Illusions: Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Seekers Book 1) by Carina Wilder Read Free Book Online

after all?
    Then again, his sister was in no need of protection—if they were like her, they’d be just fine. But that was the thing: they weren’t like her. Not in the least. These women weren’t shifters, and the one who’d answered the door had smelled…well, she’d smelled like all sorts of things: lavender, savoury spices, fresh morning grass. She exuded a oneness with nature that he couldn’t quite explain.
    “Ho there!”
    A voice came from in front of him, in the direction of the small house that he now faced. As he looked up he saw that an older woman with long grey braids stood at its front, doing something to the casing around its windows with a pot of clay and a small sort of wooden spatula.
    “Hello,” he said as he approached.
    “What are you doing in these parts?” the woman asked, seemingly unconcerned.
    “Visiting, I suppose you’d say,” he offered. “That’s as simple a reply as I can give. Can I help you with that?”
    “If you’d hold this plank, I need to fasten it in place.”
    She offered him a chunk of crudely cut wood to suspend just under the glass of the window and turned to grab a handful of iron nails.
    Rohan held up the wood, angling it so that it cut off any potential flow of air to the indoors as the woman began to hammer it into place.
    “I see that you’ve done this before,” she said.
    “Not exactly. I grew up in a stone…house,” he said, avoiding the revelation that his childhood home had been a giant castle in England. “But I’ve seen a lot of builders at work. I’m good at imitation.”
    “I can tell by your accent that you come from over the sea,” she said. “We don’t see so many of your kind around here, you know, and those we do see aren’t generally friendly.”
    “My kind?”
    “Those with bright eyes,” she said, turning to him as she wiped perspiration from her brow with the back of her arm. “The Changers.”
----
    S era watched the man leave as Nyx made soft, disappointed noises in her ear, chirping like a cat watching a bird outdoors that it wanted to catch.
    “He’s not for us, Nyx,” she said. “I’m happy here, alone. Well, not alone. I have you and Circe.”
    More chirps.
    “Yes. I know that Circe will eventually bond, and probably move out at some point. But for now she needs me. Don’t you go trying to set me up with strange men, just because they have eyes like flame and, well, bodies that are admittedly a little beautiful.”
    The ferret turned on her shoulder, slapping her face with his tail.
    “Hey!”
    She stood and watched as the man made his way towards Hedy’s house. He did look good going, but then he’d looked awfully good coming, too.
    Hedy was still out front, and as Sera observed, the two struck up a conversation, the man helping her with her handiwork. After a few moments they both turned and looked towards Sera’s house. They were clearly speaking about her.
    She ducked, hitting her forehead on the edge of the table and letting out a soft yelp.
    “Everything all right in there, Sera?” asked Circe from the next room.
    “Fine, fine. Just being clumsy and oafish as always.”
    Obsidian flew out of the bedroom and perched on the back of a chair, and Sera knew that this was her sister’s way of checking in. Circe had always been gifted in the ways of Transference, and the eyes of the raven, Sera knew, were her sister’s in that moment.
    “I’m fine,” she said quietly, laughing. “Circe, a man came by.”
    “What?” her sister called from the next room.
    Sera wandered in to see her sitting up in bed, a broad smile on her face.
    “Lie down,” she commanded. “What on earth are you doing?”
    “I’m feeling much better, I really am.”
    Serafina studied her. The colour had returned to her cheeks, the beads of sweat disappeared. She looked…normal.
    “It worked,” Sera muttered. “Well, I’m stunned.”
    “What worked? Did you—Sera, did you use a healing stone?”
    “I did.” Sera sat on