Page 72 of Shift of Morals
“I don’t expect anything, Gianna, dear. The Council expects it. All I’m required to do is marry you. Everything that comes after that is extra.”
“And heirs?” Gianna snapped. “You must carry your bloodline on.”
“Shifters have a notoriously low birth rate,” I said mildly. “And who’s to say any delay is due to me?”
Gianna sucked in a breath. Insulting a shifter’s fertility, especially one of her impeccable pedigree, was one of the lowest insults one could offer. Her magic rose through the air, shifter cut with something I’d been trying to parse out from the moment I’d met her. Gianna wasn’t one hundred percent shifter. I’d bet my territory on it. But my only suspicion had sent cold dread through my heart, so I hadn’t said anything about it.
Only made a desperate deal with an unknown god as fickle as my fiancée.
“How dare you?” she seethed. “I am here trying to be a good wife to you, and all you do is insult me.”
“I don’t want you here,” I snarled.
Gianna’s eyes flickered. “My agreement is not with you, anyway. All I’m required to do is marry you, and my part will be complete.” Her lips turned up in a cruel smile. “If you do not go forward with the bonding ceremony, your territory will be forfeited.”
Rage carved a path through my bones with her words. If I could kill her right now, I would. Her smile widened. Gianna knew I would too.
She uncrossed one leanly muscled leg and rose, leaning across the desk. Seymour quivered in his pot.
“Remember who holds the power here, Lord. Do your duty.”
I remained silent. She rose, her eyes flashing a strange violet as she left the room.
It took me a few minutes to contain my anger. When I had myself firmly under control once more, I rose and opened the hidden latch contained inside one of my bookshelves. When the device clicked, the shelf opened, and just as I was about to walk down, Seymour clanked his pot and lunged for me. I caught him with a surprised grunt and lifted him to stare.
“You want to come?”
Seymour quivered.
“Fine. But don’t try to eat anything. If you do, I’ll eat you myself.”
Seymour didn’t respond, so I took it as his agreement to behave.
I didn’t come down here a lot, only when I needed answers I couldn’t find on my own, but after I’d met Evie, I found myself down here much more often.
A strange smell of ash and oak burned my nose, and I stilled before I stepped off the last stair. Someone had been down here, and it hadn’t been Simone.
I sent my magic out but sensed nothing else amiss and no other presences inside the library. With that, I headed straight to the scarred wooden desk and set Seymour down, only to see a scroll tied with a forest green ribbon.
I opened the parchment to reveal a handwritten note.
You will have your moment, Lord. I am still considering its price.
Relief and horror warred within me. I sank onto the old chair and leaned back, digging my fingers into the pocket of my shirt and brushing over one of the petals that had fallen from Evie’s boutonniere. Her words about secrets came back to me.
Mine are safe until you need something from me.
If things were up to me, I’d burn the world down to keep her secrets.
Chapter
Nineteen
Hazel got more aggressive with her efforts to figure out the magic corrupting the bouquet, and a few days later, she hit pay dirt.
We all stood around the table, a safe distance away from the thing that had taken up so much of our time and effort.
“You may need to call the customer and tell them you can’t salvage this thing,” Hazel said. “I’m about to unravel it.”
