Page 34 of Slaying With Sylphs (Haven Ever After #6)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

LOU

D irk and I help Connall plate the chicken marsala and bring it to the table. Laerith sits at the head with her arms folded across her chest, a toothpick hanging from the corner of her mouth. Ruby eyes glitter as I set the plate of food down in front of her.

She reaches up and pats the side of my ass, then gives it a little squeeze. “I like it when you serve me, little blue.”

Dirk lets out an honest to gods growl and grabs his knife as he sits down to Laerith’s right. “Hands off my woman.”

“Begads!” She says with a mocking sneer. “A woman has hit on my woman! Whatever will I do? My manliness is affronted!” She follows the mockery up by sticking out her tongue.

When Dirk rises with the knife in his hand, I shoot them both accusatory looks.

I swat Laerith’s hand off my ass and wag my finger in her face. “You, stop teasing my mate.” Turning to Dirk, I shoot a meaningful glance at the knife in his hand. “And you, put that down because she’s our guest.”

He opens his mouth to say something, but Connall grabs him by the shoulders and directs him to the next seat over—farthest from our dinner guest.

Laerith smirks like she’s just won. Blue flames dance in her eyes as she grins down the table toward Dirk. “Good thing your handsome mate put you there so I didn’t have to do it myself.” Her fangs glint in the low light.

Rolling my eyes, I walk to the far end of the table and pick the opposite head chair with Dirk to my right. As I sit, I bat my lashes at Laerith, whose smile becomes a scowl.

Connall offers Laerith a bowl of salad, indicating she should go first. “We can’t thank you enough for working with Lou. The appearance of her power was a real shock for two of us.”

“You can say that again,” I mutter as I dig into the perfectly cooked chicken.

Dirk scooches his chair closer, squeezing my thigh under the table as he smirks.

Laerith looks between us. “Tell me what you’ve learned from this book you mentioned earlier. We’ll go from there.”

For the next quarter hour we share everything we’ve read about. Admittedly, we’re still just halfway through. But even that much knowledge has made me feel so much more empowered. Or maybe I’m still in shock. That’s possible too.

“One thing you mentioned that I cannot stress enough is what her needs will be after expulsions of power. Even after our sessions.” She wags her brows at me, then returns her focus to my mates. “If she fights this Leighton character, she’ll need you afterward in a way she hasn’t needed you before. As in, drink plenty of water and call in sick for a few days.”

Connall’s eyes spring wide, and he runs a hand over his mouth, looking at me. “It almost sounds like an omega’s heat.”

Laerith makes a pleased sound. “Build her a nest, if you like, alpha. Her sexual need will be precisely like a heat.”

They’re just casually discussing my sexual intensity like it’s regular ole dinner conversation. This is so…weird. Except that the look on Connall’s face tells me he couldn’t be more excited by the prospect of sharing something like a heat together.

I take another bite of marsala and chew around buttery, mushroomy deliciousness. “What else, Laerith? What do I have to know before you skedaddle out of here?”

“Yer welcome to run along any time,” Dirk says playfully, batting his lashes as he smiles. “Wouldn’t want your knickers in a twist of Evenia randomly shows up to town. Her son lives here, yeh know.”

Laerith’s red eyes narrow, and she takes an aggressive bite of her marsala.

I sigh. This is gonna be a long dinner with all of this elemental posturing back and forth.

But I kinda think I love it.

“ T ell me about these Evertons,” Laerith demands, crossing her muscular arms over her chest.

We’re standing with Morgan at Doc Slade’s the morning after dinner. No idea where Slade is, but we let ourselves in, and now I’m staring at Bellami’s softly rising chest, even though he’s facing the ceiling, completely catatonic.

I reach down and straighten his hat. I remember him telling me once that it’s highly inappropriate for anyone to see a gnome’s hair, and his hat seems to be in danger of falling off.

“This is my friend Bellami,” I say. “He tasked me with helping the gnomes build their new village, and?—”

Laerith snorts. “A witch in a gnome village? You must be mistaken.”

Morgan huffs out an irritated-sounding noise. “Why is it so unbelievable to everyone that Lou would get invited to help the gnomes? They fucking love her. Everybody loves her. There’s not a better person to help them.”

“Why’d they ask you?” Laerith turns and drops her hands casually to her sides, although she widens her stance.

