Page 48 of Power Shift
“Evie saves all the biting things for Caelan,” Moira said with a sly grin.
“Don’t even start.” I put the last fake flower into the foam and adjusted some of the wiring to see what it looked like when every plant in the office went quiet and still.
“Evie.” Ash’s brow furrowed as he stared outside. “There’s something off about that woman.”
I laid my wire cutters down and wiped my hands off. “Everyone stay here. There’s a reason she’s not coming inside.”
“The wards?” Moira said.
“If it is, we know who it is.” Little Shop of Florals was a public shop, and the wards were mostly used once we closed, though we’d blocked my mother and Finn from entering at all. Cliona wouldn’t bother with a disguise, so I knew it wasn’t her. She was far too in love with her own reflection to choose something other than the form she was born with.
But a Chimera, on the other hand, could and would choose another form, one of the many reasons they were excellent spies.
I gathered my magic close around me, funneling so much power, my eyes cast a light over the shop. Dimming it down so as not to freak out the humans, I steeled my shoulders and stepped outside.
The stranger made no effort to disguise their scent.
“What do you want?” I asked.
The woman was my height and blonde, resembling Gianna, Caelan’s now deceased former fiancée. The nose was a little off and the eyes were a different color, but she still had that pale andicy hair and the aloof manner. But the scent told me exactly who stood before me.
“I’m not here to fight. Only to talk.” The woman gestured toward a bench several feet away. “Mind sitting with me?”
I eyed Finn with suspicion. “Why should I trust you now?”
“Because there is a much larger threat out there than you or I.”
“Rhona.”
Finn’s lips thinned. “Please, Evie. You will come to no harm.”
The absolute last thing I wanted to do was be on the same continent as the Chimera who made me what I was, but I was curious. If he had information about Rhona, I’d squash down my disgust and listen to what he had to say. But if he tried to attack me in broad daylight, all bets might be off.
“Fine.” I gestured for him to go first. No way would I turn my back to Finn.
He gave a smirk that looked odd on the woman’s small face and strode over to the bench.
“Your female walk needs some work,” I said.
Finn stiffened. “It’s not a form I take often.”
“Obviously. You look like a toddler trying to wear its mother’s shoes.”
Finn shot me a dark look as he sat down. “Your mouth is going to get you in trouble one day.”
“My mouth gets me into trouble every day,” I corrected as I sat on the opposite end of the bench, as far away from him as I could get.
“It wasn’t long ago when you wanted to crawl inside my skin,” Finn observed.
“Fuck off, Finn,” I snapped. “Say your piece and leave me alone.”
He clicked his tongue. “You are not the Evie I remember.”
“That Evie died when you—” My voice broke, and I choked down my sob as the memory of that night under the stars played in my head in violent color. “You have five seconds to start talking, or we’re done.”
Finn sighed. “Fine. I wrongly assumed we were the only two Chimeras left in the world.”
“Rhona implied there were many more of us. Do you have numbers?”
