“Simplistic.” I laughed, a hoarse, croaking sound that sounded foreign coming from my throat.
He reached for me, but I stumbled back and hurried toward the door. From my peripheral, something large and green and orange launched itself through the air. With barely a thought, I reached out a hand and caught Seymour, snuggling him to my chest.
“Do not call me for a while,” I said to Caelan. “And Garrett? Thank you. If your Lord kicks you out, you will have a place with me.”
Garrett squeezed his eyes shut.
I met Thalia’s eyes, but I couldn’t read her expression. My sister.
I had a sister.
But the reveal of her heritage had revealed something uglier in my own relationship, and I couldn’t take the time to process the fact that I had a living relative outside of my parents.
“Thalia,” was all I said as I hurried out of the room.
I had a sister and a fiancé who’d just tried to trick me into marriage so he could claim half of my power.
And he hadn’t even denied it.
There was nothing complicated about that.
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
CAELAN
The door rattled on its hinges as it slammed behind Evie on her way out. I sat there in the silence for a long moment before I turned my gaze to Garrett.
My Second threw his hands up. “Goddammit, Caelan. She deserved to know.”
“I’m aware. Her father had me over a barrel, and I couldn’t risk our people over the information.”
“Yes, well, was this any better?” He gestured at the door.
My fists clenched in my lap. “She’s overreacting.”
Garrett blinked. “Don’t you fucking dare say that to her if you get to see her again. Those words are equal to ‘calm down’in woman speak.”
I pinched the space between my brows and sighed. Internally, the wolf prowled under my skin, itching to burst forth and race after Evie. The other part of the animal wanted to rip Garrett’s face off. “Evie is under an immense amount of stress and has no idea who she can trust.”
“You’ve been lying to her for months. She’s right. There’s no one she can truly trust.”
I had to count to five in my head before I said something I regretted. “The lie was about something I have zero controlover. Thalia wasn’t even in my orbit until Cernunnos brought her here. The seer does not affect our day-to-day operations or what’s going on with Evie. When the chips are down, I have always had Evie’s back. I’ve always been in her corner. She will calm down and realize this. Waiting it out is the only thing I can do.”
Garrett shook his head. “I can see your wolf fighting to get out. It’s killing you that Evie left.”
“Of course it is,” I snapped. “I’m caught in a game of gods and Chimera, and I can’t possibly fucking win. Everywhere I turn, all I see are poor choices, and I have to decide if I hurt Evie or my people. Or both. None of those are good decisions.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “And now Evie is being hunted by the swans.”
Garrett’s lips twitched. “It’s almost comical.”
In a way, yes. No one took the swans seriously, which was coming back to bite us in the ass. But especially Evie. “The fucking swans are often underestimated. How do you think they’ve survived so long?”
They could have come to me with their fertility issues, and I would have tried to help them. But the damn birds were notoriously tight-lipped when it came to the internal workings of their Pack.
Now they’re after Evie. Gianna and Nadia might be dead, but this wasn’t over. They wouldn’t stop until their line was assured survival. And they were convinced Evie could help them.
