“We agreed on six months.”
“Wise. By then, your heart and mind will be your own again and no longer tangled in the what ifs.”
“I don’t miss him,” I said. “Only what could have been.” My fingers ran over the burnished wood doors as we walked through the hallway. “Though even that feels foolish. None of what I thought would be could have ever happened. Not with me beingthe way I am and Caelan being him. One of us would have had to fundamentally alter ourselves.”
Moira let out a heavy breath. “I can’t love like you do, Evie. I never have been able to.”
I glanced at her sharply. Her smile was faint. “This does not mean I don’t love. I do. But I don’t allow myself to crack open the door of my heart to anyone. Only you, Ash, and Tess. You are the only ones I allow myself to love.”
I watched her for a long moment. “You liked Soren.”
Her eyes crinkled as if I’d made some secret joke. “Soren will always be a passing fancy. His heart is a stream, while mine is an ocean. If I ever open myself to the kind of love you might have with Rowan, I fear I’ll drown both of us.”
I stopped walking and turned to face her, my heart aching for my friend. Cupping her face in my hands, I rested my forehead against hers. “Whoever gets you to open your heart to him will gladly drown with you, Moira. You are my fiercest, most loving, and devoted friend, and you deserve all the happiness the world will bestow upon you. Only the most worthy will win your heart, but do not close yourself off from the possibility. There is a man out there who will move heaven and earth for you. I promise.”
Moira closed her eyes and put her hands over mine. “I have what I need. I don’t know if what you say is true, but it would have to be someone incredible for them to shake me from my path.”
“Someone meant for you wouldn’t try.”
We stood like that for another moment until I felt a touch on the wards.
“The booze stealing siren is here,” Mom called.
Moira snorted and stepped away. “Let’s go see what that man stealer wants.”
I linked arms with her and opened a door in the wards to let Sirena in.
Chapter
Eleven
“Well,” Mom demanded, cutting a fierce figure as she loomed above Sirena.
The siren, however, was less impressed. “Sit down, Cliona. You’re hovering like a grandmother.”
Mom’s eyes narrowed. “One day, Sirena, pow, right in the vagina.”
Moira let out a loud laugh.
The Siren clicked her tongue. “Might want to try a different area. That thing can take a licking and keep on ticking. Plus, it’s my moneymaker.”
“Ugh, gross.” I held up a hand. “Can we steer the topic of conversations away from vaginas, please?”
“Your mom started it,” Sirena said with a glitter in her eyes.
“I’m stopping it. Why did you text Moira?”
Sirena sipped her booze and sighed. “I know all of you can feel the blight on our land.”
We all nodded.
“Our current Lord is powerless to stop the spell. He has refused all offers of help and rumor has it, he’s sequestered in his Keep bringing in experts of all manner to assist.”
“But none are helping,” Moira assumed.
“Exactly. I don’t know how much any of you know about Sirens, but we have an affinity with water. With that comes some handy gifts. Sound is vibration. Sometimes I catch snippets of conversation that happen around water. I’m limited, distance wise, but if I’m close enough and receptive, I will sometimes pick up things that are meant to be private.”
Note to self. Do not have any conversations near water if Sirena is in a fifty-mile radius.
