Page 14

Eight

ROWAN

We stood on the edge of Ethan’s land, taking in the disarray.

“Shit,” I breathed. “What the hell?”

Ethan was a total red-blooded American male when it came to lawn care. The dude had never met a brand of fertilizer or a lawnmower he didn’t like. His lawn was always green and carefully cultivated to appear effortless.

Even in winter, when things should look barren, Ethan cared for the grounds.

By the looks of things, he’d allowed gnomes to move in and destroy the property. We were edging quickly toward winter, the days growing colder as they passed, but some flowers were still blooming and there’d been only a little bit of snow.

Everything on Ethan’s property was dead. Not wilted, not needing a drink of water or rest, properly dead.

The grass had turned brown, the soil underneath cracked and gray. The massive trees at the border had cracked down the middle, their giant limbs dangling precariously from rotted trunks. If even one of those came crashing down, Ethan’s home would be in jeopardy.

Cernunnos let out a low whistle. “Minka’s spell is affecting Ethan’s land. Sarah’s sucking the place dry.” A thoughtful look crossed his face. “Minka’s attention is split, if I had to guess. She’s being forced to divert her magic elsewhere. Interesting.”

The odd turn of events with Evie’s father was unusual, but having backup was nice. If things went to hell, he wouldn’t let me die. Not because he liked me, but because his daughter did.

I’d had worse backup before.

“Do you think Ethan’s still alive?” I asked quietly.

Cernunnos shrugged. “Probably. Minka needs him under control. He’s a Lord. Killing him would bring our wrath down upon her head, and she’s a spider. She likes to stay in her web, sending out strands of silk to tweak events. Keeping Moira requires her to stay under the radar. She can’t afford the attention of seven Lords.”

True.

“Do you think he’s functional?” The god wasn’t as literal as others I’d met over the years, but being alive and living were two different things, and I needed to be sure before I put us both in danger by stepping onto Ethan’s land.

Cernunnos snorted. “Your precious Lord is still alive.” His eyes narrowed. “From the sound of things inside, he’s rutting like an animal.”

I couldn’t control the grimace I made. Sympathy for Moira bloomed within me, but as much as I wanted to smack some sense into Ethan, I couldn’t alert him to the spell. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around why. Something about screwing the spell up and Sarah and Moira, and I didn’t really care about all that, only that Evie told me not to.

Happy wife, happy life had been my mantra ever since I got Evie to look at me in a way that told me she wasn’t thinking of me as just a friend anymore.

“Gross,” I said instead. A good word for what he said was going on in there. I could hear far better than the average paranormal, but Cernunnos possessed far better senses and more powerful magic than I ever would.

I trusted the bastard, in this at least.

“Should we wait?”

I glanced at Cernunnos.

The god shrugged. “We could, or we could interrupt them and catch them both off guard.”

We grinned at each other.

Cernunnos raised his hand and shattered Ethan’s ward with barely a thought.

We hadn’t made it up the front steps yet when the door flung open, revealing a bare-chested and wild-eyed Ethan.

“Rowan! What the fuck?”

I put on my incorrigible and friendly Shifter Lord face—the one Evie had grown to hate. “My apologies.” My gaze raked down his disheveled state and I lifted an eyebrow. “Were you and Moira otherwise entangled?”

Ethan’s lips pulled back from his teeth. “You know damn well I’m not with Moira, asshole.”