Caelan’s nostrils flared. “Are you afraid of me, Evie?” The smile that crossed his face held a savage edge.
I knew at that moment if he could reach me, he would kill me.
“I never used to be.”
Rachel stepped out from the brush, her chestnut hair swinging around her shoulders. She said nothing, only went to Caelan’s side and looped an arm around his waist.
“Release them,” he growled. “Now.”
“They don’t want to be released.”
“THEY ARE MINE!” Sharp canines slid from his incisors.
“No longer,” I said quietly. “They came to me and asked to be a part of my court.”
Rachel snorted. “A court? You’re a wannabe princess playing with forces you don’t understand.”
I smiled. Her proprietary hold on Caelan’s waist cut deep, but the Lord allowed it. I held my tongue about it, and instead, spoke to Rachel. “I wish you the best of luck. Becoming a Lady of a territory is no easy thing.”
“I don’t need your luck,” Rachel hissed. “I was born to do this.”
A strange flash of light rolled over her iris. Not the color of a Lord, but something sickly. The color of illness, a green I never saw in the natural world. I tilted my head and focused harder, but it had disappeared.
“Give them back,” Caelan said, quieter this time, an almost plaintive whisper.
I stilled at the hopelessness in his voice. Rachel’s claws slid from her fingers and dug into Caelan’s side. Blood, visible even in the low light, seeped through the shirt’s fabric.
“Caelan?” I took a step closer to the wards. “Whatever this is, fight it.” He would have never allowed someone to hurt him like that.
What in the hell was going on?
The Lord’s eyes widened, and he took a step back, but Rachel’s grip tightened, and like a light switch, his expression went cold and aloof once more.
I hoped Garrett had witnessed this.
“Simone and Garrett are blood sworn to the fae now. To me. They no longer answer to you.”
Rachel bared her teeth. “They won’t be with you long. You’ll never be strong enough to hold them.”
“You know nothing about me.” I allowed a sheen of crimson to roll across my eyes, and for the first time since everything happened, Rachel looked unsure.
“I will kill you,” Caelan hissed. He lunged for me, claws extended, face screwed in a grimace of concentration.
I held my ground, secure in my enhanced wards. Caelan bounced harmlessly off the boundary, landing in a graceful crouch. “You won’t always stay behind these wards. One day soon, you and I will have it out.”
I stared at the man I’d loved and wondered when the moment was I’d resolved not to fight for us any longer. I’d help him, if only because of what we had, but I don’t think I could ever forgive the poison falling from his lips, the barbs pointed right to my deepest insecurities. How could one ever recover from something like that?
“You are not my enemy. I’m not sure where it all went so wrong, but this is not you. One day you’re going to wake up and wonder what happened. I want you to remember this moment. You are no longer welcome in my home or on my lands.”
Footsteps from behind and my father was at my side a moment later. “Much the same as her shop, Lord, returning will net you a death sentence.”
Cernunnos’ attention turned to Rachel. “I’m of the opinion my daughter should kill you where you stand, but she’s a new queen and raised outside of my lands. Her heart is more tender than mine.”
Rachel sneered. “And who the hell are you, old man?”
Garrett wheezed with laughter from behind us.
My father, dressed in his familiar outfit of joggers and a t-shirt, smiled faintly. Magic swelled in the surrounding air until he was at least a foot taller than me, horns extending another two to three feet above his head.
