Page 57 of WitchBorn

“No!” I tried to sit up, weaker than I could ever recall having been and flailed, half falling out of bed. Seb caught me and set me back carefully.

“You’ve been sick for days. You need rest.”

“Sick? I don’t get sick. I’m fae.”

“Okay,” Seb didn’t argue. “If I have food brought for you, will you eat?”

“I have to save Finn.”

“Do you know how?”

“Isn’t your mate supposed to be the rational one?” I snapped.

“I could ask a lot more questions, but I’d rather you rest.”

“I’m not tired.” I was. Exhausted, sweaty, starving, and heartbroken. The nightmare of Finn’s childhood lingering like a thorn in my heart.

The door to the room opened and Ari entered with a tray of food. Any childlike display of the rebirth of Underhill gone, as they appeared older than Seb, and very masculine, but the magic pulse of their energy told me it was the witchchild before they entered the room.

“Did you find Finn?” I asked them.

“We can’t get in,” Seb said. “Ari’s tried.”

“Xiao catches glimpses,” Ari said. “But Autumn is keeping him out.” They set the tray on the table.

“Liam made the hummus,” Seb said. “We have a ton of cans of beans to use. Ari said you’re mostly vegan?”

I wouldn’t admit to the bloodlust unless I had to. “Yes.”

Seb adjusted the tray to sit over my lap. A giant bowl of freshly made hummus and homemade pita crisps making me salivate. I scooped up the first chip, loaded with dip, hand shaking, but popped it in my mouth and nearly died of joy in that half second. The room blanked out; my focus lost on eating as I hadn’t realized how hungry I’d been.

I came back to myself while scraping the edges of the bowl with the last pita crisp. “Sorry,” I said more out of habit than actual apology.

“What can you tell me about Finn?” Sebastian asked. He picked up the tray and handed it to Ari as the food filling my gut made me sleepy. Ari left with the empty dishes and I wished they’d magically refill it as I could eat endless bowls of that if I weren’t struggling to keep my eyes open.

“You put something in the food?”

“Like?”

“Something to make me sleep.”

“Did you sense magic?”

“You’re being evasive. Didn’t anyone tell you not to answer a question with a question?”

“I thought that was the fae way?” Seb said.

I grunted. He’d been guileless most of his youth. Cynicism only growing after he’d become lovers with the wolf king’s son. If I’d known early in their relationship, I’d have interfered. Not that the options I could have thrown his way were any better. Were the kings meant to bathe in trauma? What a shitty way to obtain a monarchy.

“I can’t help if I don’t know,” Seb said after a few minutes of waiting on my silence.

“I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

“About Finn? Who he is? What he is? Why he’s important?”

What did I know? More than I thought I had now. “He’s the torn human soul of the Autumn king. Split from the wolf, Xander, your sire. I’m not certain when or how it happened, but the wolf took the human soul, gave it mortal form, and a new life.”

“Wouldn’t I have sensedapawas another king?”