Page 91 of A Fate of Blood and Magic (Fated #2)

It made me hate what my parents had done even more. If this was her home and my parents had killed not only her people, but also her land, did I desecrate it by standing on it?

“What is this place?” Jasmine asked.

There wasn’t much to look at. Several skinny, dried trees and layers and layers of snow. Something that appeared to be gray soot covered a large, desolate area. But there was something about the land that made it feel powerful. Like magic still lived here.

“This land is called Respandora,” Alastor said. “It was once home to thousands of mages.”

“Like you and Teddy?” Juanita asked.

“Just like us,” he agreed.

Teddy inhaled sharply. “Look,” she said, taking Alastor’s hand and leading him to a large clearing opposite of where we stood.

Alastor and Brenton used their magic to clear the snow to make our hike easier. When Victoria huffed, a billow of white breath coming from her panting mouth, I picked her up. She hugged my neck, giving my cheek a quick peck.

“I love you, Eli.” Victoria’s words speared my heart.

I hadn’t realized how much I’d wanted to hear those words from her or any of the girls. But there they were offered in such a simple but healing way. She loved me. My little girl loved me.

I nuzzled my face closer to her. “I love you too, Tori.”

Despite the way my world stopped at her declaration, time kept ticking by.

While snow covered every inch of the land, the clearing was green with a single, tiny tree springing from the ground. A cluster of green grasslike needles grew around the tip.

Teddy stopped a few paces before they reached the green clearing, and Alastor halted with her.

“It’s a Sali oak,” Alastor said, his tone bewildered. “I didn’t think . . .” He cleared his throat. “They’re all supposed to be dead.”

“It looks young,” Teddy whispered. “Is it young, or do they grow small?”

“No.” Alastor laughed. “They grow thick and tall. Their branches reach wide and are filled with leaves so that you can barely see through them to see the sky. We once had a whole forest of them. ”

“I remember seeing a forest in Leanora’s vision,” Teddy said. “It was to the side of the village.”

“The village would’ve started over there.” Alastor pointed at the area covered in gray snow.

Teddy looked around, turning in slow circles as if she were picturing what it once looked like. “Then the forest would’ve started here.”

Teddy walked away from the young tree, and when she stopped in front of the single dead tree, the snow beneath her melted to give way to green grass.

Startled, Teddy touched the dried tree and, with a gasp, stepped away from it.

From the base of the tree, the bark started to crack off, only to be replaced with newer, healthier bark.

I stared in awe as the large tree took form, the limbs stretching with leaves covering the canopy of the tree.

“How?” Teddy whispered. “I didn’t use any magic or anything . . .”

“Mage land responds to mage blood.” Alastor grinned.

When he stepped on another patch of snow, his smile widened when the snow melted to unearth the green grass that somehow still lived beneath the frozen ground. He knelt when a tiny leaf popped up from the ground.

“I don’t think it’s going to take much to heal your land,” a familiar voice said with a shy laugh.

“Leah.” Teddy spun around to smile at our healer.

“Is everything all right?” I asked her, worry immediately gripping me.

“I invited her,” Alastor said as Leah blushed.

“You . . .” Oh.

Smirking, Teddy settled by my side.

When Alastor reached his hand out to her, Leah took it. He led her to the green grass where he pulled out a blanket from his inner pocket of magic. Before laying his blanket out, he handed Brenton and me one too.

On the blankets, Leah curled against Alastor’s side while Teddy did the same with me.

I held her to me, running my hand over the long sleeve of her shirt.

Once Brenton pulled out our gifts, he gave the girls a few toys to play with, and they soon took off running with Juanita rolling on the soft grass.

“Your babes seem quite happy right now,” Leah said, a smile pointed at Teddy’s stomach as she took a sip of the glass of spirits Brenton had poured for her.

I stilled to listen better, and sure enough, their hearts beat stronger. Similar to the way they beat when the magic emanated from the living book.

Teddy grabbed a cube of cheese. “They’re either happy about being here or that I’m feeding them cheese.” She closed her eyes as she chewed. “It’s our favorite food.”

“I don’t remember you liking cheese this much in Colina,” I said.

“That’s because our cheese sucked compared to this,” she said, taking another cube.

Brenton screwed up his nose. “Aside from burgers and maybe cupcakes and coffee, your food does suck compared to ours.”

“Maybe coffee?” Teddy gaped back at him. “That’s sacrilegious.”

I shrugged when Brenton shot me a confused look. Guardians, if I knew what my mate meant half the time.

“So are we going to pretend we all knew Alastor and Leah were together?” Brenton shot them a mischievous look.

Teddy raised a finger to her mouth. “I was going for pretending.”

Leah shifted uncomfortably .

“Just checking.” Brenton winked, and although he kept his smile in place, I noticed the way his shoulders stiffened. “Since we’re pretending everything’s normal, how’s Etienne?”

“Nope,” Teddy said.

Brenton angled his head in confusion. “I can’t ask how the male is doing?”

“Fine,” she amended. “Ask but then we move on.”

“He’s responded well to Alastor’s and Teddy’s magic in combination with the medicine,” Leah said.

“I tested the components of a seizure pill the scholars have been working on, and it’s near completion.

They missed only one component and believe they should have the medication completed in a few days’ time. ”

“Will you need to increase the dosage, or is he fine where he is?” Brenton asked.

I loved the sound Teddy made when she growled.

Brenton held up his hands. “That’s the last question.”

“It goes against doctor, or healer-patient confidentiality laws,” Teddy said.

“We don’t have such a thing here,” Brenton shot back with a smirk.

She crossed her arms. “Well, you should.”

“I agree, we should,” Leah said. “It would make my job easier when families ask questions my patients don’t want them knowing the answer to.”

