Page 68 of WitchBorn

“Would Finn have made different choices?” Seb asked me.

“I barely know him.” But the little I knew; he’d have been a careful and loving father. Hell, the man had nearly unraveled himself waiting for my consent to fuck me while I was begging him in heat.

“Why don’t you walk away?” Seb asked.

“I know you understand fated mates,” I said. “You left Liam for a year after you met him. How’d that go for you?” The work tracking him and covering up his trail of misdeeds in that year had nearly undone my sanity. None ran faster toward disaster than kitsunes. I might be witchborn, but I wasn’t kitsune, chaos given form.

“I felt lost, but might have kept running.”

“Always pulled in my direction,” Liam reminded him.

Running is what the Stag did best. Could I outrun fate? I’d been trying my whole life and failed as something always dragged me back, usually a fae of incredible power. This time my heart ached at the idea of leaving Finn. Why did he have to be nice to me? Why couldn’t he just fuck me like the warm hole everyone else had and walked away? Would reuniting him with his wolf make him a monster? The memories Finn relived weren’t black and white. He could rip apart towns and slaughter people, or nurture a baby deer or feed a little boy he’d just met.

“I’d really like to speak to Oberon,” I said.

“He can be really scary,” Seb said.

“You’re the fucking Summer king, Sebastian,” I said. “You could crush Oberon with a breath.”

“Ha, sure,” Seb said, obviously not convinced. “Making plants grow is super powerful.”

“Or roasting someone like an oven set to broil,” I pointed out.

He blinked, a half dozen emotions crossing his face. “Can I do that?” He asked his mate.

“Probably,” Liam agreed. “Would you want to?”

“Carl…”

“No,” Liam said.

“But he gave Ari?—”

“A book on the birds and bees, I am aware,” Liam said.

“Ari’s just a baby.”

“Ari isn’t a baby. Ari is the rebirth of a chaotic world trying to fit everything they know and don’t know into something that makes sense for the mortal skin they wear to appease us,” Liam said.

Seb gaped like a fish.

“He’s not wrong,” I agreed with Liam. Was treating the witchchild like a child, good or bad?

“Protecting Ari, teaching them our values and critical thinking, is the best we can do to create something less…” Liam thought for a few seconds. “Traumatic and chaotic. Was Underhill crafted by someone, or did it grow wild on its own?” he asked me.

“I have no idea. Underhill outdated every fae I ever met.” I glanced around the room searching for a sign of Ari, Xiao, or even Robin. “Xiao got through.” A thought occurred to me. “That’s why Carl gave Ari a book about sex. He’s seen Ari and Xiao together.”

Seb’s cheeks turned red and he buried his face in his hands. “That’s my baby you’re talking about.”

Liam met my gaze, his slight nod answering my unasked question. He knew Xiao was meant to be Winter and mate to the witchchild. “They’ll always be our baby, even while they were never really our baby.” He got up. “Let me give Oberon a call. He could use an update on Xander anyway.” Liam pointed at the bottle of sleeping potion. “Do not take that again until you eat and go outside for a walk. You’re fae and an elemental of the earth variety, you need sunlight, grass, and food.” His no-nonsense alpha command made me sigh.

“Yes, sir. Your mate is bossy,” I scowled at Seb.

“I know, right? He’s so sexy.”

“Not what I meant, and gross.”

Forty-Five