Page 32 of Shifting Winds
Cliona wasn’t lying. A seed, albeit a strange one, lay inside. I took the pouch from my mother’s fingers and tucked it in my pocket, unsure if I’d ever use it. “Is this why you wanted to see me?”
“Do I need a reason to see my daughter?’ Cliona asked primly.
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s not do this.” I waved my finger back and forth between us. “This mother daughter shtick where you pretend to care about me, and I pretend like anything you say is real.”
A flicker of real hurt flashed over her face, there and gone in an instant. Mom straightened and rose. “Very well. Then I suppose this meeting is over.”
I didn’t rise right away,
“I assume you can see yourself out.” Mom walked past, pausing to brush a lock of hair from my eyes, her fingers soft and cool. It was the first time she’d ever voluntarily touched me.
And that made me immediately suspicious.
“Until we meet again, Evangeline.” A wisp of power and she was gone, leaving me in this room with the amazing chairs and a pot of tea I didn’t want.
“Dammit,” I muttered. She was the bad guy.
So why did I feel so awful?
Chapter
Twelve
CAELAN
She smelled of another world. Evie turned the corner and startled when she saw me.
“You need to check your land before you walk it, flower girl.”
Her eyes flashed with annoyance. “I never had any visitors until I started tangling with wolves.”
I rose and waited for her to come up the steps. “Where’ve you been?”
She looked down. “Just a walk. My land needed tending.”
“Is that why you smell like flowers and sky I’ve never scented anywhere on Earth?”
Evie sighed and came up the steps. “I don’t have time for this right now.”
Hurt stabbed me in the gut.
She stopped before me and reached out, pressing her palm against my chest. “I—I’m sorry. I’ve had a weird night. No reason to take it out on you.”
I put my hand over hers, soaking up her warmth and vitality. Last night I’d dreamed of her wearing the crown, her presence in my life fading ever so slowly until she disappeared into the fae lands.
I refused to let that happen. She was mine, and I would fight for her.
I pulled Evie in closer, inhaling her scent, fresh and clean. My fist tangled in her hair, gently cupping her head. “I know you didn’t go for a walk.”
Evie tensed.
“But I won’t ask you where you were. I suspect I already know.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“You don’t trust me.”
Her fingers tightened, wrinkling my shirt. “It’s not—” She sighed. “You and I are from different worlds. I don’t want any of this. Not the fae or my mother or being a Lady or being involved with a Lord.”
