Chapter 27
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
The notebook slid from my fingers. I stared blankly at nothing, my mind whirring with the knowledge that there was an entire faction of shifters who knew exactly what I was.
Numbness set in. I couldn’t speak or move, but I was desperate to speak or move or cry, something other than this horrible maw of a pit opening inside of me.
Caelan came to his knees beside me. “We’ll fix it. We’ll figure out who knows and take them out.”
“It’s possible the knowledge is only with a small number of people,” Garrett said. “And one of them is dead.”
“How?” I croaked. “How did this happen?”
Caelan brought me into the circle of his arms. “Terrible luck, Evie. They weren’t after you. They were after Finn. Perhaps that’s what drew him here.”
“That must be how he found me.” I raised a trembling hand to my cheek. “Why he and Rhona killed Gianna. Maybe they weren’t trying to stab me in the back after all. Maybe…”
I shook my head just as a thought occurred to me. I’d forgotten about him. “Barrett. He’s here. Maybe he can tell me. Maybe he’s here to help.”
“You cannot trust any of the other Chimeras, Evie. Not now. Not when you don’t know who they’re working with or what their goals are.”
“I can’t trust the shifters, either.”
Caelan stilled. “You can trust me. Always.” But there was an odd tremble in his voice.
Maybe he would keep my secret. Maybe he would even protect me when others might try to take me.
But I knew in my heart that he was keeping a secret that somehow involved me.
Had I been the biggest fool of all by trusting him?
Even after everything, would trusting him finally lead to my downfall?
Garrett stood a few feet away, his eyes trained on Caelan. A gold ring outlined his eyes, and his jaw was taut with tension.
“You’re hiding something from me,” I said when the silence became unbearable. “Both of you.”
Garrett looked away. Caelan’s arms tightened. “No,” he said quietly. “I’d never hide anything like this from you.”
“But you are hiding something.”
Caelan sighed, and I waited for him to come clean, but he shook his head. “No, Evie. I’m not hiding anything.”
A frigid wind swept through the area, the same temperature as my heart. He was lying. I knew it as sure as I knew that my heart was breaking. It had taken me years to trust someone again, and just when I had opened my heart and finally let Caelan in, let myself love again, he lied right to my face.
I swallowed my pride down, forced my emotions into the same box I used that night while I lay dying in that field of heather, and forced a smile.
“Right. Of course. I’m sorry for doubting you.
It’s just…that notebook. Others know about me now, and I’m not sure how to handle that, or what I should do about it. ”
Garrett’s glowing gaze rested on my face, but I saw no judgment in his eyes.
Only resignation. He and I both knew that I knew, but he would not call me out on it.
At least not right now. I would get up, dust myself off, take this notebook with me and call Moira.
Then we would call Barrett and feel him out.
Regardless, Moira and I would come up with a plan.
I was a survivor. If the shifters came for me, I would respond in kind.
It was time to take the gloves off and show them what a Chimera could do.
Caelan wanted to stay, but I pled a headache.
We both knew I was lying, but even though his jaw was tight, he brushed a kiss over my cheek and left. Garrett gave me a long look before he followed his Lord out, but Thalia hesitated at the door.
She looked back. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Before I could ask for what, Thalia hurried after Garrett. Moments later, the sound of a vehicle started up, and lights flared in my window as they pulled out of the driveway.
They were gone.
I collapsed onto the couch and buried my head in my hands. What a night.
Moira didn’t bother knocking. She burst through the door, holding two large bags in one hand and a tray of drinks in the other.
“Who do I need to kill? It’s been a while since I drew blood. Screwing with the Lords is fun, but your insistence that I don’t take it too far is super annoying.”
She dropped the bags on the coffee table and shoved a large cup of something at me.
I cracked open the lid and almost choked at the smell of alcohol.
“Drive through daiquiri place just opened up down the road.”
“In Texas?” I blurted.
“Not Texas. Or at least not completely. This is Joy Springs.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “We have magic. And no respect for proper laws.”
I took a sip of the frozen fluorescent concoction. “Mmm.”
“Blue raspberry with enough booze to tranquilize an elephant.”
“Awesome.” I took a long drink.
Moira took hers from the tray, red and swirled with something yellow. “Raspberry mango.” She took a large draw from the straw and shuffled through the bags.
