Page 61 of Witchbane
“It worked? How the fuck?” I growled. What if it didn’t go to the palace and dropped us in the middle of some Underhill nightmare?
Liam tugged me forward. Wrapping his arm around me. “We’ll work it out.”
Nothing was ever that easy, but I stepped into the darkness with him. With him at my side I felt invincible. Or at least somewhat more confident. There was the sensation of spider webs again, and we exited into a hallway that looked like the palace, though seemed to be an unfamiliar area.
There was a squeak of alarm and a flutter of movement. Several pairs of large blinking eyes turned our way. Various shapes and types of creatures, most not human looking but obviously fae, stared at us. It was all too much. An instant roll of sensation, overwhelming magic, and somewhere high above a darkness as eclipsing as an abyss. I trembled at the intensity.
The walls looked like Kiran’s sanctuary palace, but I hadn’t felt magic like this previously. It was hard to breathe. Almost like I’d broken through someone else’s wards and they were still pushing at me to get out.
“Oops,” Liam said. “Sorry. Don’t mind us.” He tugged me toward the nearest doorway.
“Don’t stare at my mate,” I growled at them, feeling very possessive. The tittering of voices vanished and they all pushed their faces to the ground, murmuring things I couldn’t understand.
Liam pulled me out of the room and down a hall, where we found a set of stairs headed upward. I shoved him up against the wall before we could start up the stairs, and pressed myself against him. Only with his heat and body against mine could I think again. Liam wove his fingers through my hair, gripping it tight and holding me to him.
“You okay?”
“You don’t feel it?” It was like a fluttering of wings, battering me with small brushes of constant magic. Not painful, but distracting. Noise. I’d have said white noise, only it was magic noise, and a thousand times more intense than any old TV could be.
“Sorry,” Nick’s voice came to us from above. “Didn’t expect the change. I’ll have to adjust the wards.” He stood at the top of the stairs looking down. “You should probably come up. You’re frightening the fae.”
Liam tried to pull away, but I wouldn’t let him go. He took my face between his hands and kissed me. “It’s okay. Let’s get some clothes while Nick fixes the wards. But hey, your door worked.”
“My door worked,” I realized. Not only had I created one and been able to open it to an actual place, but it had been to the right place. “Huh.”
“I’ll show you a few basic conjuring spells to help with the clothes thing,” Nick said. “But I need you both upstairs, away from the refugees. Their unrest makes a lot of noise which can attract Underhill’s attention.” He lifted his hands and drew some symbols in the air which I couldn’t see, but blankets appeared in his grasp.
He approached us warily. “Temporary.” He held them out.
Liam grabbed them, wrapping the first around me, before covering himself. Some of my possessive aggression faded, but the blanket felt weird. Real… yet… not? I didn’t like the touch of it on my skin, and held it a few inches away. Liam made a face too. He must have felt something.
“Upstairs. Then I’ll show you how to use Sebastian’s magic to create something to wear. I suspect feeling Kiran’s magic is uncomfortable right now.” Nick turned and headed back up the stairs.
Was that why everything felt strange? The castle, the wards, the blanket? Kiran’s magic was this wriggling mass with an edge of darkness? I didn’t think that boded well for the refugees. Liam tucked me close to him and we made our way up the stairs. Nick giving us distance helped. I hated the sensation of fluttering magic all around.
Three floors up was the familiar hall that made up the library and the room we’d been given. It was some sort of tower section, I realized as we passed a half dozen windows. The outside world was still a fake blue of a sunny day, though I wasn’t sure it was the sun at all.
Nick kept his distance, but waited near our door. “I’ll bring you a book,” he said as he waved toward our room. “It will take a few minutes for me to adjust the wards. I wasn’t expecting Sebastian to be quite as strong. Or from the light court as most of the tricksters are dark court.”
Was that a good or a bad thing? We entered our room, finding it the same as we left it. Nick left the door open but crossed the hall to the library. I settled into Liam’s arms, preferring the feeling of him on my skin rather than the magic.
“Did you feel this before?” Liam asked. “This pulse of magic? I can’t think of anything else to describe it. Only that it’s a living thing. Something breathing along my skin.”
“No,” I said, my face in the space between his shoulder and chin, sucking in the scent of him. Letting his touch and smell ground me. “I can feel everything.” It was too much, and yet… the kitsune inside yawned and told me it was nothing. A snack at most, and it wasn’t that hungry yet. “Are you hungry?” I asked Liam.
“A little? Not sure if it’s the wolf, or me, or the kitsune.”
“How were you able to remove the corruption?” Kiran interrupted us from the doorway. He stared inside, but didn’t enter. I could feel the pulse of the magic tied to him, almost see it like a living rope of energy. The kitsune told me it could feast on him, and I shuddered at that idea. Gross.
And his appearance had changed. Part of him was blackened like my leg had been, only this darkness had crept halfway up his body. No thorns that I could see, only a blackness almost like bad burns. How was he still on his feet?
Nick stepped around Kiran, book in hand. He glanced between us, gaze focusing back on us.
“Do you see the corruption?” Kiran asked Nick.
“It’s gone,” Nick agreed.
“Corruption?” Liam wondered. “Was the vine with the thorns corruption? You mean Underhill’s corruption?”