Page 65 of Witchbane
I wondered if he’d still be able to change into a kitsune when we crossed over. It would be fun to play with him in that form as we’d be the same size. My fox would always be smaller than his wolf, and while I tried not to let that bother me, instinct was instinct.
“Who taught you alchemy?” Liam asked. “Or did you learn it all on your own?”
“In the beginning it was me. I had books. But never believed they would work.Apabrought me a lot. He must have known about me being part fae. Maybe thought the books would help me figure out how to control my fae power?”
“Perhaps,” Liam said.
Several books had sort of appeared in my collection, which I suspected Robin had placed there. “Robin helped me define a few things, more pointing me in the right direction than actually gifting me with anything, knowledge or otherwise.” It was never safe to accept gifts from the fae. Which made me worry about what Kiran thought we owed him. Did it work the same if it was his scion who had gifted us something rather than him? I hated politics. “You’re quick at this,” I said.
“It’s a bit like learning a new language while immersed in the culture,” Liam admitted. “It helps that I sort of see the lines of power?” He shook his head, cocking it to the side to stare at me. “Hard to explain. My vision is different when I’m wolf. And more intense when I’m kitsune. Like seeing sound waves or something, magic becomes a thing?”
“You can see magic even now when you’re human?”
Liam nodded. He blinked a few times and looked around us. “It’s not the courtyard in the middle of the palace. More a hole in rock? A bit of light and some dirt? Can you see it?”
I gripped his hand and wondered how he was doing that, since it looked like a courtyard to me. “Is it some kind of glamour?” I’d gotten a glimpse of a cave before, maybe I need to see beyond?
“I don’t think so. More a construct of magic? I can see the lines, how they are woven together. I can use the wolf to see in my human form,” Liam admitted. “It’s a bit like pulling it to the surface enough to borrow the ability to change completely. Can you feel the fox that way? Your sense of smell is better than mine all the time.”
I had always thought that had been the bleed through of my fox into my human side. But I’d also never tried to isolate one ability. I closed my eyes and focused on the fox, feeling it stir, awake and present, but coaxing it forward enough to realize its senses draped over me. My sense of smell blossomed into a range of scents. Dirt, mold, plant life, rot, and the cold mix of endless metals. Silver. Lots of silver.
The kitsune senses wove around the fox, adding a layer of awareness I couldn’t recall experiencing before. I could sense that we were deep inside a structure, but also the chaos in the distance that had to be Underhill. Like it was drawing on power, but battering at the walls that were Kiran’s wards.
When I opened my eyes, the world changed. Hole in a cave for sure. The area around us was now sprouted with flowers from our many attempts at magic. It wasn’t the courtyard I’d seen before. And I recalled briefly, before the scion bond had been completed, that inside the library everything had appeared different.
The magic, if that was what Liam was calling it, appeared as thin lines. A bit like a very fine thread. Thousands of colors, all woven a bit like a tapestry. However, when I tried to touch them, they didn’t feel like fabric, but more physical, like a wall or the ground of the courtyard.
“Do you feel all the silver?” Wolves and silver didn’t mix. I wondered if it was bothering Liam.
“Smell it. But ill effects, no. Not since the scion bond.”
I stared at him, glared actually. “You didn’t tell me you felt it before.”
“Because I didn’t know what it was. I thought I was drained from lack of food and water, not realizing we are hiding out in a cave full of silver. Which affects the wolf even if it’s hidden from me.”
“And now?”
“I feel good. Giddy. Filled with your power.”
“A great and mighty power that is,” I said with full sarcasm.
He laughed and tugged me toward a door. “It is. It feels endless, though I know it’s not. I think you’re used to it. Do you still feel the discomfort from eating the corrupted fae?” His gaze flowed over me. “I can’t find it. It was there, vaguely through the mate bond before the magic.”
“It’s gone. Maybe it was the vine? Like Kiran said, we’ve removed the corruption.”
“But the thorns were all your memories. Not new,” Liam pointed out.
“Maybe the vine was a way to connect them, to break into my soul and feed on my energy?” Pulling away a vine wasn’t going to remove all the bad from my past. And I could still feel the scars on my soul, things that could open wide with a bit of prodding. “Like it was feeding on my pain?”
He hugged me tight, breathing me in and nuzzling my hair. “I’m sorry for causing you pain.”
“You pulled away the vine, but the thorns were my past before you.”
“Hopefully we can make them smaller, moving forward. Fill you with good memories to override the bad.”
“You can fill me anytime,” I said, smiling into the groove of his shoulder, and instantly hard with the idea of him driving into me.
He snorted. “At least that hasn’t changed. Flip back to human view, and we can go back upstairs. I’m not sure how to get there without falling over something unless I see what Nick and Kiran are projecting. And I need to go through more of their books. Your eyes are fox right now.”