Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
Ididn’t make it hard on Kinsley. Once my suitcase was packed, I brought my belongings out to the living room. He passed me a cup of steaming Earl Grey tea in a pretty handmade cup. “Ethan purchased this for you. The tea blend as well.”
I lost a few more pieces of my heart. “Thanks,” I croaked. “Just know if I take this, I won’t be giving it back.”
Kinsley snorted. “Honestly, you’d be within your rights to strip this place bare.”
I gave him a thin smile. “Maybe so, but I’d never do it. He built this place thinking of me. Maybe this thing will bring him back.”
Our eyes met, and we both knew it was a lie.
Kinsley and I didn’t know each other well.
He’d been Ethan’s Second for several months now, stepping in when the other wanted to move to another Keep.
So far, I found him level-headed and grounded, and less growly than the other Seconds I’d dealt with in my capacity as a junior council rep.
But we weren’t close, so I was surprised when Kinsley stepped into my personal space and opened his arms.
I blinked in surprise, even as a sob bubbled from my lips. Kinsley gathered me into a tight hug. My arms wrapped around him, and I held on, soaking in the comfort he’d given me.
“I’ll see if Rowan will give me approval to come to his lands soon, so I can debrief you. Hopefully, by that time, you’ll have information for me, too.”
I nodded, my hair sliding against his rough cotton shirt. “Thank you,” I croaked.
“I know all about heartbreak, Moira, but this…” He sighed. “This one’s a sonofabitch.”
I started to cry again.
Kinsley cupped the back of my head and held me tight until I’d exhausted myself. Embarrassed, I pulled away and wiped my face, wincing when I saw the front of his shirt. “Oh gods, I’m so sorry—”
“Never apologize for your tears, Moira. I didn’t know Sarah as well as some others here did.” He looked down at his feet. “A Keep needs a strong and ferocious lady. I always thought you might be a good one.”
His words both healed and broke my heart. I would never be the Lady of this Keep. Not after this. I pulled out a few travel potions from my bag and handed Kinsley two. “Take these.”
I gave him the instructions for how to use them. “Until I see you again,” I said and uncorked mine. Once I swallowed the concoction, I grabbed my belongings, smiled at Kinsley, and closed my eyes, focusing on my apartment.
A moment later, I was gone.
Evie was sitting on my porch when I shimmered in. She got up and took one of my bags from me.
My friend was always very good at being there when I needed her. But there was no way she could know what happened.
When we stepped inside, Evie kicked off her shoes and set my bag down by the coat tree. I went straight to the kitchen and rummaged through the liquor cabinet.
Evie came to help me. She took out the cold brew I made before I left for Ethan’s and a bottle of Irish cream. “We going caffeinated and booze or we doing sweet booze?” When I didn’t answer, she let out a little breath. “I’m cool if you want to drink straight from the bottle, too.”
I stared at the shit I’d taken out blankly. Evie put her hand on my arm. “How about I take you out to eat and we go get hammered downtown?”
I closed my eyes tight for a moment, then nodded. The thought of being alone in this apartment made something inside me die.
“Alright,” Evie said. “Let’s get you changed. Want me to call Ari?”
“Sure. I’ll need her help anyway.”
Evie nodded and took my arm. “Come on then.”
I was dressed and walking and, from the outside, appeared normal, but inside a black hole had opened, swallowing every emotion but numbness.
Evie navigated me into the pub, a relatively new place I’d never been, known for its good food, unique drinks, and grumpy owner. Ari waved at us from a back table.
Evie steered me over and held out a chair for me. I dutifully sank into it. Ari pushed a drink over, giving my hand a little squeeze.
“Cliona’s vodka made into a tonic with lime,” Ari said. “That fine ass owner grows the limes himself.”
Evie snorted. “I have a fine one of my own, but I’ll give that one to you. The owner of this establishment is pretttttty.”
“Thanks.” I lifted the glass, tipped it back, and had it drained in four swallows.
Ari stared at me for a beat, blinked, and nodded. “Alright. It’s that kind of night, then. I’ll be right back.”
She meandered over to the bar, leaned in to say something to the handsome bartender, and came back to the table a few minutes later with a loaded tray of drinks.
Evie and Ari both took one and pushed three over to me.
I drained all of them in rapid succession and sighed as the first one began to hit my veins. The music was good—a mix of classic rock and 80s, and Ari and Evie had ordered almost everything off the menu when the server came over, then moved another table over to give us more room to spread out.
