Page 27 of Power Shift
The pen stilled. “What? I’m assuming you want to get married sooner rather than later. We should start planning now.”
“There is no wedding. No marriage. No nothing. Caelan is being presumptive.” I thumped my shears on the table. “He thinks a quickie wedding will solve all our problems. Insanity.”
Tess appeared through the wall, a trick she’d been using more and more lately. When I first saw her do it, I damn near jumped out of my skin.
“A betrothal!” she said in her whispery voice. “How romantic!” Tess floated over. “And tragic, too.”
“Tragic?” Moira asked. “Weddings are anything but sad.”
“Tragic because Caelan will find out where Gianna lies.”
I went motionless, my heart caught in my throat.
“Excuse me?” Did she know? How could she know? I’d told no one and scattered Gianna’s ashes to the wind.
Tess hovered by Ash. “I felt her spirit leave her body.”
A tense silence fell in the shop. “Gianna is dead?” Moira blurted.
The clipboard slipped from Ash’s hands, the crack of sound like a bullet in the quiet shop.
“Her body lies on Evie’s property. I sensed her spirit the last time I was there.” Tess floated toward the coffee pot like she hadn’t just dropped a bomb.
“Evie?” Moira’s face was white with concern. “Did you know?”
The shop hadn’t opened yet, thank the gods, but we only had a few minutes before I had to unlock the doors.
My pause went on too long.
“Holy shit.” Ash stared at me in horror. “Did you—” he swallowed. “Did you kill her?”
“What? No! Of course I didn’t kill her. Geez.”
“Then why is her body on your land?” Moira said quietly, no judgment on her face, but a concerned curiosity.
I glanced at the clock and wished I could speed it forward, so I didn’t have to have this conversation. “Cernunnos told me. Otherwise I never would have known she was there.
Moira and Ash swore in unison, the vampire coming out from behind the register to stand right in front of me. “What did you do?”
I couldn’t bear the look in her eyes. Dropping my gaze, I whispered, “Sent her back to the earth. No one will ever know she was there.”
“Except for me,” Tess said as she added an ungodly amount of sugar to her coffee.
I clenched my jaw. “Except for the meddling banshee,” I grumbled.
“Does Caelan know?” Moira asked.
A bark of laughter escaped me. “You want me to tell a Shifter Lord that I found his fiancée’sdeadbody in my yard?”
“He’s going to find out,” Ash said. “Whoever put her there means to bring trouble to your door.”
“They’ll never find her. I made sure of it.” The grim assurance in my voice didn’t dim the worried light in Moira’s eyes.
“I’m the only banshee in this town,” Tess said as she floated back over. “No one else knows where she lies.”
“And no one can know,” I said quietly. “A secret like this might get us all killed.”
“Which is why you didn’t tell us,” Moira said archly, a strong note of disapproval in her voice.
