Page 16 of WitchCurse
I had been pulling that card since I’d become a werewolf. I said nothing, but laid out another card. The Magician.
“Does that mean you’re magic?” Korissa asked. “I need to find a book on cards.”
“Beginnings,” I corrected, the memory rising without pain. I added it to the shore of my steadily growing beach of memories. Without Kiran and Nick close by, the wind had risen, clouds covered the sky and the water churned, but the stones in the center still stood. They were slowly eroding, releasing memories back into the tide, and that was okay, because it gave me time to process things rather than be battered by them all at once. “Opportunities,” I added, and pulled another card while I ate. The Empress. Another card of opportunity, abundance, maybe even romance? I stored that pebble too, finishing my food and swept the cards back into the box, including the Death card.
“What does it mean?” Korissa asked as I got up and gathered everyone’s empty plates. Small routines helped ground the human side of me, even when the storm inside began to rage again. Ari raced to open the dishwasher for me, dancing around and being generally silly.
“An opportunity to change?” I shrugged. “They’re just cards.”
She frowned down at the spread of books, all alchemy or books on witchcraft. Liam never protested, trusting his daughter, but I could feel his worry etched into the pack bonds. I tried to keep to the edge of the pack ties, as they made my wolf angry, and he hated to be caged in anyway. A memory stirred from that thought, but the wolf snatched it from me before I could examine it.
“I want real magic,” Korissa said. She had real magic. The swirling colors wrapped around her, unmistakable. Liam saw them, I knew he did, as he would stare at her with that half-lidded gaze that I knew to be his magic side. What he didn’t know, was how to teach her. So, books arrived from everywhere. Liam reading them first, sometimes Sebastian, or Nick, or me, then they went to her.
She leaned forward in her seat. “Will you read for me?”
“No.” Liam said instantly, making her frown. He’d already asked many times, and a single card came up every time. The Fool, new beginnings, fearlessness, and foolishness. He didn’t know how to take that and commanded me, as my alpha, not to read for her. The wolf hated those commands. Might as well be a wall. I couldn’t pull a card for her even if I wanted to.
I stuffed the cards in my bag, and dug out a pair of shoes from the mudroom. The shift at the bakery today would likely take my mind off the missing duo for a while. Now that the tea shop was open, I preferred working there, as Sebastian’s presence had seeped into everything in a cooling wave of calm. The bakery took more focus, which Liam thought helped rebuild my shore, narrowing the divide between my wolf and me. It had become a requirement to work the bakery a few times a week, but I still got to spend most of my days in the teashop. Human work baffled my wolf, but I understood the necessity. The pack provided most everything I needed: food, shelter, and clothing. The money I made went into a bank account, but other than buying books, I had little use for it. I got paid forworking. It felt somewhat normal to the human side of me. Grounding? Not only the work, but the idea that working was part of my life? A routine and place to be? That was a human thing. Even if my wolf thought it was pointless.
Would working at the bakery keep me from searching for Nick and Kiran’s return? Not likely. But the familiar scents and sounds helped calm the wolf inside. I waited by the door for them to finish readying themselves for the cold. Liam paused, his jacket half on, as a ripple of something went through the pack. His power extended as his expression darkened. Sebastian’s kitsune spirit rose, quashing the omega peace for a few seconds as heat and power rolled through the pack bonds, punching outward as if building a shield. Ari clung to his side, playing the part of the child, but I could see Ari’s divine energy calming the fox spirit, rolling the magic between them and soothing the heat back to a gentle warmth rather than a raging inferno.
“What was that?” Sebastian shivered.
“Dylan…” Liam said after a moment, his gaze glowing with magic. He finished putting his jacket on. “They ran into Zephyr in the city.”
“Are they in trouble?” Sebastian asked, his touch on the pack lines tentative. He still feared the wolves too much to dive in, rather dancing about the edges with me. I let my wolf race through the lines like he rarely did, startling half of them until we found Dylan, and saw a confrontation.
“The fae lord wants the prince?” I asked. That wasn’t happening. The wolf snarled with need to fight and prove they were ours.Not ready for that yet, us or them, I reminded the wolf.
“The fae always want power,” Liam answered. “They are on their way back, all of them fine, but Kiran will need food again. Dylan is going to bring them to the bakery.” His gaze focused on Sebastian and took a step forward to kiss him lightly on the forehead. “Start with some tea? You’ll have plenty of time to brood. It’s a two-hour drive.”
I wanted to race to meet them, the wolf and I in agreement on the need for their safety, but the alpha’s glance in my direction told me he’d be angry if we left.
“They will be fine.” Liam said again, then grabbed the keys off the hook beside the door, and took the lead out to the vehicle. I hadn’t driven since that day I’d been driven off the road.
I blinked as the memory stirred. We’d held that one for a while, it hurt a lot, so it didn’t really have a place yet. My wolf took the memory and dumped it into the water, settling his presence around me as we got in the backseat beside Ari. The alpha wanted us to be human, focus on ordinary things. But Kiran had used his waning strength to ward off the fae, so it meant he’d be starving, and the blight would grow. I had yet to tell anyone that I could see beyond his glamour, to the damage beneath. He couldn’t help his vanity. It was part of his fae lineage, or at least that was what Nick and I had agreed upon.
I reached for Ari’s hand, weaving my fingers with the child’s and giving them a small smile. I had a plan, an idea, and a mix I had been working on for a while. Kiran and Nick had been here months, with only the slightest of improvements in Kiran’s condition. Meanwhile, we had an entire world of magic at our fingertips. Would Ari be willing to help?
The child smiled up at me, catching my thoughts with little effort and nodding. Ari adored both Nick and Kiran, and wanted them safe and healed. In a few centuries, perhaps even a few decades, Ari would have enough power to unravel whatever was wrong with Kiran, but for now it was as much a mystery to them as it was to the rest of us.
Memories of cakes popped up on my shore. A buffet of delights like I’d never experienced in my life and couldn’t remember tasting. Bits from Sebastian’s memories shared with Ari? The wolf found them amusing, and informed us a cake of blood and meat would be better. Ari seemed confused by that, and added a cake made from bacon, hash browns and eggs. It was a bit of a mash-up that didn’t seem possible to actually create, as eggs weren’t really that solid, but I didn’t burst their bubble. We’d try it some morning when I hadn’t had to work at being human while worrying about the duo vanishing into the distance.
It was easier to protect them when they stayed in the camper. My wolf liked knowing where they were.
I gave Ari the thought of a sweet lemon cake that Sebastian had made a few weeks back. Delicate and light, like an angel food, with a strong acidic punch of lemon, it had been delicious, and reminded us of the warmth of summer. Heat was good, I thought. Kiran was always cold, and Nick was constantly trying to warm him. A summer cake filled with magic to ease the drain from the attack? That couldn’t be a bad thing, right?
Ari nodded, a big smile on their little face as I recalled the ingredients for the cake, and how to make it, my memory a thing of granite with every new thing I learned. How many books, recipes, and random facts now littered the shores of the divide between my wolf and me? I would have thought enough to fill the divide, only it never seemed to advance very far.
I had to confront the mess of memories smashing into boulders. Instead of bounding across in a hurry, for fear of waking bad memories, I had to hold them, no matter how they hurt, and find their place.
Time, I thought, was running out. The wolf gaining strength, the human struggling to hold on. Needing Sebastian, or one of the duo present to really function at all most days. Was there a way to fix any of it without shattering the delicate grip I had on humanity?
Ari squeezed my fingers, and I got an image of the Empress card again. Hope? Maybe.
CHAPTER6
Kiran