I’m ready when blue flame shoots from one hand and forms a long, wicked curved blade. Hissing, I call my power and shove it toward her in a rush of blue flame. At the last minute, it dissipates around her blade and dies a quick death.

“Aww, godsdamnit,” I huff, returning my focus to Bellami and Amatheia.

“This is new,” Morgan reminds me for the millionth time. “You’re kicking ass, Auntie. Go easy on yourself, okay?”

It’s Laerith’s turn to huff. “Or ignore your niece’s stupid advice because a revenant is attacking your friends, and maybe your family could be next. Use that impending tragedy as fuel for your fire.”

“That’s too much pressure!” Morgan grabs my hand and pulls me close to her, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

I snake my arm around her waist. She’s about to go into mama bear mode, which is funny because usually that’s me about my nieces. But since they all mated monsters, they’ve taken a more motherly approach to me, and I find that sort of hilarious.

“She’s right, Mor,” I whisper to my niece, pinching her muscular hip. “I’ve got to be ready.”

“Ready, sure,” Morgan barks. “But you’re not gonna learn everything in a fucking week.” She raises an arm and points one angry finger at Laerith. “Chill out, lady.”

Laerith shrugs and jerks her head toward Amatheia. “Tell me about that one.”

“The merking’s eldest daughter, Amatheia” I whisper. “My mates found her in human form in the woods.”

Laerith drops to a knee beside the giant tub Doc Slade hauled in for Amatheia to rest in. The mermaid’s tail hangs over the edge.

“Just one fin.” She looks up. “So, in human form, she’s got just one foot?”

“Half of one leg,” I confirm. “Not sure why that matters.”

“Maybe it doesn’t,” the vampire croons. “Maybe it does. He seems to have attacked those who’d be least suited to defend themselves.” She glances around the room as if it’ll help her think. After a long moment, she heads for the door, calling out to us over her shoulder, “Come along, my little humies. Now that we’ve recentered on why this work matters, let’s get serious.”

“Humies,” Morgan grunts. “Haven’t been called that since the first week we arrived. And we’re not even human; we’re witches!”

I sigh. “Let’s go, though. If I don’t follow quickly, she’ll make me run laps and I already did that all morning. And while I’m down with tossing flames at garbage bags, ya girl is not down with running, okay?”

Morgan laughs and heads for the door. As she goes, I turn to look at our fallen friends.

Reaching out, I give Bellami’s tiny hand a squeeze.

“I’ll fix this,” I promise him. “I’ll get you back to Penn soon. No matter what.”

T he next two days of working with Laerith have my mind blank and fired up all at the same time. She’s a taskmaster, demanding I not work at Alkemi while she’s here so we can spend every minute together.

“Focus, Lou,” she snaps, breaking through my thoughts.

“Why can’t we just go look for him?” I whine for the millionth time.

Laerith plants her hands on her hips and sighs, staring up into the sky. She mutters something I can’t quite make out, but I’m pretty sure I hear the words “asshole” and “reprieve”.

I stare at the side of Higher Grounds, focusing on a bag of trash that I’ve been trying to light on fire for the last ten minutes. Conversation from Main Street distracts me, and I turn to see.

“Lou,” Laerith sighs, rubbing her face with both hands. “You won’t always have the benefit of a quiet forest to use your power in. Focus, girl. Must I repeat myself a thousand times?”

“Pretty sure it’s already been two thousand,” I mutter.

Laerith stalks closer, bringing her lips to my ear. “If it’s three thousand before you get this, I will begin to question my skills as a teacher.”

“Noted,” I grumble. “Scoot, you’re distracting me. You’re too hot.”

She slaps my ass before stalking a few feet away. When I glare over at her, she grins. “Didn’t mean to distract, Lou.”

Riiight. I’m beginning to internalize more of what I learned about blue witches and sexuality. I’ve always loved sex and had a healthy sex life, whether dating or not. But there’s something about the magic that amplifies all of that. I can barely keep my hands to myself when I’m around Connall and Dirk. It was like that from the very beginning. Laerith told us last night that most blue witches take multiple mates to deal with their sexual demands.

“I know exactly what you’re thinking about,” she croons, slipping across the space between us. She leans down and moans in my ear, sounding like she’s getting off right here. Her moans go rough and ragged as she pants into my ear. “Laerith, right there, please. Oh fuckkkk!”

