Chapter 34 – Caelan
Chapter
Thirty-Four
TWO WEEKS LATER
CAELAN
The accursed tree taking up so much of my property hadn’t changed since the moment I’d returned home after Evie’s…fuck. I refused to believe she was dead.
Evie’s absence. That felt better to say. Her forced sabbatical.
Temporary, explainable, fleeting things. Never the permanence of death.
“Gods,” I swore to myself. “I’m an idiot.”
Seymour bumped his main trap against my hip.
We’d taken to sitting out here each night, watching for any sign of change.
Seymour, as intuitive as he was, knew something was wrong.
He’d gone right up to the tree, tipped his traps up as if he could see all the way to the top, and let out a strange, warbling keen, as if he, too, knew his mistress was inside.
I’d found him out here every day, his pot leaning against its rough bark.
Simone’s familiar figure exited the back door, too far away for me to make out her face, but every one of my shifters moved a certain way. I could tell each one of them by their gait, but Simone’s hair gave her away every time.
I didn’t get up. She made her way through the yard and came to sit beside me, straightening her legs out before her.
“Anything?”
I shook my head.
Simone sighed. “I feel like I can sense her in there.” She shook her head. “Sounds insane, I know, but Evie just has such a brilliant presence. Every time we stood beside each other, I felt like I was standing next to a supernova.”
I understood. “She’s there. I feel her too.”
Simone nodded, even if she didn’t understand. “Her turtle vine has faded, as if it knows Evie is gone from this world.”
My jaw clenched to hold the angry words back. Evie was not gone.
Only absent.
“Seymour misses her. I often find him out here.”
Simone scooted a little closer, a wolf seeking comfort from Pack.
But I didn’t have any comfort to give her.
Not since I’d lost Evie. I was an animated shell of the Lord I’d been before, and my people were beginning to notice.
If things didn’t change, I’d find myself on the receiving end of challenges designed to take my position.
I couldn’t muster up enough feeling to give a shit.
“Nadia returned,” Simone said after a few minutes. “She’s growing impatient.”
I didn’t care about her, either. “Tell her Gianna is dead. The Lords disposed of her body in a funeral befitting someone of her status.”
Simone sucked in a shocked breath. “Caelan. Her family—”
“She was murdered by a rogue Chimera who has since been…handled.”
My Omega stared at me in horror. “They won’t settle for that excuse.”
I turned my attention toward her, letting her see in my face how little concerned me these days. “Then tell them to challenge me. I will burn their world down and dance on the ashes of their bones.”
Simone dropped her eyes and swallowed hard. “Very well.” She rose without another word and headed back inside.
Seymour made another warble and bumped me again. I stroked a hand over his trap. “You think she’s still there, too, don’t you?”
Seymour bumped me again.