Page 77 of Witchbane

My ice fire turned to real fire, flames flickering around me, burning everything. Melting the ice and warming me. I smoldered, but it didn’t eat away at me like it did the landscape. The world began to crumble. Pieces of the sky seemed to shatter, falling down around us, darkening the world. The last of Underhill, perhaps, dying beneath the pull of power? Underhill had forced my hand, made me devour what was left, so that all we could do was contain the power, right? Could we contain Underhill?

Reshape it,Liam corrected.Trust me.

And I did, but the sky was falling, and I was shrinking back to my regular size. It felt like Liam was pulling the filth out of me. The corruption along with all the power, and I worried it would latch onto him, hurt him, but he leaned forward and kissed my nose, which was now small enough to fit in his hand. My normal kitsune, I realized as I looked into his eyes, glowing with power. Those bonds around him lit up like fire. I vaguely recognized that it had to hurt him. Power and heat were channeling through him like an electric current. But he gave me no outward sign of pain, only adoration and hope.

Focus on me, baby. I’m here. Help me shape this into something better.

Better than Underhill? Uncorrupted? I had no idea what he meant, but gave him all of it, fed the roll of power into that socket he’d opened between us. For a few seconds I felt something stroking my fur, gentle fingers weaving through the strands with tiny tugs. The weight of something curled into my side. A smaller version of the kitsune perhaps. It absorbed the flame, balanced the ice. I blinked at it, seeing something half-formed in magic and still growing. Another monster? Perhaps another trick of Underhill to try to take Liam from me?

Shh.Liam said.Give it all to me. Let me shape it. Trust me.

I could feel the last edges of it warring within me, traveling through every part of me, trying to gain control, and take me over. The ice fighting the fire, a battle of terror and pain in my gut, even as the kitsune had drunk down the remains of Underhill’s power. Like a disease it flooded me.A last stand to try to take me over.

My heart shrieked in horror, terrified of it touching Liam. Underhill latched on to my grief, trying to gain control over me, devour me despite the pull Liam had on the power.

It’s okay.Liam assured me.Let it go. Let me have it.

My blood flowed like lava, pouring through my veins in excruciating energy, melting the continuing spread of ice that was my body. A war of sensation and agony. Underhill trying to overwhelm me, but the heat too much for it. Almost an entire world of power in that blaze, I realized. That was why Underhill was crumbling around us. The loss of its own power, and the strength I took from it, was forming something completely new.

A universe of otherworldliness and energy swirled and pulsed, growing larger than I could handle. Soon it would kill me too, drag me down into the darkness in an explosion of dimension. It was too much for any one person. Certainly, too much for this delicate being wrapped around me.

Trust me. Liam said again, though this time it sounded like more of a demand, his alpha presence to my omega. I didn’t have to listen, yet I felt the command. Yet, if there was anything I needed more in that moment than trust, I couldn’t find it. I submitted, let go of the shields, and stopped the internal fight with all the power, corruption, and magic.

Yes!

I gasped and took a breath. Odd how it felt in that moment like I hadn’t breathed in years. The air I sucked in was sweet, deep, warm, and filled with the scent of my mate, home, and happiness. I relaxed, the firm grip I’d been holding unknowingly on the kitsune, released in an explosion of magic. The last of the cold snapped away and I was flooded with heat; a warm velvet wrap of sensations. All of the pain vanished, siphoned away into the swirling mass Liam held.

I gave him all of that, until darkness lapped at my sight and began to pull at me. Exhaustion. Liam reached for me, but Nick held up a hand to keep him inside the drawn circle.

A short glimpse of the swirly ants of power made my mind scream in brief alarm. The tickling bugs of a portal opened wide. One I hadn’t created. Or at least I didn’t think I did.

But one moment I was in the rubble of a dying Underhill, the next the world went black around me. My final thoughts were of accidentally leaving Liam behind in Underhill while Underhill was in its final stage of collapse, the darkness of Underhill’s dying strength barely contained within his grasp. I reached for our bond finding warmth and strength rather than ice and monsters, yet was still unable to keep the darkness of unconsciousness from sucking me down. But it was like the ground had opened beneath me, then there was nothing.

Chapter 21

Idreamt of playing as my fox for a while. I was running about a small garden area filled with lavender, lemon grass, and chamomile. It felt a bit like home, or at least the home I’d built with Liam.

Several others romped in the garden. A handful of flitting, glowing lights, almost like bugs, and a couple of foxes. Kiran was easy enough to recognize, because his fox form was completely white and had the multiple tails of the kitsune legends.

As do you, little fox,he informed me mind to mind. Thelittle foxbit confused me for a moment since I wasn’t the smallest fox there. Crouched beside me, using me as a shield while they growled and sniped at Kiran, was a small fox, splotched in black and red, tail and ears tipped in white. This fox was tiny, with baby teeth and huge anime-like eyes. Yet everything about it screamedmine. Not in the way Liam was mine, but close.

I licked the baby fox’s head to comfort it. Kiran wouldn’t hurt either of us because I wouldn’t let him. Kiran’s fox seemed to shrug as if that had not been his plan anyway.

A rabbit darted from a patch of thick snow, and the tiny fox let out a yip, leaping to run after it. But I caught them mid jump. We were full. I could feel that even while I knew we were not quite one and the same. We didn’t need the rabbit and killing it was pointless. I clamped my teeth on the back of the baby fox’s neck and lifted it.

In my head, I went through a tirade of why we didn’t kill for the sake of killing. Running after things was fun, but could lead to a kill, and if we weren’t hungry, then why? The baby seemed confused, but listened. They didn’t struggle in my grip, lying limp and passive. I carried them past Kiran and into a small den that felt like home. The scent of the space was like fresh, warm bread, and Liam. Even the baby seemed to sigh in relief as I set them in a nest of warmth that reminded me of my mate.

Papa?A tiny voice in my head whispered, like they were searching for something that wasn’t me. Not my title, I thought as I half woke, disoriented and groggy. What was that? The dream felt close, lingering, yet only half-formed, the fox pup still nestled as close to me as possible. And like there was still a tiny fox curled up into the warmth of my body, real enough that I wanted to wrap my arms around them and hold them tight.

I jolted a little, remembering the fight, and the world decaying around us, but unable to breech the surface of the dreams. The world had been crumbling around us, I thought. But darkness tugged me down and back into the nest with the little fox. We lay curled up together for a while that way, snuggled into a little ball, with Liam wrapped around us. My nose to tail, the pup in the center of my warmth, with Liam’s giant wolf surrounding us with fur and heat.

The sensation of falling jerked me awake. And I actually landed with a thud on snow-packed ground. The cold chilled me to the core even as my heart galloped at a racing pace. I blinked into the fluff of falling snow, trying to orient myself. Was I home?

My stomach rebelled, gurgling and churning with a horrible mess that made me turn on my side and throw up until I saw stars. What came from me was actual sludge. Dark ooze rather than anything resembling stomach acid. And I lay curled, a few inches away, a vile taste in my mouth, panting like I’d run a race, too tired to move.

Memories of the fight and the monsters swirled through my head. Had that been real? Where was Liam? Another round of nausea welled up, and I heaved until it felt like I was losing my guts, and almost passed out.

Someone grabbed me by the hair, dragging me forward through the snow. I wriggled and tried to escape. I was human… When had that happened? The world rolled, though the grip in my hair was like a vice. The large gait made me feel like I was being carried by a giant or something, but I couldn’t move my head enough to see more than the snow, and the leather boots of whatever had me in their grasp.