Page 50 of Hexes & Heartstrings (Shifters of Bastion Keep #2)

Help me find my other heart—

Let no stone keep us apart.

There was resistance as he merged into the wall, like he were trying to stride through the bottom of a pool in order to sneak up and grab the foot of one of his dads.

And once he was fully inside, sight vanished.

Even the sounds of conflict turned to silence, an unexpected blessing.

However, there was no way to tell even which way was up, and he had an entire Great Hall to traverse.

But didn't Bruin know Bastion Keep?Hadn't he walked with bare feet through the Great Hall every day for months, now?Didn't the stones of the castle know him, as he knew them?

His moved as quick as he dared, his steps taken with care to remain within the comforting stone.He went a measured distance, then turned once he'd reached the back of the room.

Just a few more steps, and then…

Bruin emerged from behind the throne in the Great Hall, his bare feet silent as he treaded forward.A crouching Russell, hands on his head, immediately turned to see him, and Bruin raised a finger to his lips.

Unfortunately, even the faint clack of his bracelets sliding down his arm was enough to alert Dafydd, and the witch turned towards him as well, his face pale and looking almost like he were having a panic attack.

"D-don't," the man said as he brandished his dagger, pointing it first at Bruin, then at Russell.

But his weight was on his back foot, and during the battle he'd wandered closer and closer to Lord Kerry's back, standing in the shadow of his mate, right now a statue as more than twenty spirits stretched out from that body, fighting against Bruin's friends.

More importantly, he'd grown slack with the magic-forged chains that bound Russell to himself, a good fifteen or twenty feet between them, now.

Nowhere near close enough to be a threat, at least not physically.

"Somewhere along the line," Bruin said, sidestepping closer and closer to Russell.

His boyfriend approached him in turn, until Dafydd pulled the chains with his left hand preventing him from moving.

"Somewhere you've forgotten what it means to be a witch, I think.

We can do what we want, yes, but only because we also respect free will and the choices of others. "

"There wasn't the modern rede in my time," Dafydd said in return."But I've heard things like it, and I only ever tried to do right by those I love."

Carefully, trying not to think about the growls and screams and cries that he was hearing in the rest of the Great Hall, Bruin reached a hand out to the shackles that were around Russell.

For a brief moment, Dafydd tensed, the chains rattling, but then slumped his shoulders and he nodded, dropping his hold on them.

"The chains are real things, not just magic," he explained.

"That's fine."

With one hand on the shackles around Russell's wrist and the other on a hematite bracelet, Bruin spoke.

Never chained, nor bound;

A wolf lives free.

Jerking on the bracelet, its cheap plastic shattered in an overt display, as did the shackles around his boyfriend, everything clattering to the ground.

With a grateful whine, Russell immediately bound forward, wrapping his werewolf self protectively around Bruin as he pulled him back several steps away from the hostile witch.

"Easy, Russ," he said, patting the arm as he felt his boyfriend rub his muzzle against the side of his head."I love you.I've got you, and I love you."

Dafydd seemed to be watching the two of them dejectedly, then turned around and lifted a hand in his mate's direction.He brought it close to Kerry's back, but flinched back before actually touching him.

"I never did mean for anyone to get hurt," he said quietly."I just wanted my mate back."

Bruin watched as his fellow witch studied the dagger he still held in his hand, then seemed to reach a decision, gripping it more tightly.

"Dafydd, don't do anything stupid."

"No worries about that, shirtless hero," he said offhandedly, giving him an embarassed shrug."I'm just setting things right, now that I know what to do."

And then before Bruin could react, Dafydd stabbed Lord Kerry in the back.

"Hey, fuck no!"

Bruin hurried to step forward, the words of a healing charm on his lips, but Russell tightened his grip around him just as a great thunderous resound swept through the Great Hall, staggering most of the fighters.

And then, as Dafydd withdrew his dagger, Bruin could see black shadows sticking to its blade, seemingly drawn inside of it.It was like an airlock had been breached in space, creating a vacuum that was drawing in the shadows that were bound to Kerry.

"You wretched pissant!" one of the drake spirits roared, flapping its wings repeatedly but still losing ground to the incessant pulling of the witch's blade."You'd break your oath to us?"

Dafydd laughed, wild and carefree and triumphant like someone in the middle of free-fall, a firebrand that seemed at home in the middle of the chaos.

