Page 43 of Witchbane

“Are you using fae magic?” I asked.

“Yes,” Nick agreed. “It’s best if you rest a bit. Calm the kitsune.”

“Wait, there was another wolf,” I said. “He came through after I left the last time. Have you seen him?” HadApaturned human?

“I haven’t heard of any, but I will ask around. A great deal of time has passed since the last time you were here,” Nick said. “Rest.”

“I have some questions about the time here, if you’re willing to answer,” Liam said, sounding much more awake than I was feeling. I shut my eyes, leaning against him, and that fast I was asleep.

Chapter 11

Iwoke feeling better rested, I was a bit irritated by the memory that Nick had done something to make me sleep. The worst part was that I felt better, which meant it was really hard to be mad. The heavy feeling of too much energy still sat like a bowling ball on my guts, but it was no longer roiling around like a living thing. And since my mate was beside me in bed, I tried not to be too grumpy about it.

“How are you feeling?” Liam prodded.

“Tired, but okay? Warm is good,” I promised, feeling sleepy. “I should get up and interrogate Kiran.” And Nick, who seemed to have some crazy power now.

“You’ve only been resting a few hours. Maybe a bit longer?” He stroked my face, his blue gaze intense. “I almost feel like this is working. The wards or whatever. Like the kitsune is less wild and more focused?”

It was. But I could almost see the pulse of energy it was pulling from the wards themselves. It was also more defined, like my fox, a creature awakening of massive proportion and multiple tails. Odd how I’d been terrified of it, yet it was glorious. No, that was Liam’s thoughts, not mine. He found the kitsune breathtaking.

“It is,” he said. “The kitsune is very defined and yet…” He stopped, the weight of his hand in my hair pausing for a moment. “Not completely whole? Still beautiful. Like staring at the aurora borealis, it’s ethereal and breathtaking.”

“You’re beautiful,” I told him.

A smile curved over his lips. “Such pretty things you say to me. I am a simple man, not a mystical creature of magic.”

“You know how beautiful you are.”

“And someday you’ll see how beautiful you are.”

I groaned and covered my face with my hands.

“Compliments are terrible,” Liam teased.

“I never know how to react,” I said.

“Say ‘thank you, Liam. I love you, too, Liam.’”

I grinned. “Thank you, Liam. I love you, too.”

He leaned over and kissed me. “Better. We’ll keep working on it.”

I tugged at the book he was holding. “Where did you get that?”

“Ah the stars in your eyes at the idea of books. Perhaps I should have owned a bookstore? There’s an entire library across the hall, but I didn’t more than glance at it as Nick handed me this book. I didn’t want to leave you alone.” He looked around. “It’s odd here. I feel like things are watching us, and I should be alert? But I haven’t seen anyone else.” He handed me the book. I sat up and flipped through it, feeling a little better.

“The convergence of magic. Sounds complicated.”

“Theory mostly. Talking about how different magics react to each other. It’s mostly from the fae perspective. Toward the end is some conjecture about how opening portals to the mortal world brought new magic and therefore the ruin of Underhill.”

“Speculation or philosophy?”

“Correlation verses causation, I think. A lot of blame on the mortal world. From what I’ve read, it’s not really anything the people did, or could have done. More the mixing of two magics that weren’t alike. The fae don’t think like us. Some of them can look very human. I guess I sort of assumed that meant they were like us.”

“You know what they say about assuming,” I teased and handed the book back. “I’m less interested in how it happened, than I am in how to fix it.”

“Not sure we can fix Underhill.”