Caelan let out a sharp breath and sagged.
“Easy,” I whispered. Slow, ever so slowly, I moved those threads across Caelan’s land, stretching the golden threads across the earth. A thought occurred to me.
“Shit,” I cursed under my breath.
“Evie?”
“Hold on.”
Holding onto those threads with one part of my mind, I searched again for one, two, three, four more seeds, planting them at various corners of the United States, hoping against all odds this would work. I set one on my property, one on our joint property, one right at the edge of Thorvin’s, Ethan’s, Soren’s, and Ben’s. I’d ask them later if I could move the trees onto their properties, but if I left only one, Caelan’s shifters would never be able to leave.
If they wanted to move Packs, they couldn’t, and I wouldn’t do the same thing to them that Caelan had all those years ago.
I shifted the nutrients in the soil once more and changed the atmosphere, encasing the tree in a small, self-cycling bubble. Once that was done, I carefully transferred all eight of those threads to the home tree on Caelan’s land.
They resisted at first, but magic like this only needed a life source, one rife with magic, and it had one in these trees. When it realized I’d offered a good substitute, those threads settled and entwined with the tree. Once I was confident they’d stay, I let go.
But I wasn’t done yet. Carefully weaving a strand of each thread together, I created one extra thread and attached to each one of the other trees, creating a nexus of a sort.
The shifters would be able to travel to each of the other Lord’s territories and their surrounding areas. I’d need to check the magic periodically, but as fixes went, this one wasn’t bad.
I waited a while, ensuring nothing would come loose, and when I was sure, I carefully let go and returned to Caelan’s land, once again plunging down into his land to find the sourceof Danu’s poison. My influence had scattered her magic and finding everything felt like gathering lost marbles.
After several sweeps, I was confident I had it all. The last step was Caelan. I shifted, briefly opening my eyes to face him, startled to see his eyes wide open staring at me with molten gold burning in his irises. I swallowed hard and looked down.
“You’ve become quite skilled since I last saw you.”
“Training with Dad.”
“This power suits you. I wish I would have seen how great you could become and how lucky I would be to bask in your light sooner.”
“We’re almost finished,” I said quietly. “One more thing.”
I reached up to touch his face and closed my eyes. Danu’s poison still lived inside him, a sentient, evil thing. Focusing on that darkness, I encapsulated it and slowly pulled it from his skin. Caelan grunted when I freed him, his hand tightening on my leg.
I crushed that power in my hand, dark glittering ash falling from my palm when I opened it.
“There.” I let my magic go and removed my hand from Caelan’s face. When I opened my eyes, he was still staring at me.
I dropped the cage, sending the roots of the flowers out onto his land. A riot of blooms covered the ground, a carpet of color brightening the night. “I need to get back to Rowan.”
Caelan smiled sadly. “Thank you, flower girl. I’m not sure I would have survived this night without you.”
I wasn’t so sure he would have either, but I shook my head in denial. “Your shifters might sleep for a while. When they wake up, I want you to call me. I’ll need to explain what I’ve done.”
Caelan unfolded himself and rose, holding out a hand to help me up. I swayed, the amount of magic I used catching up to me. He steadied me with a firm grip on my waist.
“Need help walking?”
I shook my head. “No. Just give me a moment.”
He waited until I took a few baby deer-like steps, firmly taking my elbow to escort me back.
“What exactly did you do?” he asked. “I feel the new tree. Lots of magic pouring off that thing.”
I knew what he was asking, but explaining my process was too much for me right now. “I took the links from you and put them in a long-lived tree.”
Caelan’s eyebrows flew up. “It worked?”