“How’d you know?” I said to Evie.
Her eyes softened. “Mom. She felt the moment Sarah’s soul was stolen right out from under her nose.”
I closed my eyes. “He loves her,” I whispered.
“I know,” Evie said. She gripped my hand in hers tightly. “Your mother is a fucking monster.”
When I opened my eyes, Ari was watching me carefully. “You wish to kill her.”
Her words were not a question. “I do. More than anything in the world.”
Ari and Evie exchanged a glance. “Then we shall help you.”
Evie gestured to the bartender for another round of drinks. “Mom isn’t so keen about her, either. She’ll help if we ask.”
I shook my head. “You and your mom are goddesses. Her death at your hands will come too soon. I want to make her suffer.”
Evie’s face softened. “I get that. I really do.”
The booze was helping ease some of the numbness—one of its many dangerous super powers. My mother had one fae weapon in her possession. I didn’t want Evie or her mother anywhere in the vicinity of it. If I lost Evie, I might burn the world down out of spite.
But Ari’s knowing expression told me she understood exactly why I’d turned down my best friend’s help. “If I need your help, I’ll come to you,” I swore to Evie. “I promise.”
“Then we’ll help on the sidelines if we can. Mom is pissed about the soul—”
“Sarah,” I whispered.
Evie’s eyes flickered. “Right. Sarah.” She let out a soft sigh. “When things are out of balance, things in the world get disrupted. Small things at first, so you have some time. However this goes, Moira, Sarah must return to the earth.”
“And Ethan?”
“When your mother dies, if she’s the one who resurrected Sarah, the spell will break, and Ethan should remember everything.” Evie shook her head. “How he may react is anyone’s guess.”
“Not well,” I said with a hard laugh. “He won’t want to be anywhere near me when it does.” A server set another tray of drinks down. This time, I didn’t guzzle mine. “Who’s to say I should even do this? What right do I have to rip that happiness away from him again?”
My lower lip wobbled. “You should have seen his face when he looked at her, Evie. He’s never looked at me like that. Not even once.” I rubbed my hands over my face. “Mom has always been extremely smart. I should have seen something like this coming.”
Evie shook her head. “No.” Her voice was vehement. “No one could have seen this coming. She did the unthinkable. Maybe even the impossible.”
Ari spoke up. “She took out the big guns because she knew there was no other way you’d go to her.
It’s even more important now that you don’t.
” Ari reached over and gripped my fingers tightly.
“Show that bitch what you’re made of. Ethan will still be there, Moira.
Maybe not in the same capacity he once was, but the end result of this has to be Sarah returning to the grave.
If she doesn’t, Cliona might take things out of our hands, and no one wants a goddess getting involved.
Even if she seems a little better than the others.
” Her lips twisted. “First, we need to figure out what your mother did. Once we know that, then we can ensure we take out the right people.”
I’d been thinking about that ever since I got back home.
“Mom only brings in other people when she’s not sure she can accomplish the goal on her own.
The thing with Soren was only a play to get to me.
I doubt she could hire a necromancer to do such a thing for her without too high of a price.
She doesn’t like owing anyone. I think she did this spell herself. ”
“If we kill her and the spell doesn’t break, there will be no way for us to discover who performed the ritual,” Ari added.
“We can always torture her first,” Evie said brightly, making me crack the first real smile in hours.
Ari laughed. “I like the way you think.”
The rest of the drinks started hitting me then, giving me a loose-limbed feeling. “Mom is powerful. She was back then, and over time her power has only grown. I don’t know what else she might be capable of.”
Another server came out with a mountain of food. Once everything was settled and we’d dished our plates full, Evie spoke. “I think we need to find out what kind of spell your Mom used to raise Sarah from the grave. Then we can gauge her power level.”
“Those spells usually require a great sacrifice,” Ari said as she picked up a slice of pizza. “Blood magic, usually. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had to sacrifice someone.”
I grimaced. “She probably used one of those stupid witches from the last go round.” No one who got involved with Soren seemed terribly bright from the get-go.
Evie snorted. “Love can make you do crazy things. Doesn’t mean the witches would let your Mom slit their throat.”
“I say we check just to be sure,” Ari said.
The chicken wing I bit into was juicy and delicious. I almost moaned at how good it was, only remembering then that I hadn’t eaten anything since the morning prior. My fingers froze in mid-air as I remembered I now had no source of blood other than Cernunnos.
