If she hadn’t been so exasperated, Cinn would’ve laughed. “Umm, no.”

And so it began, the shopping afternoon from hell. Sparkle complained up one aisle and down another. Things were too cheap, too ordinary, too this, too that, until Cinn wanted to wrap one of the pairs of too unsexy panties around Sparkle’s elitist neck and strangle her.

Cinn had given up trying to cajole Sparkle out of her bad mood in favor of looking at a few things she might buy herself. She didn’t realize she’d gotten separated from the reformed queen of all things stylish until she tripped. She would’ve gone splat in the undies aisle if someone hadn’t caught her.

Cinn looked down to see what had tripped her. Then she leaned over to get a closer look. A tree branch? Growing out of the floor? Uh-oh. She slowly straightened and turned to look at the person who’d kept her from falling.

The woman smiled at her. “You’re very hard to catch alone.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Actually, it’s very good fertilizer. Growing things waste nothing.” Airmid was tall and slender, with long flowing pale hair and an otherworldly beauty that even shoppers in a big-box store must be able to see.

Cinn glanced around. Of course, if there were no shoppers in this aisle, then no one would see anything. She swallowed hard. Where the hell was Sparkle?

“Relax, Cinn. I’m not here to rain hoes and sod down on your head. Yet. I thought we could have a little chat. Perhaps then you’d understand why I’m upset with you.” Her smile was lovely, but it didn’t hide the anger beneath it.

Okay, trying to relax here. “I don’t understand why you’re so upset. My plants don’t hurt anyone.”

“One of them bit the vampire.”

“Oh, you know about that.” How had Airmid found out about that?

“I know many things.”

If Cinn were really lucky, the goddess wouldn’t know about Wade. Suddenly, she remembered what almost happened to Vince. Now she was the one who was mad. “Why did you tell Asima to destroy Vince?”

Airmid raised a brow in surprise. “Because plants don’t think. Plants don’t feel. And plants never talk.”

“Why not? Other species have evolved.”

“Because I say so.” Suddenly she was no longer the pleasant woman of a moment ago. Her pale green eyes darkened and her hair whipped around her face as a mini tornado circled her head.

Cinn gulped and stepped back. Time to keep her mouth shut.

Airmid’s expression cleared and her hair once again lay in shining waves across her shoulders. “You’re special, Cinn. Your family has always honored me. They’ve nurtured plants throughout the centuries. But no one in your family has ever had any of my power.”