"Oh, now you care about oaths.But would you look at that?It seems that while I fulfilled mine by building you this place, you failed yours by allowing my beloved Kerry to suffer a mortal wound.Bet you wished you'd completed your end of the contract now, yeah, you slimy bastards?"

Still wrapped in the arms of his boyfriend, Bruin couldn't think of what to do other than watch as all the room's ghosts and spirits were drawn into the dagger, their power greatly diminished for having broken a sworn oath.

Or perhaps it was because Dafydd had been the one to originally summon them and thus held power over them; it was something that Lux would know, and Bruin would have to ask him, later.

As the last shred of shadow entered the dagger, now black as night and quivering in his hand, Dafydd drew out a long, fine chain of silver, which he used to wrap around hand and dagger both, chanting some kind of charm as he did so and quieting its restlessness.

Sergiy arrived first, dropping his spear to grab hold of a crumpling Lord Kerry, lowering the fellow drake shifter carefully to the ground.

Bruin saw his warlord boyfriend breathing heavily, red blood dripping down his chest from several lacerations, but his gaze was unwavering as he seemed to take the scene in.

"Is there going to be trouble?" he asked the old witch.

"Not from me, m'lord," Dafydd said, sounding tired as he lowered his hand.He took a half-step towards his still-open bloody rift, but couldn't seem to take his eyes off of the shallowly breathing body of his mate.

"His heartbeat's uneven," Sergiy said quietly."Sounds like fibrillation of some kind.I don't think he'll live."

Dafydd gave a bitter laugh."Death is what he wanted, though, isn't it?

But I'm sorry, m'lord.Sorrier than words can say, but I don't have time for apologies, these spirits will break free if I stay in their fortress even a minute longer.

I'm going to return them to their proper realms the long way 'round, even if it takes me years to travel to them all. "

Lord Kerry made a choking sound.

"Dafydd…"

Bruin saw Lord Kerry grope a hand in Dafydd's direction, and at first it looked it looked like the witch wanted to linger, to say more, but the man simply shook his head once before turning to charge headlong into his portal like his feet were on fire, and the last Bruin saw or heard was the beginning of a keening cry.

Lady Yi seemed intent on chasing him down, leaping for the closing portal in her tiger form, but Sergiy barked a command.

"Hold!Let him go.If he wants to make penance by taking care of malevolent spirits, I say let him."

"I'd rather he pay with his head, but as you wish, Lord Sergiy."She spat at where a last few smoky wisps indicated where the portal had been, then came to stand over the struggling body of Lord Kerry."So what about this one?Seems that his mate's done the job for us."

"He's dying.I can hear his heart beating erratically.But to let him pass like this…"

And then Sergiy looked to Bruin, his expression blank.

These are the kinds of choices his mate has to make, Bruin realized.

The man they came to slay was dying, but now the fight and danger were over.

Does Sergiy let him die, respecting his last wishes?

Does he try to help him and get him to a doctor?

Or would he still be a threat once he recovered?

But Russell was already carrying Bruin forward, and he himself was pulling off two of his necklaces, and he decided that he didn't really feel like thinking about it.Gentle werewolves and their Green witches help people, and that was that.

"I need my bag," he said, pointing at the side of the room, and Russell was immediately running in that direction, diving past the gathering warband."Sergiy, get the injured guardians triaged!I'll heal what I can, and we can ripcord the rest for Rosemary and Teresa."

And as his mate leapt to his own feet to begin barking orders, and while Bruin drew white light into himself and began rolling Kerry onto his chest so that he could get to the wound, preparing himself for a delicate casting, the words of Rosemary's foretelling came back to him.

Maybe the omen of death had been for Sergiy or Marka, like they had first feared.

Maybe it had been meant for Russell, who might have been slain by a panicked Dafydd.

Maybe it had been meant for Dafydd himself, or even the dying lord beneath his hands right now, assuming that he acted quickly enough before his heart gave out for good.

It didn't really matter who it had been meant for, because each of their lives were precious things, and it was a Green witch's charge to prevent harm where they could.

Before he devoted himself fully to his healing, he vowed that once he got back to Bastion, he'd make his best friend the best damn homecooked meal he could as a thank you for giving him that opportunity.

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