Page 40 of Witchbane
I wondered how much he was holding back from me.
“It’s not as bad as when we were in the hut, or outside of the wards of that village,” Liam promised. “Are you cold?”
I sighed and let go of his hair. “Warm,” I admitted. And getting warmer. Weird as there was no fire in this room.
“It’s the power. The kitsune runs hottest before a change,” Nick said as though he knew everything about what I was now. I wanted to ask but he was headed toward an opposite doorway. “Let me grab some supplies.” Then he was gone.
Liam and I ambled our way across the room. The bed, while huge, looked more like a showpiece than a place to sleep. When we reached it, Liam lifted me up, set me down, and it was soft. “Is this the winter palace you told me about?”
“I don’t think so. That place was smaller on the inside, narrow hallways, ice covering everything, the stone more white than gray.”
He tugged at the blanket on the bed, but it was thin and more decorative than warm. “He doesn’t look like you described him. He looks healthy and strong. Nick, I mean.”
“And older,” I whispered feeling my heart wrench again at the thought of Nick having spent his entire life in Underhill because of me.
“But alive,” Liam reminded me as we curled up together. He became a sort of pillow beneath me, wrapping himself around me. But he was shivering.
“Liam,” I whispered, worried about him.
“I’m okay.”
“I thought this would be easier since we are bound now.”
“Me too,” Liam agreed. “I think it’s the wildness of the kitsune. I can feel it now. Almost a separate beast inside of you, restless, demanding release. It’s enormous and pulsing with power. If I get too close it feels like it will drag me in. Devour me, even. It’s very hungry…”
It shouldn’t be hungry. I wasn’t hungry. But it still churned and writhed like a living thing inside of me. As much as some sort of metaphysical being could. Was the heat from that mess too?
“Kitsunes are creatures of energy. The pack bond would have taken decades if not centuries to amass this amount of energy. Mated to a wolf, your kitsune would have been prepared for the smaller amount. When Underhill attacked you, forcing you to feed on it, it sped up the hand of fate, to its own detriment.” Kiran stood in the doorway beside Nick.
Last time I had seen him, he had been frozen in ice and tried to use my body to break himself free. He’d said at the time that he’d been looking for a scion. His white hair was pulled back from his face, but he was still as starkly handsome as he had been. He looked older, and the lines around his eyes seemed more from tiredness than age. He held a cane in his left hand and was bundled up in a fur jacket covering the many markings I knew criss-crossed his arms like tattoos.
He’d escaped, and was here with Nick. Did that mean he’d taken Nick as his scion? Was that how Nick suddenly seemed to have powers that were more fae? I didn’t think the Nick I’d met the last time had been able to open doorways to cross Underhill.
Kiran was old fae and a kitsune; the first ever kitsune, I thought. He’d been locked in ice by the fae thousands of years ago to prevent him from taking over Underhill. Except the fae ended up abandoning Underhill as it grew out of control. I wasn’t sure if having Kiran free was a good thing or a bad thing. He struck me as a creature of opportunity.
He was an imposing figure like warriors of old, skin dark like mine, but hair white as snow. I thought briefly of the streak of white in my hair, received during my last trip to Underhill. Was that to be my fate? As I aged, would I become more like him? The muscles would be nice, I guess. Would Liam like me all muscled and strong? I thought I might look a bit odd without growing taller.
“Whatever you are,” Liam mumbled, kissing the side of my face. At least he was still deeply tuned into me again. Maybe that was from being behind the wards?
“You can hear me again?” I tapped my head.
He nodded. “Not as clear as before we entered Underhill, but better than when we were at the cabin.”
“That cabin was on the edge of the remaining scope of sanctuaries. I’m surprised it was still standing after all this time. When Nick said he’d felt something, I thought he meant he felt the sanctuary fall,” Kiran walked into the room and there was a defined limp now. His left leg was stiff and slow. Kiran was dressed in more modern attire, almost mimicking Nick. Not jeans exactly, but the same idea. Shirt too, long-sleeved and more modern than the flowy thing I could recall from his shared memories. And the fur wrapped around him like an oversized shawl with ties to make it fitted.
“Underhill is a mess of monsters,” I said. “But you have this little paradise in the center of it?”
“Takes a lot of power to maintain this,” Kiran admitted. “What other option is there? Sit back and wait to die? I’ve never been the passive kind. Why not live in comfort until the end, or the savior comes.” He stared pointedly at me, though didn’t look impressed at all.
I was not down with being the savior, and if that was the plan then fate had chosen wrong. The basics of how to be a kitsune were foreign to me. The fox was one thing, but a demon of fire, creation, and destruction was a completely separate thing.
“How many times did the fae claim I was to be their end, but it was never me,” Kiran said with an edge of humor. “Little fox, you surprise me. You brought us destruction, now you bring us hope.”
Liam’s grip on me tightened.
“Hush, wolf,” Kiran reprimanded, “I seek no harm to your mate. I merely speak the truth.”
“Time was much slower for them,” Nick said as he headed our way with an arm full of blankets. He’d left his coat behind, leaving his shirt, which was short-sleeved, to bare his arms. They were covered in marks like Kiran had. Those almost tattoos. Magic, I realized. Not unlike my own tattoos of wards, warnings, and defense. I wondered if the symbols on Nick meant specific things, or were the binding of a spell.