Page 11 of Witchbane

“I’d want something like your name,” I said.

“Liam is short for William, did you know? Or at least that’s some of the origins. I was always Liam, never William. There were too many other Williams that year, I believe. I like Sebastian better. It’s almost musical to say.”

“I have always loved the name Ari. It means lion. I wanted to be a lion not a fox.”

“You are an amazing fox,” Liam said. “I like Ari.”

“They would need to be more like you than me.”

“We will agree to disagree on that. I love your wild creative side, your need for knowledge and desire to take care of others. I wish you’d put yourself first more often.” He leaned down and kissed me lightly on the lips.

The smell of my mate, the cocoon of his warmth, and his gentle touch, all soothed something deep within me. Like a balm to the chaos.

I leaned into him a bit and licked him, tasting his skin. “Yum.”

“Good as cake?” he asked.

“Better,” I promised, closing my eyes, suddenly very tired. “You’re my everything.”

“I know,” he said.

“Arrogant.”

“You’re my everything, too,” he whispered. “Sleep. Dream of cake instead of monsters. Tomorrow we’ll make cake and send the beasts home.”

And that sounded like the best plan I’d heard in ages.

Chapter 3

Idreamt of that first time meeting Robin. The long drive in the middle of nowhere, drawn by something I hadn’t really understood. There had been a mild sense of panic that night that sent me out into the dark when normally I only drove during the day. I had thought it was catching a glimpse ofApa’swolves following me. This was long before my dash across the country, and the wolves had no reason to be stalking me.

“They are guards,” Oberon had assured me over the phone earlier that day.

“I don’t need guards,” I said. No one knew who I was. And who was I? Some fox shifter raised among wolves.

“Humor us.”

I was away from home for the first time and I’d been filled with mixed emotions. Excitement to be exploring the world, experiencing it for the first time. A bit of fear over being alone, coupled with anxiety at how people would react. Worry that I might accidentally show them my fox when I knew it had to stay hidden.

Then the wolves had shown up. No one I recognized. But the scent in the air had me searching for them. Possibly local, tasked with seeing me safely through their territory. Their presence shouldn’t have bothered me, but I felt hunted. Odd how intense that feeling had become.

I had planned to stay in the city at some tiny, out of the way hotel. Yet some edge of apprehension drove me out into the night. My car, pieced together and running thanks to Oberon’s help, seemed like a shield or a barrier between me and the world. Although that first trip was long before I ever thought to lay wards on an object. Even my camper had only a handful of symbols etched into its bones in those days. Before life became a complicated dance of emotions and confusion, with Felix courting and stalking me all at once.

On the road, I felt free. Like no one was watching me for the first time. And I had the urge to drive. That night I let the urge tug me to head in a direction. I hadn’t thought about where or why at the time, only about the need to bask in the freedom of being alone.

It was probably around two in the morning when I’d passed something on that long empty road which made me slam on my brakes. When I stared in the rearview mirror, I expected it to be gone. Or a figment of my sleep-deprived brain.

A child. It had been a child, running down the side of the road.

I blinked into the darkness behind the car, waiting for something. Even rolled down my window, the manual crank of it sticking twice, before letting the window slide back. In the distance there was a sound. Something that sent goosebumps up my spine. Familiar, yet not. Like wolves on the hunt… except more eerie. Ethereal, perhaps. The sound echoed a wailing howl much like I imagined a banshee might sound.

My sleep-deprived mind was slow to latch onto the idea that it might be a warning of coming death. I might not have stopped if I’d recalled that.

Then movement appearing behind the car made me jump, startled by the abrupt arrival racing through the dark. The child didn’t clarify for a few more seconds, simply looking like scattered motion. There was a terror there, in his face, when the pale moonlight crossed it.

The glow of his eyes told me he wasn’t human, despite his childlike appearance. Since I’d spent my entire life reading everything and anything I could get my hands on, I played a short game of “what is that thing in the dark.” Alien popped up first because Texas was known for seeing some weird shit. Lights in the sky and little green men. But the child wasn’t green, though his eyes seemed more anime-ish, large, and luminescent, rather than human.

How I settled on fae was a bit of a mystery. I’d been tired and more than a little on edge. My brain ran through puzzles a bit slower than it would have if I’d been home working on brewing some tea forApa. But I opened my door, leaned back, and opened the back door of the car. More instinct to help than anything else.