Page 11 of Final Shift
He looked up when he felt my presence and grinned when he saw what I was holding.
I handed over the loot, keeping two for myself and took the spot beside Rowan.
Jensen stiffened at my presence. I squashed my hurt and leaned forward to stare at the board.
“You’re losing, husband.”
Rowan let out a put upon sigh. “Best of three.”
A smile tugged at Jensen’s mouth. “Mom will worry if I’m not back soon.”
“Raincheck then?” Rowan asked.
“Maybe. If they let me come back.”
I doubted Caelan would. “What’s your favorite cookie?”
He glanced up. “Snickerdoodle.”
“Even in the summer?”
Another tug at his mouth. “Yes. Cinnamon has no season.”
Rowan chuckled. “I agree. Cinnamon in all its forms is something to behold. Unless it’s one of those fake cinnamon brooms you can taste in your mouth when you walk into the store.”
The teen grinned. “Mom hates those, too. They make her sneeze.”
I glanced at Rowan. Sadness glimmered in his eyes. He hated this as much as I did. Caelan using this boy to further his agenda was a shitty thing to do. He knew we wouldn’t harm Jensen, but he’d put the boy through this to make a point.
“Ha!” Jensen crowed, double jumping to take Rowan’s last two pieces on the board.
Rowan snorted. “I’ll be damned. I really am terrible at checkers.”
He wasn’t. Rowan kicked my ass all the time in both checkers and chess. When you looked at my mate, you wouldn’t see a scheming, manipulative male. You’d see a handsome and charming rogue who could talk you into just about anything, but you’d underestimate him.
Rowan, like most fae, played the long game. He never wanted to be a Lord and never wanted to hold this much power over people.
But doing so kept the people he loved safe, and so he’d stepped into the mantle of a Lord and had been doing it ever since.
He was good at strategy and mind games and staying two steps ahead of his enemy, but he also trusted too much. Far more than I ever had or would.
Maybe that meant he was a better person than me, but he hadn’t expected Caelan to come sailing through the air to put a knife in his back. And I had wondered all along.
Rowan and Jensen put the game away. When they finished, Rowan tossed Jensen one of the extra cookies. “Let’s hear the message, Jensen.”
All the tension came back to Jensen’s face and posture. He cleared his throat and straightened his posture, the cookies lying forgotten on his thigh.
“Lord Caelan wishes to meet Evangeline Quinn in person. He has a message he will share with no one else and has asked that she come alone and meet with him inside his Keep home.”
The bond between us burned with Rowan’s fury. I watched his eyes go from the bright hazel I loved into a molten pool of multicolored swirls.
Jensen swallowed hard and tried to press himself into the couch cushions. I put a hand on Rowan’s thigh and sent a pulse of love through the bond.
“Did he say anything else?” I asked.
Jensen licked his lips. “Umm. Just that he has set the meeting date for three days from now. He has granted you safe passage through his territory.”
Rowan snorted at that. I controlled Caelan’s territory right now. Caelan was merely a figurehead—one who couldn’t step one foot off the right path without suffering a grisly fate.
