Page 39 of Power Shift
Finn hadn’t told her how strong my Floromancy was. Confusion simmered in my mind. Why wouldn’t he tell Rhona something that important?
I kept my heart rate steady. “Fire destroys many things. I brought new dirt in and replaced it with the dirt I dug out and sent away.”
Rhona’s eyes narrowed. “Seems awfully strategic for someone who’s supposedly not a killer. Finn mentioned you were gentle.”
I almost laughed. That might be a word to describe the old me, before the world had so handily stepped in to fuck me over, but no one who knew me now would ever describe me that way. Not even Finn.
What was he playing at?
“I watch a lot of true crime documentaries.”
Rhona moved around the greenhouse, occasionally reaching out to touch a plant, and I moved with her, ensuring I never put my back to the woman. “Why are you here?”
“Curiosity, mainly. Finn’s unhealthy obsession warranted a look from me.” Genuine amusement brimmed in her eyes. “But all I see is a woman with a strong green thumb. When he said you were a hybrid, I was interested in seeing what would happen with the Chimera blood when it merged with a hedgewitch.”
If she’d bothered to do even a little digging around, she would realize I was not a normal Floromancer anddefinitelynot a hedgewitch.
“I barely sense any of our power inside of you. A pity really. I came in at the tail end of the bonding ceremony planning, and thought you might be a strong Floromancer, but growing plants and making them move means nothing to someone like me. I could bring the world to heel if I wanted to.”
“Floromancy is a gentle art.” I shrugged. “Sorry to disappoint you. I was born to be around greenery, not violence.” If Rhonacame in at the end of everything, she must not have seen any of my other displays of power. So secure in her own scheming, she’d ignored the threat I could potentially be, and Finn hadn’t told her otherwise.
The question was, why would he do that?
“Even with your mother’s power running through your veins, you’re barely a blip on my radar.”
I was going to kiss Hazel right on her pretty mouth next time I saw her for teaching me that trick. That and the tattoo she’d spent weeks correcting had given Rhona the wrong impression about me. On most magical “radars,” i.e., scent or power sensing, I appeared as a hedgewitch or mid-level Floromancer, nothing out of the ordinary or too extreme. The thistle tattoo on my arm kept my Chimera blood hidden from all but the most powerful of senses.
Finn had damaged the tattoo last time we tangled, and Hazel had to slap a temporary magical bandage on it while she worked to find the fix. From Rhona’s reaction, the thistle was back to full power and working better than expected.
But…there was one thing she shouldn’t know. That Finn shouldn’t know.
“How do you know my mother?”
Rhona’s smile reached her eyes. “We go way back. Sometimes we find we have mutual interests.”
“Like now?”
“You are of no use to me and have no need to know my plans.”
With that rebuff, Rhona exploded into hundreds of crimson moths and swept out the door in a wave of blood-red wings.
I slid down to the floor, wrapping my trembling legs around my knees. My breath came in ragged and harsh waves, and I stifled the scream threatening to tear from my lungs. Another Chimera in Joy Springs, and it was all my fault.
A kiss of loamy forest and golden magic kissed the back of my neck. The scent of pine and wildness rose around me. I closed my eyes.
“Cernunnos.”
A leather clad leg stepped into my field of vision. Craning my neck up, I beheld the vision of the fae king, in all his tanned, bare-chested, and antlered splendor. “Your timing is impeccable as always,” I said dryly.
“You were wise not to show your hand,” he said, folding his body into a cross-legged seat opposite me.
“She would have killed me.” The woman was barely leashed rage, malevolence leaking from her every pore.
“Not today, unless you provoked her.”
I buried my face in my knees. “Did you know there was more than one Chimera here to come fuck up my world?”
“The gods know many things.”