“Stop it,” I hiss, slapping her boob. She’s all talk.

“And so,” she snaps. “You gonna wait all day? Or can we commence with the training? Or perhaps you need further distraction…” She slings an arm around my waist and hauls me against her taller figure so our boobs mash together.

“Maybe.” I bat my lashes playfully just as something appears out of the corner of my eye.

Shadows blur by the trash can. I freeze in place as they twist and form into a now familiar shape.

“Leighton,” I breathe, begging my lungs to fill with oxygen. I shove my way out of Laerith’s arms.

Has he already hurt someone? Is he about to?

Blue flames leap from my fingertips, curling up my arms.

Laerith spins to my side, alert in a moment. She looks where I’m looking, but I know she can’t see him. They’re not bound together like he and I are.

“You see him right now?”

Balling my fists, I nod. Laerith straightens next to me, matching my stance.

“Do as we discussed, Lou,” she instructs. “Focus on imagining your power as a weapon. We must release Leighton from his revenant form so his soul can return to his goddess.”

In my mind’s eye, I picture the glowing, long sphere she taught me to think about. It’s blue, because of course.

My blue moon wolf.

My blue lightning sylph.

The tiny blue flames licking over my palms.

Leighton sneers at me and hover-walks backward toward Main Street. I jolt forward to follow him as Laerith snatches at my arm but misses. I hear her comm’ing Arkan, but everything past that blurs as Leighton’s figure backs toward Main.

Despite Arkan’s public warning about what happened to Amatheia and Bellami, Main Street is busy. I recognize a dozen familiar faces as Leighton moves into the crowd, looking around like he’s picking his next victim.

A tiny voice shouts my name. Leighton and I spin at the same time to see Iggy barreling through the air toward me, his wings flapping chaotically at his back. Time slows. Leighton and I look at one another. His half-smile turns into a wicked grin, and he moves toward Iggy.

I scream Iggy’s name and shout for him to run. But all he does is pause, confused, in the middle of Main, staring at me.

Desperation rising, I claw my way toward him, but Laerith gets there first, snatching Iggy out of thin air. She slips with impossible speed to the opposite side of the street as relief floods me.

Leighton turns to me with a snarl, both fists balled as I pause in front of him. Around us, monsters stop and turn to look, confused at what’s going on. Murmurs rustle through the crowd. Leighton looks around, and for a moment, I think I see fear and terror on his handsome features.

I’ve got to get him out of there.

“Let me help you, Leighton,” I say calmly. In my mind’s eye, I picture the glowing blue spear.

He turns to me and growls, that same deep wolfy growl Connall sometimes does when he’s riled up. It lifts the hair on my nape. It’s easy to imagine the shifters as predators seeing Leighton right now.

A horrible thought occurs to me. Can he shift into his wolf like this? I gulp around the idea of that.

Iggy raises a racket across the street. Out of the corner of my eye, I make out Laerith holding him on her muscular shoulder, even though he’s squawking and throwing an absolute fit.

Leighton’s eyes follow the noise, and his smirk returns. I sense he’s about to move just moments before he does. We run in parallel toward Iggy, and the moment Laerith sees us coming, she slips up the street with the young gargoyle. But Iggy’s losing his mind, stabbing at her face with his tail spade and shrieking like he’s possessed.

I scream the moment she loses her hold on him, and he spins, executing a perfect flip in thin air and slicing toward me. Leighton disappears and reappears behind Iggy, raising both hands, his mouth open on a long, loud wail.

Envisioning the spear piercing Leighton through the heart, just like Laerith taught me, I cup my hands together and push the magic away from me, begging it to protect Iggy as he flaps wildly toward me. A stream of blue flames shoots out of my palms, and Iggy squeaks, darting around them.

He lands on top of my head and slings himself around my neck, choking me half to death with his chubby frame in front of my face.

“Ig, fuck!” I shout, trying to shake him away just enough to see.

Focus. Focus. Focus.

I picture the spear entering Leighton’s heart. A loud thud and a grunt break my concentration. Reaching up, I tear Iggy from over my face and jam him on my shoulder, looking at where Leighton stood.

