A long silence, then, “Good. This concerns her.”
Rowan sat on the small loveseat and patted the space beside him. I sat down and watched Caelan. He sat in his office, his face a mask of stone. Our eyes met.
Fury turned his eyes golden.
“Evangeline is cheating on you.”
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing.
“Oh?” Rowan said, not a hint of concern in his tone. “By the way, she doesn’t like when anyone besides her parents call her Evangeline.”
Caelan leaned forward. “Did you not hear me, Rowan? Evie is a faithless bitch.”
The words felt like sparks of fire touching my skin, each word a burn.
Rowan straightened. “I’ve warned you before about speaking of Evie like that.”
“I’m trying to save you from making a huge mistake!” Caelan bared his teeth. “We were friends at one time, weren’t we? Or was everything a lie?”
I was beginning to feel bad. “We should tell him,” I murmured.
“When did you see this supposed infidelity?” Rowan asked.
“Evie was in Joy Springs a couple of nights ago with Moira and her mother. She had another man with her.”
Rowan’s form shifted into the male from the other night. I sucked in a breath. I’d forgotten he could do that. Mom never had to spell him with a glamour, but she’d done so anyway, probably so Caelan wouldn’t smell anything off about Rowan’s power.
“Is this the male you speak of?” Rowan asked.
Caelan sucked in a sharp breath. “It was you,” he growled.
“Guilty as charged.”
“Evie’s magic has grown in leaps and bounds, it seems,” he said, wrongly attributing Rowan’s shift to me.
“Every single day,” Rowan agreed.
“You encroached on my territory,” Caelan said.
“Evie’s lands do not belong to you,” Rowan reminded him. “As she is now officially my mate?—”
Caelan’s obvious flinch made my chest hurt. Even after everything happened, he wasn’t completely guilty. He was a victim as much as I was, though everything that had happened during the time we were together made me see other things he’d done or said to me in a different light.
We were not good for each other. We never had been. And now that I was here, sitting beside Rowan, my chest warm with the bond between us, I felt grateful for Caelan in a strange way. If it wasn’t for him, I’d still be working in my flower shop, totally ignorant of how wonderful love could be when it was right.
“Evie holds domain over my territory as well,” Rowan continued.
“Mates,” Caelan said softly. “Truly?”
Rowan let out a soft, regretful sigh. Not regret for us, but the situation, I knew. “Yes. Truly.” He said nothing of the fae bond.
I stayed silent. There was nothing more I needed to say to Caelan.
“You are the fae king, I take it?”
Rowan nodded.
Caelan’s eyes burned. “Will you be renouncing your position as Lord?”
