Page 68 of Shifting Winds
I’d already been thinking about the culprit. While Moira’s point about me was valid, I leaned more toward my mother doing this than anyone, especially if she didn’t want me to know who’d sired me. The theory didn’t fit exactly. Mom’s magic wasn’t crimson or gold.
Mine was, but the lock could very well be a spell and not a magical signature.
I wished I’d learned about this stuff as a child instead of having to stumble after it now that I was in my thirties.
“From the bubble we’re under, I have to assume the Lords don’t know?”
I shook my head. “Caelan has enough of my bullshit to deal with.”
Moira’s look was chiding. “That man could not be more in love with you if he tried.” She tilted her head and studied me. “I know you well enough to know you love him, too, but you’re holding yourself back. Big time.”
“I literally just gave birth to a magical tree in his backyard. Hand over the world’s worst girlfriend title. There’s no competition.”
Moira’s lips thinned. “You only did so because he brought you to the Keep for safety. And, as bad as the location is, it’s better than the middle of town where people would start asking questions. And once that happens…” She shook her head. “Once a small-town mob gets their curious claws inside of their target, it’s game over for privacy. They’re going to know what your favorite breakfast was when you were still shitting your pants.”
“Blunt as always,” I said with a laugh.
She shrugged. “Just saying. The small-town mob mentality is worse than the FBI.”
“They’re already going to be asking questions, but Caelan has made it his business to appear as a terrifying but fair overlord to everyone in Joy Springs. They might ask, but no one is going to answer. It’s much different for the resident florist.”
“True.” I let out a sigh. “I do love him,” I admitted. “But he holds himself back.”
An arch rise of a dark eyebrow. “And I’m sure you’re totally forthcoming with your past, too, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I suck, too.”
Moira snickered. “And Ben?”
“He does seem to be here only in a doctor patient capacity.” I shook my head. “He’s kind and handsome, but honestly? He was also kind of a dick when I wouldn’t share my secrets with him. Worse than Caelan and more judgmental. I don’t think it would have worked out even if I had pursued it as much as I wanted to.”
“I can overlook a lot for hotness,” Moira admitted.
I’d seen it firsthand. “And Soren?” Those two had the hots for each other and made a striking couple when they were next to each other. Moira had kept mostly mum about the situation but said there was nothing going on. From everything I’d seen, she was telling the truth.
She scoffed. “Too busy looking at himself in the mirror to be interested in anything meaningful.”
I winced. “If I were that pretty, I wouldn’t stop looking in the mirror.”
Moira grinned. “Shut up. You look like your mother, dummy. Cliona is the most beautiful goddess in fae history.”
“Mom has the whole ethereal floaty goddess thing going on. I’m more down to earth and covered in dirt eighty percent of the time. Men are more into ballgowns than begonias.”
“Except for a hot shifter Lord who looks like he’s about to punch our dear healer Ben right in the throat.” Moira pointed out the window.
Ben and Caelan stood almost nose to nose, baring their teeth at each other.
“Shit,” I breathed.
Moira turned her palm up and moved her fingers in a gimme gesture. “Give me that bag. I’ll make the brew now. Maybe by tonight you can kick those teakettles of testosterone out of your house.”
I fished it out and handed it back. Moira untangled her length and rose. “I’ll calm the idiots down and brew this.”
She dropped the silence bubble and went outside. After some raised voices, Ben and Caelan came back inside, Moira following behind them red-faced.
Caelan threw an elbow at Ben, shoving the larger man against the wall. A massive hole cracked in the drywall.
Everyone froze. Rage filled me, and my blood pressure skyrocketed. No matter what I felt for Caelan, right now, he was annoying the shit out of me.
