Page 32 of Power Shift
Tess floated in, saving me from answering. She stayed far away from Caelan. “Death comes,” she intoned, her eyes glowing an unearthly silver. “The bell peals its final toll. One will fall. All will suffer.”
Ash, who’d just stepped out from the back, sucked in a breath and did an about face. Tess popped out of existence a second later.
Silence fell for an uncomfortable moment.
“Right,” Simone said. “Should we be concerned about that announcement?”
Tess had never done that before. Hopefully Ash was with her.
“Business as usual,” I said with a forced smile. “Being in close proximity with a banshee can get weird at times.”
But Caelan’s eyes lingered on the spot where Tess had appeared. “One day I’m going to figure you out, Evie Quinn. And hope we all live through the process.”
Let’s hope the hell he didn’t figure anything out.
Keeping my secrets kept us all alive.
Our gazes locked, Caelan’s stare probing in the deepest corners of my soul.
Simone cleared her throat, breaking the spell between us. “Let’s get on Evie’s schedule and get out of here before you miss your next meeting.”
She tapped her clipboard twice, and we were off to the races.
Chapter
Eight
CAELAN
Simone didn’t say a word until we were halfway home. I braced myself for the litany of curses coming my way, but when she finally spoke, her tone was calm but worried.
“I didn’t see the god.” For Simone to admit something like that took a lot of steel. She prided herself on noticing everything. “There was a small blip where it felt like time skipped a beat, but I put it down to Joy Springs nonsense. Who was it?”
It frustrated me to no end, but I couldn’t place him. “No idea. He was dressed like a warrior and had glowing runes on his skin and armor.”
Simone frowned and shook her head after a moment. “I’ve never had dealings with the gods, but I can ask around.”
Many things bothered me about the sighting, but one thing made my blood boil. The flicker of fear I felt when the god appeared hadn’t come from me. It came from Evie. Even though her words belied her emotions, I’d smelled her bone-deep fear in the air when she spotted him across the street. She knew him, and I wanted to know why.
“I’ll ask Rowan.” Maybe Soren, too. “He’s more in tune with the wild parts of the world and may have sensed something.”
We drove in silence for a while. Just as we were about to turn onto the main road to take us to the Keep, I glanced up and spotted the same god sitting on top of a roof, those same runes glowing crimson under the morning sun, watching our vehicle as we drove past.
As soon as he spotted me watching, he lifted his hand in a mocking salute, grinned, and disappeared, divine magic shimmering in the air.
A trickle of unease ran through my veins.
“Did you see him?” I asked quietly.
Simone’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Dammit. No. Why is he only appearing to you?”
I held my tongue. There could be only one reason.
Evie.
Soren was waitingin my office, his feet kicked up on the coffee table, while Seymour waved his traps at him from a few feet away.
Relief flashed in his eyes when I walked in. “That thing is an abomination,” he said. “Why do you keep it around?”