“You want to make a note of that?” I asked Brenton. “When we meet with the council to discuss what medical equipment needs to be updated, we can bring that up.”

Brenton pretended to write in the air. “Noted.”

Leah shook her head although amusement filtered through her expressions before they sobered.

“For now, Etienne is stable. Since the magic and medicine used are new to me, I’m assessing him every day to monitor for improvement or regression.

I won’t know if we need to adjust the dosage until I consider the evidence. ”

“Okay.” Teddy huffed when no one spoke. “I’m done pretending. How did you two . . . you know?”

“After your celebratory dinner at the castle, we started talking,” Leah said when Alastor remained quiet.

His chuckle was low and light. “She’s being kind. After that night, I found reasons to summon Leah, almost every day. Eventually, she felt pity for me and agreed to meet with me in person.”

“I didn’t pity you.” Leah squeezed his arm.

“I came to like you. I even started looking forward to your magic summoning me.” She turned to us, but I felt her attention on Brenton.

“It’s different for two individuals to come together when we aren’t soul-bound mates.

My mate died several years ago when we were both younglings. ”

“And I assume if I had one, she died during what should’ve been my lifetime,” Alastor said.

A darkness spread over his features, but in a blink, it was gone.

“Without the bond, there isn’t that instinct to trust and draw you together,” Leah said. “It’s all very unknown and a little terrifying. A lot terrifying.” She laughed. “It’s why we kept our meetings a secret. That, and to be honest, I didn’t want a relationship that could lead to an intended.”

“I wore her down, though,” Alastor said with a smirk.

She smiled affectionately at him. “Although Daxon, my mate, died many years ago, it hurt to put that chapter of my life away. Alastor lets me talk about him, though, and it’s helped me begin to heal from that loss.

” She leaned closer to him. “Fate can sometimes be cruel, but you can’t let fear guide you.

It isn’t an easy path to follow, but I’m glad I did. ”

I heard Brenton drink his glass of spirits quickly before he poured himself another glass. How I wanted that for him. Not to let fear keep him from stepping away from Finley and finding an intended who could fill that deep and lonely hole that lived in his chest.

“Do you think the land will continue to respond to you the way it did earlier?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Only one way to find out.” Teddy raised her brows in question.

Before Alastor stood, he touched Leah’s thigh and gave her a light squeeze. Her cheeks reddened with a deep blush, but she didn’t bother hiding her smile.

Together, my mate and her cousin walked around the land that once again belonged to them. And just as it did earlier, the land responded to them. Green spread all around us, with dead trees coming back to life while new shrubs sprang from the fresh soil.

The girls ran across the fields where magic played in their hair. The snowflakes that fell melted before they reached the ground, and the girls seemed to bask in the warmth it offered.

Teddy’s laughter filled the air with such delight that I reveled in it, wanting to draw out every moment.

When they reached the snow covered in gray, the girls rushed into it, as if expecting the snow to melt and give way to grass the way the rest had.

When they fell through the deep snow, Brenton and I hurried to our feet.

Alastor dug them out as we reached where Teddy stood a few steps from the gray snow.

A sense of dread filled me, making my blood turn cold.

Something that felt a lot like rage thrummed through the suddenly chilly air .

“Teddy.” I put my arms around her, pulling her back while Brenton tugged on her arm.

Alastor carried the girls away from the snow, and together, we walked away from it. My body didn’t relax until that ominous feeling passed when we reached where we’d had our picnic. Teddy leaned into me with her arms wrapped around her chest.

“What was that?” she whispered.

When she trembled, I leaned down to bring the blanket we’d sat on around her shoulders.

“If I’m right, and that’s where the village was, then that’s where our people died,” Alastor said.

“It felt like . . .” Teddy paused. “They weren’t just angry. It felt like they wanted to hurt me. No, worse.” Her body quaked again. “I think they would’ve killed me if they could. I don’t understand. Why would they want to kill me?”

Already knowing the answer, I put a protective hand over Teddy’s stomach.

“They didn’t want to kill Teddy, right?” I asked Alastor. “It’s because of me. Because of my family, because of what my blood did to them.”

I drew her closer to me, wanting to take her away from the very land that spoke to her.

“Yes,” Alastor whispered.

“I don’t understand.”

“My parents massacred every single person who lived in this village,” I said to her, remorse filling me until I was certain it’d pour out. “The land responds to you because of your mage blood. How do you think the people would respond to my blood that swims in our babes’ bodies?”

She flinched. “The boys?” she asked. “They would hurt the boys?”

“Someone left magic where the village once stood,” Alastor said, his expression thoughtful. “Maybe all of them did. It isn’t their souls who wanted to attack, but the magic left behind. I don’t know that the magic understood who or what it was attacking. It simply sensed Elias’s familial blood.”

Teddy’s expression fell. “The boys will never be able to come here, will they?”

“I know you want your boys to learn our magic and be able to grow up here and in Niev. You have my word I will look into this. They will be safe in Respandora, but until we figure out how to calm the magic over the village, you must stay away from that area. Do you understand?”

She bowed her head. “Yes.”

“Did you bring the living book?” Alastor asked.

Brenton pulled it from his inner pocket and gave it to Alastor.

“Do you trust me to look into this?” Alastor asked.

“Of course, I trust you, Alastor,” she said.

“Then what do you say we enjoy the rest of our picnic, and I’ll start studying the book tonight?”

Without saying anything, we settled back on the blankets.

Although conversation flowed with ease and the girls entertained us with their antics, I felt the way Teddy’s soul remained unsettled.

Using our soulmate bond, I sent my love to her through our joined threads.

When the ribbons of her soul stitched itself closer to mine, I knew she didn’t hold this against me.

And I knew if anyone could figure out how to right this, it would be Alastor.