who could do it.
“Are you sure he was dead? Fae can heal even the most grievous wounds.”
“I didn’t take a pulse,” he growled as he took me by the elbow. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“You don’t want to help Ethan?”
“It’s not that simple anymore. We can’t let Donovan know we’re onto him. Let’s get back to the car, and I’ll make a call.”
We hauled ass back to the vehicle we’d parked half a mile away. As soon as we were in, Caelan turned the heat up to full blast and called 911. As soon as it was done, he broke his phone in half and tossed it out the window.
“Clever but expensive,” I drawled.
“The Keep has a stash of them for occasions just like this.”
“For when other Lords get kidnapped and tied to a chair for interrogation?”
“You’d be surprised how often people want to tie us to chairs.” His eyes sparkled.
“Perv,” I said fondly.
A minute later, sirens appeared in the distance, screaming past us in a cacophony of sound. “They’ll either kill him or haul ass out of there.”
“Not the best odds,” I mused. “Are you going to tell Ethan you know?”
“The Lords have a meeting next week. If Ethan divulges that Donovan is still alive, I’ll think about it.” From the look on his face, he’d have to really think about it.
“I still don’t understand why he didn’t lose his position over everything.
” He was at the forefront of the Lord and fae incursion of my land and had been gunning for me ever since I’d gotten tangled up with Caelan.
My stringing him up with vines and beating him a little bit because he called me a slut had not helped matters.
No regrets.
Caelan reached over and took my hand. “I voted against him multiple times. Because Titania had influenced the others, there was no proof she hadn’t done the same to him. When directly asked, Ethan did not admit one way or the other whether he’d acted of his own volition.”
His voice deepened several octaves, the animal inside him close to the surface.
“Because you would know he was lying.”
Caelan nodded. “He’s always been a slippery bastard. The other Lords had to vote to keep him in because of the lack of concrete evidence against him. There’s no law against being an asshole.”
True. If there were, I knew a lot of people who’d be in the clinker. “What are the odds he makes it out of this one?”
His lips twisted. “High, unfortunately. You said they’re still interrogating him?”
I nodded. “They want to know what happened to Gianna.”
Caelan snorted. “Donovan is still playing both sides.”
“And he knows exactly what happened to her.” Donovan had been working with Rhona, the Chimera involved with Finn, in an effort to destabilize Caelan’s region, and used Gianna, a swan shifter, to help.
But for reasons unknown, Rhona murdered Gianna and stepped into her place.
In an effort to get rid of me, she and Donovan had planted Gianna’s body on my property, probably to “uncover” at a later date, so I could go down for the murder.
They didn’t count on Cernunnos popping into the wedding and refusing to bless the union, thus ruining Rhona’s plans before they’d even begun, or expect my father to step in and tell me about Gianna’s death.
I might have discovered it on my own during my upkeep of the land, but I’d been so busy I’d gotten a little lazy about caring for my property the way I should have been.
Once Cernunnos showed me what they’d done, I’d disposed of Gianna’s body permanently.
“But he can’t pin it on you because the body is gone.” He chuckled. “I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when he realized that.”
I leaned back and grinned. “Yeah. I can see him going full Rumpelstiltskin.”
Caelan pulled into the parking lot of the hotel where we were staying.
“It’d be a lot easier if he stayed dead.
If he starts throwing accusations out about your involvement, things might go sideways.
” He shook his head. “I don’t understand how this happened.
I would have bet money the guy was dead. ”
“Maybe we should have stayed and waited for the police to arrive.” Hindsight was always twenty-twenty. “Then we could have seen for ourselves.”
“Getting caught would have been worse.”
Caelan opened the room door and held it open. “If you say it’s Donovan, I have to believe you. I’ll check with the Keep mage when we get back.”
I shrugged off my jacket and tossed it onto the chair. “What do we do about the land?”
“We go out first thing in the morning and stake your claim.”
I turned to see him standing by the door, watching me with glowing eyes.
My heart skipped a little. No matter how many times I looked at him, he always stunned me. Tall and lean, dark hair and stormy eyes that turned gold when he was experiencing high emotion, Caelan took my breath away. We’d started off rocky and stayed that way for months.
He came on too strong, and I was a paranoid little rabbit constantly overthinking things.
But when I’d finally gotten out of that cursed tree and got a second chance, none of that small shit mattered anymore.
Rowan had already knocked some sense into Caelan before my forced disappearing act, but he never got the chance to talk to me before I was gone.
Caelan felt the same way when I made it out. None of it mattered to him either, but he did stop trying to rope me into marriage, and the guy had become a serious snuggleholic. I was not upset about it.
In fact, I’d sent Rowan a big ass package of hybrids and new plants I thought he might like, along with a year’s membership to a fancy whiskey club. The other Lord was going to make some woman very happy.
My thoughts had scattered the second I looked at Caelan because the guy was looking at me like I was the only thing on an all-you-can-eat buffet.
“Um.” All the thoughts were falling out of my head, so I had to ask about the land now before I lost all train of thought. “How do we stake my claim?”
He stripped his shirt off. “We can talk about it tomorrow.”
“Err. Okay.”
Caelan grinned, the edge to it making me a little nervous. There was nowhere to run, and he was looking decidedly predatory. I took a step back when he prowled my direction.
He untied the drawstring of his joggers.
Everything tightened. “Are you taking a shower?” My voice came out far huskier than I intended.
“Nope.” The grin widened.
“Huh,” I said. “Whatever shall you do?”
“I have a few ideas.”
Caelan pounced.