Page 3 of Traitor Witch (The Deadwood #1)

Chapter Three

NOSTER

I t takes maybe five seconds for the familiarity of the sounds I’m hearing to register. I’ve heard those two women haggling with the vendor before, and the clanging of a boy knocking over a pile of lobster cages. Any moment now the baker will call out…

“Bread! Fresh bread! Straight from the oven!”

Yep, there’s the baker.

Fuck, it’s happening now?

I turn to my twin, or at least, I hope I’m facing him.

“Cas, I need you to swim back to the ship and tell Valorean to expect us back after nightfall instead. And bring the rowboat back with you, we’re bringing a guest.”

I hear him swallow. “Now?”

I nod. “It has to be now.”

His long, drawn-out sigh precedes the splash of his body slicing through water, but I don’t have time to hear if he maintains control over his beast or shifts on contact with the deep, cold water of the bay .

No, my vision was clear. I have to get Cas out of the way and then move fast.

The tip of my cane skims the cobbles. The bumpy surface makes the end bounce around randomly until it’s nearly impossible to tell if I’m about to trip and fall flat on my face. The only useful thing about the damned cane right now is that it makes my blindness pretty obvious to the people around me.

“Seer,” they whisper amongst themselves. “Fate-touched.”

Yeah, the goddess of Fate is a bitch who hasn’t learned to ask consent before touching people.

Thankfully, only one person is running for their life, too busy looking over their shoulder for their pursuers to notice me.

She sends us both flying as her weight slams into me. The momentum knocks the wind out of my lungs, and I land flat on my back, her straddling me in a way that makes my cock stand to attention.

I haven’t let myself scent the air, yet my body already knows who she is to me.

My hand fists in the fabric of her robe before she can move off me.

I have precious little time.

Barely enough to save her.

“Guards with crossbows are waiting for you on the rooftops of Main Street. You need to stop running and blend in until you can reach the temple. There will be a ship here at nightfall which will take you to safety. Ask the fishermen for the Deadwood .”

I don’t dare blink. I can’t do anything that will change my vision.

I hear her suck in a breath, about to shove me away and demand answers. Then she notices my pearly white eyes and freezes .

“Thank you, Seer.”

By the Goddesses, her voice. Like rough velvet on my skin. Temptation and salvation all wrapped up in one package. My beast coils under the surface of my thoughts, daring me to take that single sniff to confirm what we already know.

“Go!” I fling her away from me.

As soon as her warmth is gone, I lose the will to hold back. My nostrils flare and my soul sings as the scent which torments my visions fills my lungs. Crushed, tart berries, fresh herbs, and a hint of something sugary sweet.

Our mate. At last.

I’m still sitting on the cobbles, revelling in her scent, half an hour later when Cas returns.

I hear the splash of oars in the water before the predictable yelling begins.

“Noster!” My twin’s panic always makes him even louder than usual.

I clear my throat before answering. “I’m here.”

If frowning has a sound, it’s the squelch of Cas’s boots as he bends to help me up.

The sounds of the market are eclipsed by the strangled roar of his beast as he scents her.

“Is that?”

I nod. “Our mate.”

Cas’s supporting hand vanishes, and the splash of water that drenches me and everyone within twenty feet of the edge of the bay confirms he’s lost control again.

It’s ten minutes this time before he manages to calm his beast enough to return. Even then I don’t hear him breathe until he’s guided me far from the spot where that beautiful scent still lingers.

“She’s here? You let her go?” My twin hasn’t lost his patience with me since Fate fucked me over, but he sounds damn close to it now .

“She’ll be back tonight,” I promise. “She needs our help and our protection, she’s a witch.”

Cas’s hand tightens on my arm. “Lunar or…”

“In my vision she wore white…” The colour had been stained with blood, but I don’t mention that in case it sets Cas’s beast off again.

“Then I suppose we’ll have to really turn up the charm.” I can feel his anticipation like it’s my own. “Fate sent us a Solar witch.”

Before everything that had happened to us, Casimir had been able to charm the panties off a vampire enforcer, but that was before…

“Fate fucking hates me,” I mutter for the thousandth time.

Cas claps me on the back. “Cheer up, just imagine Val’s face when we turn up with her.”

I stifle my smirk.

Cas doesn’t know the half of it.

I always keep my visions to myself unless I have to. No one else on the ship knows that our girl is going to have her pick of us all, and I’m going to enjoy listening to them all figure it out.

Hearing Valorean brought to his knees by one tiny witch isn’t something I plan to miss.