My mind sharply reeled back in, hyperaware of the upcoming events.
When exactly were we going to Eostre Land? What celebrations would we be expected to attend? Our lodging—would webunk up with our team? I pictured it all. With Lochlainn. Pogue. Finley. Wyatt. David . . .
Ohhhhh no. No, no, no. This is bad.
A flush was definitely scalding my cheeks again. The thought of David and Wyatt being under the same roof as not one, but two men I’ve been intimately entangled with in some way, would be my own personal brand of mortification. In that case, I’d rather sleep with the hell rabbits.
With Wyatt and David now officially part of the team, I knew my secret-keeping days were numbered. I’d been procrastinating in telling them about Alvar, about my Floramancy. It’d be a double scolding. One for letting a cloaked Vinterlander swoop me into an alleyway—zero survival instincts on my part—and another for waiting so long to bring it up.
But the Floramancy—honestly, I had no idea how David would react. Shock? Disbelief? Shit a brick? Most likely, all of the above.
I looked up, realizing David had been studying me. Feet firmly planted, arms crossed, his eyes went to slits. Then his head tilted—thattilt. The one he always did when he was clocking my emotions before I had the chance to volunteer my thoughts.
Shit.
“Carwynn.” David said my name like an accusation.
My face pulled into a pained smile that bordered on a cringe. “Yessss?”
Wyatt stifled a laugh, knowing exactly what was happening. I was being emotionally ambushed.
“Out with it,” David ordered.
I took a deep breath, then blew it out slowly.
“Fine,” I groaned. “So there’s a couple of things I need to tell you.”
David side-eyed Wyatt, a glare of,I told you so.
Of course he’d already connected the dots. Me avoiding him usually meant I was hoarding secrets. Which . . . I was.
“I unexpectedly met someone from Vinterland,” I began, then paused to observe the slight twitches of muscle in their faces. “It was after I broke Lochlainn’s vaulted house. He unleashed his men on me, so I ran through the markets—” I rambled, picking up speed, “—and got pulled into an alleyway by some cloaked tree-man who wanted to help. Who, in turn, ended up being a Seidr. Or Seer. Or whatever you call it. And he was actually pretty nice. Said we’d be besties in the future and so . . . yeah . . .” I finished in one overstretched breath.
Wyatt now joined David in tilting his head, like I’d just admitted to stealing a Pooka and keeping it as a pet.
David placed both hands over his face, dragging them down dramatically.I could actuallyseehis heartbeat twinge under his eye as he fought to maintain composure.
Wyatt spoke first.
“Broke,” he said slowly, “his vault?” One eyebrow shot up. “What—I mean . . .how? And did this tree-man have a name?” A laugh bubbled out of him, head shaking. “Was he cute?” He sent me a devious wink.
A bit of tension released inside me.
“Wyatt!” David growled through clenched teeth.
Wyatt pinned David in place with blazing eyes. “Breathe, David. Breathe.” He gestured to his own chest, reenacting an exaggerated demonstration in case David had forgotten how lungs worked.
I inhaled, realizing I’d needed the reminder as well.
“So the vault accident is kind of a long story . . .” I gave a sorry smirk. “But first things first, you never told me how huge the elves were! Hope they’ve got their own basketball team.”
David frowned.
Right, not the time for jokes.
I turned to Wyatt. “But to answer your question, yeah, he was cute. In a,I’ve burned cities down and have the face scars to prove it,kind of way.”
Something flared across David’s face in recognition.