“Boneless and regular wings, three different flavors, curly fries and tots.”
“You’re the best friend a girl could ever have.”
“I know,” Moira said with a sigh. “Let’s eat. Then you can tell me who I get to murder.”
Moira’s eyes flashed a bright, jagged green sometime later. “The swans? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
“Swans are assholes.” My words were on the slurry side, but I still had twenty percent of my daiquiri left.
Moira nodded. “Have you seen the memes where the ducks are running around with knives in their mouths?” She shuddered.
“It’s what I imagine the swan shifters must do when they shift. How do you fight with wings and a pretty yellow beak?”
“They don’t have arms. How would they stab anyone?”
Moira’s brow furrowed. “Maybe they have fangs. Like vampires.”
“Vampire swans?” I shook my head. “Maybe they have retractable claws on their feet. And blades in their wings.”
“Like a swan ninja.” Moira nodded. “Makes sense.”
I laughed. “It makes zero sense.”
She leaned forward, her eyes intense. “There’s one thing I don’t understand. Why are you afraid of swan shifters? Even if they do have fangs and blade wings.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re afraid of something. If it’s not the swans, what is it?”
Moira started to giggle and slapped her hands over her mouth, but she couldn’t stop. “This is the dumbest conversation we’ve ever had,” she wheezed. “Swan shifters? Were the gods high that day?”
I snorted. “It’s not the swans. It’s…” What was it? Worrying about shifters who communicated through honks made me want to scream.
“They know about me,” I finally admitted.
“If Gianna knew that means Nadia knows, too. Who else did they tell? Have they shared the info with other shifters, or has it stayed with them? If I retaliate or try to wipe them out and they haven’t told anyone, I’d be shooting myself in the foot.
If they have told other people, maybe it’s just a matter of time before they come for me. ”
I stared down at the daiquiri. “Why the hell is this so good? What kind of alcohol are they using in this magical drink?”
Moira wiggled her eyebrows. “The witches in town got together a few years ago because everyone was tired of drinking without being able to get tipsy. From what I understand, Hazel met with them when she was here. Looks like they were successful.”
I blinked. “Oh shit.”
“Yeah. Joy Springs is about to get lit!”
She kicked off her shoes and curled up on the couch.
“I do my best thinking when I’m buzzed. Now, let’s talk this out.
You’re a Chimera. The swans found out after they found you with Finn.
May he burn in a fiery pit of awfulness forever.
They want to bring more power into their bloodline, which might negate the wings with blades theory, and since Finn is dead, they set their sights on you. ” She took another sip of her daiquiri.
“Obviously, you don’t want to be a broodmare, and killing them all, while fun and deserved, is illegal.”
“If they knew it was me.”
Moira gasped. Her eyes lit up. “Now we’re cooking! If they didn’t tell anyone else, which is likely considering they want your power for their own, we could find out where their Keep is and take them all out.”
Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was the fear. Maybe it was the bone-deep exhaustion. Whatever it was, swan mass murder was sounding better and better.
“They only have one Keep in the entire world,” Moira said.
“A good indicator of fertility issues or an iron-fisted control on breeding within the race. Since we have proof it’s fertility, there’s a good chance they don’t have any secret populations of swans who might swear a blood oath and take out your entire genetic line once those left behind grow to adulthood. ”
A hoarse laugh bubbled from my throat.
“I’m serious.” Moira took a sloppy sip from her cup. “Blood oaths are serious things.”
“Let’s assume there are no future warrior swans with a vendetta in our future.”
“Okay. Good. The only thing is, swans can fly, and they’re bound to do routine sky sweeps around the Keep. How do we take out their entire Pack without alerting those in the sky?”
“At night?”
“Easier to sneak in, but swans fly at night.”
“Snipers?” It was a joke, but Moira was super into planning the total annihilation of all swan kind.
She snapped her fingers. “Excellent. Think we can get Garrett to do it?”
I hadn’t told her my theory about Caelan yet. My long pause clued her in.
“Evie?”
“We can’t ask Garrett because I don’t want to ask Caelan. Plus, we can’t involve them in something like this. Too complicated politically.”
She tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. “You never cared about politics before. What happened?”
I looked at my empty cup and sighed. “Maybe we should have gotten two more of these.”
“What. Is. It.”
Before I could say a word, I started to cry.