He blinked and took a step back. “Lord.”
“Leave us,” Caelan snapped.
The shifter gave me a long look before he turned, motioning to the others to follow.
When everyone was back inside, Caelan came closer, but not close enough to scent Rowan’s lands on my skin. As soon as tomorrow, the Lords might know what I’d done, how I’d given more power to one Lord than a single man has ever had. Dario would have felt me removing his mark on my lands. Our lands now, I supposed.
“Such a dramatic entrance for a homecoming. Was there really a need to tear down my wards?”
“No. I wanted you to know how powerless you are against me.”
Caelan blinked and burst out laughing a second later. “Are you trying to strike fear into my heart, Evie? I’d think such was beneath you.”
“What happened to us?” The question was out of my mouth before I could stop the words. I’d come here to prove a point but seeing him standing in front of me was breaking my heart. “All those promises we made to each other. How hard we fought to be together. How did it all fall apart?”
For the first time in months, Caelan was speechless.
“We loved each other so much, and now when I look at you, I see a stranger.” I can’t stop myself from pouring my heart out. “You are not the man I swore my life to, and I’m not sure what happened to break us.”
Caelan’s face went blank, but his eyes burned. “I began with a Floromancer who possessed a spine of steel and ended with a cursed queen.”
His words stab through the broken shell of my heart. “I am the same woman I always was.”
His laugh cuts me. “You are no woman at all.”
“Caelan.” I no longer know who he is. “You evicted us from my shop unless I returned to you and you still say these things to me.”
“Are you returning to me? Even after all this, I still want you and being king would have its perks,” he mused. “But the way you look at me, Evie.” He tsked. “You are not here to stand by my side, are you? And if you are, you plan to slip a knife between my ribs when I’m sleeping.”
“Do you want me to fall on my knees, Lord? Profess my undying love to you?”
Caelan laughed, the sound like ice in my heart. There’s no warmth to the tone. He knows I’m mocking him. “A Lady knows her place. Even when you were the Chimera, you deferred to my judgment, but when your true heritage was revealed, you weakened my position with my shifters.”
I stared at him. “All this because I outranked you?” My fury makes the ground tremble. “If we were married, all of those problems would be gone.”
“The heir issue would still exist. I chose you when you were a Floromancer, stayed and reveled in your power when you revealed your true nature, but when you became the queen, you weakened my rule.”
He came a few steps closer and the light caught on his cheek revealing a small black smudge. My breath caught, the hurt from his words replaced with alarm. “Caelan. What is that on your cheek?”
He touched his cheek. “None of your concern. The Keep Healers are treating me.”
“Have you felt different lately? Is your power stable?”
“Why so curious about me now, Evie? You came here to end things for good.”
It was a struggle to keep my temper in check. “There is a powerful spell corrupting this country’s land. I cleansed Rowan’s territory, but I had to claim a portion to keep the magic at bay.” He didn’t need to know I’d claimed all of it with Rowan’s blessing. “If you allow me, I’ll cleanse your lands as well and heal the spot on your cheek.”
His brows drew together. “Why would you do this for me?”
My smile was full of heartbreak. “Because I loved you more than myself once.”
His answering smile almost broke my resolve. “My people have to come first, Evie.”
“You could have had everything if you just waited a little while longer. I would have protected your people, given my life for them and for you.”
His irises ringed with gold. “It’s not your job to protect them, and I cannot ally with the fae against my people and the other Lords.”
I wanted to strangle him. “Is that what you saw our union as? A betrayal to your own?” A harsh laugh cracked from my throat. “If you would have only trusted me, things could have been so different.”
