Chapter 28
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
CAELAN
My enforcer was furious. He sat on the chair opposite my desk, eyes glittering with a ring of gold. “You need to tell her.”
“I’m aware. You know I can’t.”
Garrett scoffed. “Since when have you cared about the whims of the gods?”
“This particular god happens to not only be the Fae King, he’s Evie’s father.”
“Which makes it four times worse.”
Where was this coming from? “You hate Evie.”
His jaw tightened. “I don’t.”
“What changed? A while ago, you most certainly did.”
Garrett looked away. A staccato thumping noise came from the shelf above. Seymour, resident vicious, sentient flytrap sailed through the air, his traps waving as he headed right at him.
Garrett’s hand shot out, carefully catching him by the bottom of his pot. “You are a nightmare.” But his voice was touched with fondness. The flytrap had become a permanent fixture inside the Keep, but it took a while for the other shifters to get used to his antics.
He’d become part of the family, in an odd way, and now I couldn’t imagine my life without him.
Seymour snuggled up to Garrett, and the shifter gently stroked him on top of his main trap. “She’s good for you,” he muttered. “As much as I hate admitting that I don’t hate her. She’s unhinged and sometimes volatile, but once you have her loyalty, it’s yours forever.”
His lips thinned. “Unless you deceive her, which you have been doing since the moment you brought Thalia under your protection.”
“Evie is one thing. Cernunnos can crush us if we violate his oath.”
Garrett sighed. “Do you think he would harm us when his daughter loves you? The king is playing you. I don’t know the rules or the goal of the game, but mark my words, this is a test. And it’s one I think you’re failing.”
I always listened to Garrett when he spoke because he never said a lot, but whatever he said was worth listening to. But this? I wasn’t sure he was right, and testing the fae king’s threat could end with him decimating the Keep.
“I can’t risk Pack lives over this agreement.”
“But you’d risk a potential mate?”
Claws threatened to slip from my fingers. I bit back a harsh response. “What do you suggest I do?”
“You come clean and throw yourself on the altar of Evie, consequences with Cernunnos be damned.”
A bark of laughter escaped me. “Since when did my stringent rule follower become someone who’d throw all the rules out for a woman?”
When Garrett stayed silent, I smiled. “You care about Thalia, and it’s scaring the shit out of you.”
His cheeks turned ruddy. “Doesn’t matter. She can’t stand me.”
“Evie hated me for months and threatened to kill me every chance she got. Now look at us.”
“She knows you’re lying to her,” Garrett said. “You’re fooling yourself if you think she doesn’t.”
I leaned back in my chair. “I’ll talk to Cernunnos.”
“You never should have agreed to this in the first place.”
“If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t be smitten over Evie’s sister.”
“Yeah, but don’t you think this is going to fuck up Thanksgiving dinner if Evie sends assassins after you once she realizes what you’re lying about?”
“Assassins?” I shook my head. “Not her style. She’d do it herself. Probably while I was in my garden or something.”
“You joke,” Garrett said in a somber voice, “but that girl has been betrayed more than anyone I’ve ever known. Myself included. If I were you, I wouldn’t be sitting here debating with me. I’d be at her house throwing myself on her mercy.”
“I’m not you,” I growled.
Garrett rose, carefully setting Seymour down on top of my desk.
“If I ever had the chance with a woman like Evie, I wouldn’t squander it.
The gods be damned.” He headed toward the door, turning one more time to look at me.
“You keep fucking up, Caelan. She won’t wait forever for you to get your shit together.
There is at least one pretty Lord waiting in the wings who wouldn’t mind shooting his shot. ”
Fucking Rowan. And now I had to worry about Ben.
Literal wolves were circling around the love of my life just waiting for me to screw this up.
“Heard and noted,” I said mildly, trying not to show how pissed off I was at the thought of Rowan or anyone else swooping in to claim her.
He had no designs on her, I kept telling myself.
Otherwise, why would he give me the necessary advice to finally right things between us?
Because he knew I’d fuck it up again by doing something stupid like keeping her sister a secret?
“Fuck,” I muttered.
Seymour hopped over and jumped into my lap, but even he wasn’t enough to lift my dark mood.
I needed to get into contact with Cernunnos and end this once and for all.