He was a solid ten feet away, and now he stands inches from Iggy and me. Like this, he towers over us. Iggy roars, likely sensing something’s wrong. It’s a deep battle cry that nearly ruptures my eardrums as he yanks at my hair, unable to see the threat.

Leighton glares at me, his features twisted into a sneer. His eyes drop down to his chest, where just the blue-jeweled hilt of my spear protrudes. He clutches at it, tugging as Laerith appears by my side. She reaches for Iggy, but he’s stabbing wildly in front of us, trying to dispel an enemy he can’t see.

“Think about releasing him,” Laerith whispers, reaching down to rest her hand in the middle of my back.

“Lou! Lou!” I hear my mates even though I can’t tear my focus from Leighton, who’s still grabbing at the weapon lodged all the way through him.

“Quiet!” Laerith hisses over my head.

A crowd has gathered around us, staring, but I pay them no mind.

Laerith pats Iggy’s haunch. “You cannot see the revenant, young one, but simply lend Lou your comfort and support. That will be the greatest help you can give, young one.”

Iggy presses tighter to my head until I’m practically wearing a gargoyle hat, but when he wraps a hand around my head to hold my ear, and his spade slips into my shirt to rest over my heart, I pull in a deep, steadying breath.

I think about my mates. I think about Leighton, and that terrible time I wasn’t in control of my body. And then I pray for him to return to Alaya, the patron goddess of all shifters.

“You can go, Leighton,” I whisper, focusing on the spear, willing it to spread battle magic throughout the twisted, dark form holding him captive.

Blue flames form a circle where the spear’s stuck, radiating outward like fire burning a sheet of paper. Leighton claws and scratches at it, terror taking over his features as he steps backward.

Iggy rubs soft circles over my heart, and Laerith presses her hand higher up my back.

Then, out of nowhere, my nieces join us, their hands finding spots near Laerith’s as tears fill my eyes. Connall and Dirk come next, steady presences as Connall’s arm slips around my waist. Dirk’s there in elemental form, sending a cool breeze over my cheeks, telling me he loves me with action.

The strength of my love and devotion to my family surges through me. I can’t allow them to be hurt, and I can’t allow Leighton to be like this, not if I have an ounce of power that could change the outcome for him.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper as the fiery circle spreads outward. Gasps go up around us, murmurs as the Evertons begin to see Leighton for the first time. By the time the blue flames reach his extremities, his whole figure is cloaked in a blue tint, all the way to his eyelashes.

He glances around, looking shocked and unaware.

“I release you,” I say a little louder. “I release you from this prison, Leighton. I’m so sorry, but you’re free.”

Dark eyes rove the crowd, the spear seemingly forgotten. They land on Connall and soften, then return to me. “Louuuuu Heeeectorrrr,” he murmurs.

“You remember me.” It’s a statement. I know he does. It’s always been us bound up in this horrible magical contract that led to innocent monsters being hurt.

“I’m sorry,” I repeat. “I had no control over what happened to you then or now, and I’m still sorry.”

He halts a moment, then lifts a hand to look at it. The tips of his fingers seem to blur and move, and then they disappear into tiny blue dots that float away on the evening breeze. More and more of him disappears until he has no hands.

He looks up at me. “I don’t blame you, Lou Hector,” he says calmly. “I’m happy for you.”

Grief chokes me as I watch more of him disappear, using my magic to coax his soul out of the earthly binding. Power builds and builds under my skin, blue flames sluicing along my hands as Leighton disappears faster and faster.

“Easy, Lou,” Laerith whispers.

Leighton looks at me with a soft smile. “Goodbye, and thank you…” He closes his eyes and breathes slowly, his head falling back as he lifts what’s left of his arms.

Flames swirl up my fingers to my elbows as magic builds and sparks. My vision goes blue until all of downtown is cloaked in the same hue as Leighton. Every heartbeat is like a blue flare within each monster. I become aware of them, of their life forces.

Of the control I have over those life forces, if I wanted it.

“Easy, girl,” Laerith hisses. “Don’t let it go to your head!”

“You’ve got this,” Connall purrs, the sound vibrating up my back.

Magic stings its way along my skin as Leighton disappears from view, and then it barrels through me, exploding out of my fingertips. I’m barely aware of the sounds of glass breaking and monsters shrieking.

And then it’s lights out for ya girl Lou.