Page 30 of WitchBorn
“You don’t know your dad, either?”
“I know of him. Only ever spoken to him twice in my life. Elementals don’t think the same way humans or fae do. Whichin some ways is good, I suppose. Fae are very selfish, hoarding power and stabbing anyone in the back that would help their cause.”
“Humans, too,” Finn said. “I can’t tell you the number of people I thought were friends who do shit that makes me wonder why I’m not evil. Like when I started my vlog, this dude was faking some ghost shit for views. Then got pissed when I cut his stuff out in editing. He claimed I was faking the stuff I saw, but that was real.”
“Being selfish isn’t inherently evil. Sometimes it’s all we can do to survive.” Like sleeping with the enemy and dancing around the corruption of Underhill. I stared at him, my gut churning with worry over the blotchy darkness spreading over his skin like some magical bruise. “Speaking of survival, we need to find a way to get food and water into you.”
“Hm,” he grunted.
“Very caveman of you. You said you couldn’t find the tree, what about the cabin?”
“Nope. I wandered in circles. Finally gave up because I was too tired to keep going.”
“Dragging my ass around, too.”
He smirked. “Your ass isn’t that heavy.”
“How about I change into the Stag, and we can search for the cabin.”
He sighed, his posture and half lidded eyes would have looked great in my bed, but the exhaustion on his face added to my anxiety. Why hadn’t he rested when I had? “How about I wait here?” Finn offered.
“Every time I leave you alone the shadow wolf attacks.”
“It attacks when you’re with me, too,” he pointed out. “Seems a strange thing to do when it thinks I belong to it. As if I’m its kid or something. What do we need at the cabin? It’s not much use to us burned up.”
“I’m hoping the realm restored it.”
He stared at me.
“Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. This whole world is created from a mix of fae and elemental magic. Weirder things can happen.” I actually prayed the cabin returned to its former glory and inside the cake from Sebastian would still be waiting for me. I’d drag Finn with me somehow. Would Liam and Seb know how to save him? Since I was running out of ideas, I had to find hope somewhere.
Twenty-Two
WESLEY
“Does it hurt when you change?” Finn asked with his back to me while I dropped the illusion of clothing. “Like they say in all the books, bones breaking and all that.”
“No. I’m witchborn, it’s as easy as breathing for me.” Witchborn and witchblood shared similar traits, part magic, the variation of the phrase coming from which side was dominant, human or fae. I was more fae than human, thus witchborn. Sebastian was more human than fae, thus witchblood. I’d always hated the terms as there was nothing witch-like about my species, but those of us who straddled the line between human andother, fit the title. As if created by witches, but witches weren’t born, it was a religion. Some of them came with magic, others could try spells over a thousand lifetimes and never realize the power they craved. My chaos lingered in my blood and soul. Inseparable from who and what I was. “Werewolves are different. Cursed rather than born.”
“Werewolves are real?”
I folded up the clothes from the little dwelling he had built, adding them to a careful pile though they were dirty. “Lots of shifters are real. The Summer king is a fox. Vampires are real, too.”
“Holy shit. Vampires, shifters, and fae. Oh, my!”
“It’s not sweet and sexy like romances make them out to be. They are all deadly.” I pointed to my forehead. “Even my Stag. Don’t touch my antlers, they are poisonous. The tiniest cut will grant you a slow and excruciating death.”
“Scary.” He didn’t sound scared.
“And if I run, don’t follow. You’ll be forced to run until you die.” I glanced his way, but his back was to me.
“I’m pretty sure if you’re running from something, I should probably be running too,” Finn said.
“Smart ass. Yes, you should run, but not the same direction as me.”
He gazed over his shoulder with a thoughtful expression. “Run toward the scary thing chasing us. Okay. Am I bait? Crunchy and delicious with ketchup like a potato chip?”
I snorted. “If I run forward, you run at a three o’clock or nine o’clock angle. Whatever is chasing us will be caught in the Stag’s magic. Run until it dies.”