Page 84 of Power Shift
I rubbed the space between my brows. “I don’t know.” My shoulders ached, and my jaw hurt like I’d been clenching it all day. “I feel weird. Angry and scared and hot and cold.”
Moira glanced at Ash. “Is she okay?”
The dryad came over, Tess floating beside him. “You’re linked to the Lord through the pendant.”
Ash sent her an annoyed look; one I’d rarely seen on his face. “Tess. We may need to talk about your…gifts.”
Tess’s pale brow furrowed. “What. I’m right, aren’t I?”
I held up a hand. “Wait. I’m linked to all of you, right? Technically.”
Ash sat down. “Let me see the pendant.”
I unclasped it and dropped it into his palm. Ash studied it, his eyes flashing emerald for a moment. When he was done, his lips twitched. “Tess is right. You have a deeper bond with the Shifter Lord than any of us. Our magic is on the pendant, but the necklace belonged to the shifters. Once Caelan’s magic sank in, he laid claim to it. By wearing his necklace, your emotional resonances have attuned to each other.”
“English, please,” I snapped.
Moira laughed.
“I suspect Caelan is having a trying day and his emotions are bleeding over.”
I stared at him for a beat. “I’m sorry. Are you saying I’m pissed off because Caelan is influencing me?”
Ash’s nod made my heart drop to my stomach.
“I’d rather have PMS,” I snarled.
Moira refastened the necklace around my neck, even as my fingers itched to rip it away and stomp it to pieces. “How do I stop it?”
Ash’s expression softened. “I don’t think you can.”
“Great. Can he feel what I feel?” This was not good. Not only was it a major invasion of privacy, it had the potential to reveal my secrets.
“I believe it’s a channel. You’ll broadcast to him just as he will to you.”
I sat back. “Shit,” I breathed. “Then we have to find another way to hide the seed.”
Ash’s lips thinned. “There is no other way.”
“What about the property? It’s large and soaked in my power.”
“Cliona will break your wards.” Tess floated to sit by Ash. “She is my queen. I have seen evidence of her unfathomable power.” The banshee’s hands trembled. “Keep the pendant on, Evie. Don’t risk her wrath. Emotional resonance with the Lord is a small price to pay.” Her eyes filled with tears. “It will not be forever. The wheel of time spins quickly around you, and I see…much change in the future.”
What had she gone through to make her so fearful of Cliona? “She’s my mother, Tess. I’m well aware of her depravity.”
But was I? She’d been cruel to me, but my mother had never harmed me. Not physically. She’d threatened me. A lot. She’d played mind games, disappeared for years at a time, and had even all but forgotten about me sometimes.
“And if Caelan discovers my secrets?”
“I’d say he’s discovered enough to make life difficult already,” Moira mused. “He knows you aren’t only a Floromancer, and he knows who your father is. The other Lords would love to have that kind of dirt on you, and I haven’t seen a single one come knocking.”
“True,” I grumbled. “But being a Chimera means instant death.”
“And yet he hasn’t killed you,” Ash said. He rubbed his face. “Keep wearing the pendant for now while we research other means of hiding a world-ending object.”
“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm.” A groan escaped me. “I need to shift soon.” The itch had begun as a tingling at the back of my neck and intensified over the last several days. So far, I could go a full two weeks without using the Chimera magic untilthe power buildup became unbearable. “What if he senses the change?”
“Then we deal with it,” Moira said. “Caelan has not been unreasonable in his dealings with you. In fact, he’s been more than cooperative.”
