Page 30 of Shift of Heart (Shifter Lords #1)

Chapter

Twenty-Five

W ards are a powerful tool to keep people and creatures off one’s property, but they have one major failure.

They can’t be tuned to keep nature out, or they’d never work properly.

This meant they can’t keep Floromancers out, and since our kind are normally peaceful and content to keep to ourselves, no one had yet discovered how someone could use magic like mine to not only trespass, but to wreak utter havoc.

I’d tested this a few times over the years and had discovered I could use my wren form to travel anywhere, no matter how powerful someone’s wards were.

Most had successfully blocked me from entering in human form, but whatever magic I had in my wren form, the wards ignored.

Whether it was my fae blood or something else, I’d rarely found a ward that could keep me out.

Such was the case this evening.

My wren form was too light to carry the box holding Seymour, and a courier might clue Caelan or his staff into suspecting something was up, so I’d grown a few thick vines right at the edge of the keep.

Carefully guiding them, I encouraged them to wrap around the tightly packed roots of the flytrap and sent them and Seymour sliding onto Caelan’s property, past the unsuspecting wolves on the second-floor balcony and gently set the plant right in front of the Shifter Lord’s door.

Then I guided the vine up and rang the doorbell, quickly sending the vines hissing back across the yard and back into the earth.

It only took a few moments for the door to open. A confused shifter looked around, stepped outside the house to scope the area, only looking down when he saw nothing concerning.

When he spotted Seymour, the look on the shifter’s face almost made me laugh.

He let out a shout of alarm, then called for Caelan.

When the Shifter Lord arrived at the door looking annoyed by the interruption, only to find a large Red Dragon flytrap at his door holding a sign that said For Caelan’s eyes only , his face went carefully blank, but his eyes showed his agitation. A golden glow shone over the porch.

I crouched even lower, right outside the boundaries of his property. The next phase of my plan relied on him taking the plant inside. If he decided not to and tried to destroy Seymour, I’d have to spring into action, both to save the plant and show him exactly how I felt about that.

“Take it,” Caelan barked.

The other shifter balked. “You want me to carry that thing inside?”

“It’s harmless.”

“It has teeth. Everywhere.”

“So do I,” Caelan snarled. “Now get it inside. It has a message she wants me to see.”

Seymour didn’t reach out for a bite, but I could see the flytrap quivering. The shifter reached for it, carefully holding the plant at arm’s length, and went inside, Caelan following behind.

I waited for a long moment to ensure no one would pop back outside before shifting to my wren form. A few seconds later, I sat atop his roof, inspecting the area to ensure nothing nasty would happen when I shifted back.

That was another thing about property protections. A lot of people forgot to protect the roof. Caelan had installed no less than a dozen cameras, and that was okay. I wanted him to know it was me.

But I didn’t want him to see exactly what I was going to do next, so I encouraged some mold to grow in one of the small puddles of water atop the roof and sent it crawling in different directions until every camera facing me was covered with a layer of green growth.

Time was of the essence now. Someone would quickly discover the covered cameras.

I fished in my pocket for the small bag of charged seeds and pulled out a handful.

They sparkled and glowed in the moonlight, ready to serve their purpose.

I cupped my hands together, blew into my palms, and cast the seeds off the roof, sending them scattering across Caelan’s property.

I turned in the other direction and did the same, ensuring every inch of his property was covered.

Then I did the thing that horrified every red-blooded American male obsessed with lawn care. From my other pocket, I pulled out a handful of charged dandelion seeds and scattered those in all directions.

Once I scanned his property and felt the seeds waiting in anticipation in every direction, I settled in to wait, knowing I didn’t have long.

The first horrified scream rang through the property a couple of minutes later, quickly followed by several more, until I heard Caelan’s low snarling curse.

A grin spread across my face.

Game on, asshole.