Page 91 of Shift of Morals
“You are not only a Floromancer, but you know that already, don’t you?”
I stayed silent.
His teeth flashed in the darkness. “Very well, little wren.” Neit handed me the bottle. “Be careful with it. A little goes a long way.”
“Thanks for the ride.” I still didn’t understand why he was being so nice, so I tilted my head and blurted out the question bugging me from the moment I saw him. “Mom says you’re here to kill me. Is buttering me up part of your modus operandi or something?”
Neith’s smile fell away. “Your mother is a cruel woman, Evangeline, though I’m sure you know this already. Our children suffer needlessly due to our mistakes.”
“Will I suffer?”
He took a step back. “That is up to your mother, little wren.”
Without another word, Neit shot into the sky, a bolt of brilliant energy lighting up the sky.
One more thing to worry about. Awesome.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
CAELAN
The Council gathered tonight, here for a strategy meeting first and the wedding second. We’d gathered around the war room’s table, a map of the Keep laid out before us. Security was always a pain in the ass on a daily basis, but the wedding had made it much more difficult.
Gianna’s guest list had gotten out of control, the numbers ballooning from a manageable two hundred people all the way up to five hundred. I was familiar with twenty percent of the people she invited and didn’t see the need for that many guests roaming my property, but Gianna pushed, and I’d reluctantly relented.
She was more political than me, savvy when it came to manipulating people for good or ill, so I allowed her mostly free rein on wedding decisions. Except when it came to Evie’s flowers, and even then, I’d eventually caved.
“It’s easy to smell weapons, so no need for metal detectors,” Donovan said, pale blue eyes sweeping the room.
“Technology advances every day. Plastic is used in many weapons, so we won’t always be able to tell if someone has a weapon based on smell alone.” Thorvin tapped the southeastarea of the map. “This could be a weak point in your security with that many guests on the property.”
“Simone is already aware,” I said.
Rowan sipped whiskey from a crystal glass, his eyes hooded. He hadn’t said much today, his mood shitty after a run-in with Gianna. Later that day, he’d found me in my office, shut the door, and sank onto one of my good chairs and sighed louder and deeper than I’d ever heard coming from him. “Caelan?”
Concerned, I put my pen down and watched him warily. “Everything okay?”
He scrubbed a hand over his jaw and let out a bark of laughter. “That woman is a stone-cold bitch, Caelan.”
Silence fell. I could have said a million appropriate things, but this was Rowan. “Yeah. I’m well aware.”
Rowan snorted. “Is there any way out of this?”
The deal with the god had never left my thoughts from the moment I made it. “I have one desperate last-ditch plan up my sleeve.”
Rowan’s eyebrows lifted. “You aren’t going to share with an old friend?”
“Plausible deniability, my friend.”
Rowan whistled. “That bad?”
“That bad,” I agreed.
The other Lord held his glass up, turning it so the light flashed in a prism. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
I waved his apologies away. “This is why we have a Council. So we can all make shitty decisions together.”
