Just as I was flying away, I heard the large man remark. “That’s Evie? Does she know only the male fairy wrens have that coloring?”
I almost fell out of the air. Not a single person had ever successfully identified me. Curious, I swept around and got a closer look at the big man.
He noticed. “Hello, pretty birdie. Clever work on that flytrap of yours.”
Caelan lunged for me again.
“You won’t get her,” Ben observed as I darted away. “She’s far too small.”
“Again, Ben. Shut the fuck up.”
I warbled at Caelan, dipped my head to the big man, and shot back into the air, before nosediving so low I brushed the Shifter Lord’s hair.
“She has no idea what she’s started, does she?” the big man asked.
Caelan’s wicked laugh sent a shiver down my spine. “That’s what makes this so much fun.”
I was backin my car in less than ten minutes and back home in less than twenty, feeling a little unsettled about the night’s events. What had Caelan meant by that last remark, and why had it sent a shiver of foreboding down my spine?
Shaking my head, I poured myself a glass of wine and was about to collapse onto the couch when the doorbell rang. Groaning, I padded barefoot to the door and peered out the peephole.
Moira stood there, a thunderous expression on her face.
I opened the door, and she stalked in, tossing her purse on the floor. Moira headed straight to the kitchen without a word, poured herself an enormous glass of wine, took a long sip, then closed her eyes.
“I love you, but what the hell were you thinking?”
This could only be about one thing. I opened my mouth to respond, but Moira held a hand up. “No. Don’t say a word. The answer is you weren’t thinking!” She stomped over to the couch and sat down, not spilling a single drop of her wine.
“How did you know? I just got back.”
Moira rolled her eyes. “There’s a mutant Jacaranda tree growing in the Shifter Lord’s front yard! I wouldn’t be surprised if you can see that purple fucker from the moon!”
I blinked. “Those trees don’t grow here.”
Moira scoffed in disbelief. “They do when your idiot Floromancer BFF gets a hold of your yard and sends so much magic through the ground the entire Keep is lit up like an amusement park!”
“Oh.” I cringed. “Um. I might have over corrected.”
“Ya think?” Moira screeched.
“I gave him a check for the repairs to the shop and the replacement equipment.”
“And a massive hard-on. Idiot.”
I snorted. “Hardly. He was so pissed off he tried to eat me.”
Moira leaned forward. “Evie, you beautiful, brilliant moron. There’s only one thing on your body he wants to eat.”
A crimson blush stained my cheeks. “Moira!”
She set her wine glass down and reached for my hands. “Promise me you will leave the Shifter Lord alone. No matter what he asks or requests. Treat him like a customer, nothing more. If he tries to antagonize you, and he will because it’s in his nature, promise me you will not react. Every time you do, he discovers how powerful you are. It won’t be long before he discovers far more about you than you want him to.”
“I want him to stop messing with us.”
Moira nodded. “And you know how to do that?”
“I’m going to guess the answer is not growing a hundred-foot Jacaranda tree in his front yard?”
