Page 63 of Power Shift
Yep. Definitely stranger.
“Well. Alrighty then,” Moira said. “Thumper, no thumping.”
Hannah waved her traps around as Tess adjusted her position so she could get more light. “There you go. That should be perfect for you.”
Ash came in from the back and stopped abruptly. “What is that?” His words weren’t a question.
“Hannah?” I pointed to the shelf. “She’s hanging out for a little while until Caelan comes around to collect her.”
“No. Not that.” His eyes glowed. “You brought something into the shop. Something new. What is it?”
I blinked. “Um. The tub? It’s plastic which I normally don’t use, but it’s good to transport plants around in.”
Ash came closer, his gaze sweeping over my face. “No. You’ve brought something dangerous into this store, Evie.”
“Dangerous?” I laughed and flexed my biceps. “Just these two guns.”
“Evie. I’m serious.”
He rarely sounded so grim, so I stopped joking around. “Um.” I patted my pockets. “Oh! I forgot.” I dug into my pants pocket and pulled out the small seed. Perfectly round, a shimmer of magic surrounding its hard shell. “Hannah dug it out from close to the greenhouse.”
Ash sucked in a breath. “Evie. Do you know what you have?”
“A seed, but I’ve never seen its type before.”
“Because there’s only one.” He tipped his hand palm up. “May I?”
“Of course.” I carefully tipped the seed into his hand.
Ash’s lips pursed into a silent o. A boom of sound came from outside the shop.
“Say nothing,” Ash hissed, the seed gone in the blink of an eye.
I opened my mouth to speak, but the door crashed open, glass shattering into fine powder. Moira barked a command, an impenetrable, transparent wall appearing a split second before we were sliced into a million pieces.
No one said a word for a long moment.
My mother stood right outside the doorway.
I needed more coffee for this.
“Invite me in,” the goddess Cliona said. No good morning, no platitudes, no pretending she was here to see how I was doing.
Mom was pissed.
I responded accordingly. “You just broke an expensive door, and you want to sit down for tea? That’s not how it works.”
“Evangeline. Drop your wards and invite me in. We will not have this conversation with me standing in the street.”
Cliona was a stunning goddess. Dark shining hair spilled down her shoulders, and her azure eyes, the same as mine, sparked with both magic and temper. Her face looked like the work of a master sculptor, every part of it smooth and lovely.
Too bad she was a massive bitch.
“Again. No. If you cause a scene, you’ll scare the humans. What do you want, Mother?”
Cliona’s delicate nostrils flared. “You have something of mine.”
Fee. Had she found out about the phoenix? “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I covet nothing of yours.”
