“And the harlot living in the Keep,” Moira added.
“Yes,” Mom said solemnly. “And the harlot.” She dipped her head. “I will see you soon, daughter.”
Mom brushed a hand over my cheek and disappeared in a shower of sparkles.
“Damn,” Moira sighed. “If you hadn’t been the kid of a king and queen, we would have realized how cool your mom was years ago.”
I shot her a dark look. Moira held her hands up. “Too soon?”
Shaking my head, I turned to trudge inside the house. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”
“Be careful going home,” I said right before a powerful yawn erupted.
I was exhausted. Being the bridge didn’t require burning any magic that I knew of, but I’d never used it so many times in a day. I felt like I could faceplant right onto my couch. My Floromancy and Chimera magic lay curled inside me, not warring with each other, finally content to slumber.
My hands shook as I put the key into the lock and opened the door. Less than ten minutes later, I was in bed, my eyes drifting shut.
My last thoughts were of Caelan and pondering why we were both stubborn idiots.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
CAELAN
“You are both stubborn idiots,” Rowan said.
We were in the dining room, sharing a meal and talking about how quiet the Lords had been over the last couple of weeks. Too quiet. Rowan had blamed me, which could be the truth. I’d gotten into a rip-roaring fight with them over Evie not too long ago, which had led to a lull in antagonizing my fiancée.
Did I even have the right to call her that anymore?
Regardless, there was no need to kick me when I was down. “Rowan, I don’t want to hear it tonight.”
A server came over and refilled our coffee mugs before disappearing from the room.
“I’ve warned you a few times now,” the other Lord continued. “And yet, you seem to keep fucking up.”
I stared the Lord down, but Rowan had never been scared of me. “What about Evie?”
He picked up his mug and sipped his coffee. “What about her?”
“When does she get any blame?”
“Thirty seconds ago, I called her an idiot.”
“Yes, well, that’s not enough,” I grumbled.
“You knew what you were signing up for when you pursued her.”
“Perhaps, but she did not know what it meant to be with a Lord.”
Rowan shifted. “Yet you asked her to marry you anyway.”
“That’s what normal people do when they love someone, yes.”
Rowan set his mug down and sighed. “You and Evie are not normal people. She is the heir to the fae crown, and the poor girl still has no clue what that means for her. It’s possible she won’t be able to marry you if she accepts that crown.”
Rage turned my vision red. “Is that what you want?”
