Page 49 of Witchbane
I took Liam’s face in my hands and stared at him. Tears clouding my sight. Was I going to be the death of him too? Tearing him from his pack and his daughter? Would the destruction be contained to Underhill now that we were here?
“I need to get you home,” I whispered. Maybe the distance could save him, sever the bond we shouldn’t have formed, and let him live free of me.
He smiled and kissed me on the nose. “I’m right where I need to be.”
Kiran picked up the long sword that Nick had used and handed it to his scion. “Good choice. Might need to sharpen this now.”
Nick bowed his head and accepted the sword.
Kiran’s gaze returned to me. “This world is ending. Best you both find a way home before it does.” With that, he left, cane firm in hand, but with no outward sign of the attack. I wanted to scream at him for answers, demand his help, but Kiran had never been focused on me. It had always been about his own escape and survival. It’s why he’d bound Nick to him, why he let the fae use the shelter he provided even as the world collapsed around him. I hated him in that moment. For being a monster and the reflection of what was inside of me. No one ever liked seeing the worst part of themselves on open display.
Liam gave me a squeeze and nuzzled my hair, combing it with his fingers. It wouldn’t be enough to tame the mess, but it helped calm me a little. His gaze returned to Nick. “You’ve read all of these.” He waved at the library full of books.
“I have,” Nick agreed. How long had he been here? Decades? Centuries?
“There has to be other options. Ideas at least.”
“In theory? Dozens. In reality? Unlikely.”
“I’m not willing to give up,” Liam said. “How do we fix this?”
Nick shrugged. “Underhill could devour him, but that might not be enough. Kiran could kill him, and that might release the magic to blow us all into nonexistence. I suspect the energy inside him is the wild magic, uncontrolled because it’s off balance for a creature bound by structure. It would be like me taking Kiran’s magic all for myself. It would be too much. I’d never be able to hold it all.”
Wild magic, all the fae I’d eaten before, churning inside me with power. The forest god had bound that power because it didn’t belong in the mortal world. Was there a way I could have given that to Kiran? Could I have saved that fae’s life?
“Did that fae have to die?” It was only one of a thousand more questions.
“He needed the magic to heal,” Nick said. “Fae are nothing but magic.”
“But could he have taken the wild magic from me?”
Nick stared at me for a minute, then shook his head. “You are structured magic; he is wild magic. It’s like oil and water.”
“But I ate fae from Underhill. There is wild magic in me. The forest god bound it inside of me so I wouldn’t make a mess in its space.” The magic was stuck, useless to me, when it could have healed Kiran and saved a life.
“And to release it, he’d have to kill you. Are you eager to die?”
“In the mortal world…” Liam began, working through the puzzles faster than I was. “He draws energy from the pack. Wesley said the fae wanted to bind him to another fae that could help power him.”
Nick nodded. “Structured magic. There are a handful of fae who straddle the line. They crossed over and were able to adapt, evolve, and learn to use structured magic. It probably wouldn’t have worked for long. The fae are inherently creatures of wild magic. Sebastian, as kitsune, would need a steady stream of power. It makes sense that he’s bound to a werewolf, the blood magic constantly refueling and growing with the pack. Wipe out the werewolves and there would be a problem.” Nick made his way to another set of shelves and began pulling books. “I have books on magic theory, but the ideas are simple. You are what you eat, and if you can’t eat, you die.”
“Do I need to eat werewolves?” I asked, horrified at the idea.
“No,” Liam said, interrupting. “You were made to be tied to the pack, with the pack energy enough to sustain you. That’s what the forest god meant by choosing me for you.”
I didn’t have to eat fae to survive? Or werewolves. That had to be a good thing, right? Except we were still stuck in Underhill, Liam wasn’t a werewolf right now, and I had wild magic trapped inside me.
“Wild magic doesn’t use spells? Kiran used spells to remove the curse he’d been put under,” I said trying to wrap my head around it all.
“He used your body to cast spells, using symbols that weakened the curse. It still took time for him to break through as that particular spell had also been created from structured magic. A gift from a traveler between worlds. One of the dark court, if I recall from Kiran’s memories. After he convinced the queen that Kiran would be the death of them all,” Nick answered.
“Makes sense,” Liam said. “The fae are magic. In our world, what little magic there is seems to be relegated to gods or elements or even elemental gods. Like the forest god. Technically everyone says you’re part of that, Seb, whatever it is. Didn’t Wesley say something like that?” Liam gave me a sweet smile. “We’ll work it out.”
“Books please,” I said to Nick. “I need to read everything. Understand everything.”
“I’m not sure you have that kind of time,” he said, but handed over a stack of things. “Don’t open any portals, or use any magic. Let Kiran rest. The flicker in the wards means things will be attracted to the power. We’ll have a day or two before something attacks. But even less if it happens again.”
Things. “Monsters?”