And I was kinda pissed at him right now.
In fact, I hadn’t even thought of him at all until right this moment.
Gods. I was a hot mess.
“The Lords kept tabs on the coven. I’ll reach out to one of them tomorrow.” I certainly couldn’t call Ethan anymore, could I?
“Don’t worry about it,” Evie said. “I’ll ask Rowan.”
“Does he know?” Soon, everyone would.
“Not yet,” Evie said as she bit into a chip covered in queso. “He knows we’re together and suspects something is up.” She shrugged. “I’ll tell him when I get back.”
“I should probably pay a visit to each Lord to tell them what happened. Convening a meeting with Ethan there won’t go well.”
Ari sat back in her chair and sighed. “What a nightmare. And his shifters? What do they think?”
“His Second is bewildered. They’re going to have to walk on eggshells around him.
Everyone knows Sarah died. Seeing her back and Ethan with no memory of her death is going to be a wild mindfuck.
” I took another chicken wing and dipped it in ranch.
America had a lot of problems, but gods bless their bar food.
“I wonder what would happen if they told him,” Ari mused.
Evie shook her head. “I wouldn’t risk it. She might have put a failsafe in that spell. If Ethan finds out the truth, it might trigger and kill both of them.”
I stared at my friend. “Shit,” I breathed. “Hadn’t even thought of that.”
“It’s my job to consider all the awful options no one else thinks of,” Evie said with a twirl of her hand. “Such are the important tasks of queens.” She rolled her eyes and chugged her drink.
“So that’s going well then,” I said dryly.
Evie grinned. “Sometimes I think to myself, what if we just said fuck it? We could move Rowan’s Keep somewhere overseas where no one would ever think to look for us. I’d take you, Ari if she wanted to come—”
The fae’s face lit up.
“We could see if Tess and Ash wanted to come, and we could hand everything back over to Dad.” Evie grimaced.
“He has a hard time keeping his fingers out of shit anyway. We could all lounge and sunbathe and explore all day. Flights are super cheap once we’re actually over there, so we could explore wherever and whenever we wanted.
” She let out a soft sigh. “Wouldn’t that be amazing? ”
I put my elbows on the table and plopped my chin in my hands. “Yes, but you know we’d get bored after a while.”
Evie snorted. “Says you. We lived in Joy Springs for a long time without getting bored.”
“Now look at you,” I teased. “Queen of the fae.”
She clicked her tongue. “I guess we could come back if we really missed it, but I don’t think we would. We could just move the entire Keep.”
Her eyes got that dreamy, faraway look that told me she was mentally scheming.
I nudged her. “First, let’s figure out how to kill my mother.”
Evie laughed. “Yes. First things first. Commit matricide, then vacation!”
Without our asking, another round of food appeared. Our server gave us a little bow. “Courtesy of Ian.”
Ari blushed. “Please send our thanks. The food is wonderful.”
The server bowed and hurried away.
I glanced over to see a dark-haired man lounging against the back bar watching us. A faint silvery glow shimmered in his eyes.
“Fae?” I asked quietly.
Ari nodded. “Unsure what kind. Handsome as sin, isn’t he?”
Evie let out a low whistle. “I’ve seen him a dozen or so times now, and I still get the flutters when our eyes meet.”
I snickered. Admittedly, he was pretty. Tall, lean, brooding, and intense, every woman in this place was having trouble keeping their eyes off him, but our mysterious bar owner seemed to only have eyes for Ari.
“Want to go talk to him?” I asked.
She snorted. “Absolutely not. The man might be fine as wine, but I have no desire to get entangled with another man.”
Evie crunched on another chip. “You just gotta find the right one.”
“Evie would know,” I said with a laugh. “She’s had some real doozies.”
We grinned at each other. Evie’s past was hard and difficult, and it took her a long time to find the humor, but she finally had.
Admittedly, a lot of it wasn’t funny, but Evie knew I’d never imply certain events were.
She’d happily settled down with Rowan, and things in her life were calm for the first time in a long time.
Ari shook her head. “I came here for a lot of reasons. Not for that. No man will be good enough for me to trust him ever again.”
Evie’s face flashed with sympathy before mischief curved her lips into a smile. “You don’t have to date him, Ari. Just take him for a spin.”
Ari tossed a chip at her. “Absolutely not. Can we please get back to our murder discussion?”
Another round of drinks came next, and soon Evie, Ari, and I were deep in discussion on our next steps to find my mother and take her out for good.