Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
ETHAN
Sarah lay curled in my arms, her blonde silky hair soft against my chest. I pressed my nose to her hair and inhaled.
I should be content, but an odd feeling I couldn’t shake itched under my skin.
Everyone in the Keep was acting weird. Kinsley and Henrietta could barely look at me. Jace refused to speak to me unless I forced him.
And why the fuck was I thinking about Evie’s friend so much? Moira. That was her name.
Why had she been here? I wouldn’t have invited her. The thought was laughable.
Waking up to see her inside the clinic room was odd because at first, her presence felt right. Confusion had rapidly set in until I was questioning everything. Her face when I called for Kinsley…
I’d never forget that look in her eyes. Devastation, hurt, regret, and grief all rolled into one.
She should not have looked at me like that. We didn’t have that sort of relationship.
There was a new house I don’t remember building that Kinsley assured me was a recent decision. I walked in, and Moira’s scent was all over the house. A new scent, mostly saturated inside the master bed and bath area.
Something was off. I felt like I was going insane.
Even stranger was discovering I’d listed Moira as an emergency contact in my cell phone.
Sarah wasn’t there at all. I dialed her number by heart only for an out of service message to come over the line.
My wedding ring wasn’t on my finger. I found it in an old jewelry box, tucked in the very back. I’d never once taken it off and religiously polished it. But the ring was tarnished, and when I slid it back onto my finger, it was loose enough for me to be concerned about losing it.
When I asked Sarah about it, she got an odd little furrow in her brow, and some emotion I couldn’t identify skittered across her eyes. For a moment, I thought she might be as confused as I was. But then she smiled and all the thoughts fell right out of my head, just like they always did.
We’d never officially married or mated, but we started wearing the rings to signify our commitment to each other. Before she—
My mind went blank. I stared at the ceiling for a long moment trying to catch that fleeting thought, but I could no longer find it.
Huh. That was weird. What had I been thinking about?
I glanced down at Sarah. Her scent teased my nose as I shifted, the soft scent of flowers rising in the air. A golden hand rested on my chest, Sarah’s fingernails painted a soft pink.
My vision flashed. A pale hand with unpainted fingernails lay superimposed over Sarah’s, dark silken hair sliding over my collarbone. Another scent, deeper, more mysterious touched by a hint of magic rose above Sarah’s.
I froze. What the fuck? I blinked several times, the odd vision fading away. The scent was the last to disappear.
Gently easing Sarah onto her side of the bed, I carefully pulled away before sliding out of the bed. She’d always been a heavy sleeper, an oddity inside a Keep of shifters. I pulled on my shirt and a pair of socks before slipping out of the bedroom.
Kinsley was in the kitchen making himself a cup of coffee when I walked in. He froze when he spotted me.
“Everything okay?” he asked after an awkward moment.
I stared at him. “Mind making me one?”
Kinsley blinked. “Uh. Sure.” He grabbed another mug and poured me a cup.
My Second set it down and started walking out.
“Kinsley. Stay.”
The movement was slight, but I saw the slight slump to his shoulders and the soft exhale. Kinsley turned and sat opposite me.
“What the fuck is going on?” I said mildly.
Kinsley, one of my most loyal shifters, smiled and lied.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said.
I took a sip of my coffee. “Oh?”
“You received a bad head wound, Ethan. Henrietta said it could take weeks for things to equalize.”
All true, but I knew that wasn’t it. Kinsley was lying to me. “Everyone is acting weird. Henrietta checks on me far too much. You just lied to me for the first time since you’ve been part of this Keep. I ask you one more time, Kinsley. What’s going on?”
My Second leaned forward. “You sustained a head wound while far into Keep property. We had to carry you back on a stretcher, and you were comatose for over twelve hours. Everyone is tiptoeing around you because they’re afraid of something happening to you.”
Truth. I leaned back and studied him.
Kinsley’s eyes were dilated. His breathing was a little heavier than normal. Heartbeat a little elevated. I leaned forward and was about to grill him when Henrietta walked in and spotted me.
“Lord!” she squawked. “What are you doing up at this hour?”
I pointed at Kinsley. “Why aren’t you yelling at him?”
Henrietta rolled her eyes. “Because he’s not a senior citizen, and he didn’t sustain a serious head wound less than twenty-four hours ago.”
“Senior citizen!” I barked.
Henrietta’s eyes twinkled. “To Kinsley, you are a senior citizen.”
“I swear. You speak to me like a bratty younger sister,” I grumbled.
“Get back in bed, or I’ll switch the sugar with salt.” Henrietta made a shooing motion.
I got up with a groan. Kinsley escaped from the kitchen without a backward look, and Henrietta escorted me back to my bedroom with the efficiency of a military general.
She stopped at the door and was about to open it when I spoke.
“Henri?”
“Mmm?”
“Was I friends with Moira before?”
Henrietta’s heartbeat picked up. “Friends? She’s always been an acquaintance and was briefly here on an errand from Rowan’s Lady.”
She didn’t directly answer, but Henri smelled of deception.
I could rage and insist she tell me. If she still refused, I could pull on my power and force the truth out of her. But my people were sworn to one promise.
To protect me and our people.
If Kinsley and Henrietta were both lying to my face, something much worse than the truth was going on. They felt revealing the truth would be dangerous.
Both knew I would know they were lying. But they also knew I wouldn’t push it if I realized why.
Damn it. What in the world could have happened to force them to this?
I tried another tactic. “Was there a reason I wasn’t wearing my ring today?”
Henrietta’s vague smile faltered. I’d asked her a direct yes or no question. She’d have to lie to me again.
“I found it in an old jewelry box. The strange thing was it was tarnished. Odd, right?”
“That is odd,” Henrietta said. “Maybe the gold was misrepresented. Only twenty-four karat doesn’t tarnish. Do you know what type it is? Maybe I can contact the jeweler.”
I smiled. “Eighteen karat.” The ring should have either never tarnished or taken years to do so.
“Huh. You’re right. That is weird. I’ll make some calls tomorrow.” She turned to go.
“Just a moment, Henri,” I said mildly.
Her shoulders stiffened, but she looked back. “Yes, Lord?”
“Where are all of Sarah’s clothes?”
Henri blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Sarah went to the closet only to see my clothes there. Hers are gone without a trace.”
The small shifter swallowed hard. “Lots of odd things happening today, it seems.”
“Indeed,” I agreed.
“I’ll ask around. Someone’s probably playing a silly prank.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Thank you.”
Henrietta dipped her head and hurried away before I could pin her down with any more questions.
Instead of going back into the bedroom, I went through the other door leading into my bathroom and went straight to the extra closet Sarah and I shared.
She had a ton of shoes that wouldn’t fit in the other closet, so I’d cleaned this one out some time ago for her to use.
Sarah left the door cracked, and when I opened it, the smell of disuse tickled my nose.
I flicked the light on to double check that maybe she hadn’t put them somewhere else and forgot, but empty space greeted me. Not a stray box to be found.
How had I not noticed this?
Better yet, how had I missed an entire house being built?
I scrubbed my hand over my face and turned the light out. Something hinky was going on.
And a growing awful feeling in the pit of my stomach told me it was related to Sarah.