Page 22 of Shift of Morals
She rifled through the drawer before coming up with another pair.
“Hold the pouch. I’ll take the bouquet.”
Moira held both sides of it open, though the thing did everything short of biting her in an effort to get away. But it was no match for vampiric strength, and as I lifted the bouquet and placed it inside, I could have sworn the pouch made a sad sigh.
Creeped out, I took it from Moira and resealed everything, double-checking to make sure nothing could escape.
“Did that thing sigh?” Ash asked, horror in his voice.
“I thought I was imagining it,” Moira muttered, grimacing as she stripped her gloves off.
“Don’t put them back in the drawer,” I cautioned as I stripped mine off. “Hand them over, and I’ll cleanse them later.” Moira handed her gloves over, and I tossed both pairs into a resealable bucket.
“I think I might go into the greenhouse if anyone wants to go before we open. There are a bunch of peonies ready for cutting. I thought we could use some of them in Hattie’s bouquet.”
Everyone was game, so we piled into the car, with the bouquet stashed in the trunk, and stopped for coffee on the way back to my house.
Sufficiently caffeinated, and after I’d stuffed the bouquet in the garage fridge, we all piled into the greenhouse. Tess sank down onto the stone floor and sighed. “I love it here, Evie.”
Surprised, I smiled at Tess. “Really? I sometimes wonder how much you like working in the shop with all the green things.”
Tess appeared to think about this for a moment. “Life and death are not so different from each other. Every breath you take could be your last. Someone like me straddles the line between warm breath and cold, eternal silence. Plants and greenery remind me that I still walk among the living and that I should stay in solid form when I’m around you.”
Damn, I loved Tess, but she was creepy as hell sometimes. “Well.” My head spun with the millions of responses I could give her, finally settling on, “I’m glad you remember you’re still alive, Tess.”
“Me too.” She placed both palms flat on the floor and closed her eyes. When she said nothing else, I shrugged, figuring she’d gone to wherever banshees went when they were being super weird that day.
Ash came up beside me. “She meditates sometimes so deeply, even I can’t reach her.”
“Does she ever say where she goes?”
He shook his head, mossy eyes trained on the banshee. “No, but she’s quiet most of the day when she finishes. I think it’s a dark place full of fog and death.”
“How would you know?”
He smiled sadly and reached for one of the tiny fronds on one of my ferns, stroking it with a finger the color of tree bark. “Because those same shadows are in her eyes when she awakens.”
I fell silent, wondering when my team had grown so maudlin. When Ash made to walk away, I stopped him. “Ash?”
He turned. “Hmm?”
“Are you happy?”
His eyes widened in surprise. “Happy right now? Or in general?”
I thought about it. “I don’t really know. At the shop, with me, I guess. And in general.” Moira had made a joking crack about running away with Soren, and Ash seemed so sad that it was making me wonder if my team was beginning to fray around the edges.
But the serene smile he gave me made me breathe easier. “If there is ever a time when I wish to move on, Evie, you will be the first to know. Tess is happy in the shop, and so am I.” He reached for me, rubbing a rough thumb across my cheek. “There is so much more in store for you that none of us can predict. Even if I weren’t happy, I’d stick around to see what happens.”
My brows drew together. “Thanks?”
He laughed. “Stop worrying so much. We all love you, and we’re all here for the long term.”
“He’s right,” Moira called from across the greenhouse. “Stop worrying!”
Relief filled me. “Fine!” I snapped halfheartedly. “Now go clip those peonies.”
A piece of mulch thumped me in the forehead, Moira’s laughter echoing through the greenhouse.
