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The chuckle turned into an outright laugh. “He also treated your daughter like the dirt on his shoe occasionally.”

“I’m well aware,” he gritted out. “The only reason he isn’t dead is because Evie asked me very nicely not to kill him.”

“She has first dibs.”

Cernunnos nodded. “It’s only fair.”

We turned the corner to see Sarah and Ethan with their heads together, involved in a hushed argument.

When Sarah spotted us, a bright, false smile lit up her face. “Please, come in and join us. I’ve brought tea.”

They’d have to hold me down and force me to drink anything a walking corpse prepared for me, but I smiled nonetheless and took a chair opposite them. Cernunnos sat on the other side, crossing his ankle over his knee.

I waited to see what Ethan would do. In the past, he’d always ask Sarah to leave when discussing business. We wanted her here, but I couldn’t tell Ethan so.

The Lord cleared his throat. “Sarah⁠—”

She started pouring us tea, green from the smell of it. I hated green tea. The health benefits had never outweighed the feeling of drinking grass and pretending to like it. And who served green tea to guests? Seriously. Where was the Earl Grey? Were we animals?

Cernunnos’s lip curled when the scent reached him. Ah. Not a fan, either, I take it?

But the god reached for the steaming mug. “Thank you,” he said graciously.

Ass. I reached for mine as well, hoping there’d be a convenient plant pot to dump it in when her back was turned.

Sarah smiled at me as if she knew exactly what I was thinking, but her words were for Ethan alone. “Do not ask me to leave, Ethan. You and I will have a problem if you insist.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened, a flash of golden ire rolling across his irises.

Few would publicly question a Shifter Lord. Sarah met his gaze in open challenge.

If I’d ever doubted Sarah and Ethan were under a spell’s influence, this moment confirmed something was very wrong between them.

“Are you comfortable speaking in front of Sarah?” Ethan asked, his voice a low growl.

Cernunnos and I exchanged concerned glances, exactly as we’d rehearsed.

“Everything must stay in this room,” I hedged.

“Of course,” Sarah insisted, not bothering to hide her eager lean forward.

“We’ve found Moira,” Cernunnos said. “And we’re coming for her.”

Chapter

Nine

Minka was furious. Pots and pans slammed as she muttered under her breath.

Liaza sprawled at the kitchen table. “It’s a bluff,” he said. “They’re trying to draw you out.”

I froze, resisting the urge to lean closer to the bars.

“And if it’s not?” she snapped as she dipped her fingers into a bowl of salt and sprinkled it over something in the pan.

The smell of sizzling meat messed with my concentration. I rarely received any protein, and when I did, it was in tiny chunks, missed or forgotten as she scooped food onto a plate for me.

“Then you’d better prepare for a long siege,” Liaza said with a lazy smile.