Page 19 of WitchCurse

“Your gifts are divine, baby fox,” I assured the child. They leaned in and kissed me on the cheek, fingers tangling in my hair for a brief moment. That aching intensity of magic close and incredibly tempting, but I was not the chaos of this world, devouring that sort of feast would create a supernova effect, a fast end. Nick was not part of this world anymore, not bound to it enough to ground me. More of my corruption tainting him after centuries stuck in Underhill, perchance? At least he could eat mortal food and maintain his strength that way.

I would never hurt the baby, not as long as my mind was my own. It didn’t matter that Ari wasn’t really a child. More a living embodiment of magic. As much as I’d like to think of myself as a ruthless monster waiting for the end, that was not how I wanted to go, devouring babies and the like.

“Thank you for the cake,” Nick told Ari, as the child let go. I flinched at the gratitude. Ari bounced away, smile bright. I cut into the new slice of cake. “Ari demands nothing from us. I’m not sure the binding rules work in this world.”

Better safe than sorry. I had no desire to take more of them out with me when I suddenly became a monster. Nor give them another reason to cage me. I would rather die a monster than locked away.

“You’ve never been, nor will ever be, a monster.”

I growled at him. Annoyed that he never stopped listening in.

“Then keep me out.”

I sighed, hating the idea of blocking him completely. It was lonely that way. I almost never reached for his mind, allowing him privacy and as much free will as possible. But keeping the bond between us open gave me a sense of peace, even when his emotions shifted, and sometimes I struggled to understand them.

“You can read my mind whenever you want,” Nick said. “I hide nothing from you.”

I thought about that for a while. Watching Ari running about near Liam, or darting between the shops to find Sebastian. Ari brought three more slices of cake. I admitted to glutting myself, reminded of the power the pack third had drawn from his masters. Though with each slice the world began to brighten more and more, until things blurred. Somewhere in the back of my mind music played, like a ball I’d once been allowed to attend, which had ended in a nightmare of watching mortals dance to death. The sound was faint but pulsed with a vaguely familiar weight of magic. I tried to focus on Nick’s face rather than the throbbing power running through my veins. Had I overdone it a little?

Toby stopped by twice while Nick ate, offering coffee refills, and bringing a new pot of tea for me. He touched Nick’s shoulder, and even brushed the back of my hand, leaning closer than most mortals ever got to me. His smile was warm, and all I could think was that he was very young, and what if my scion found something in him that I couldn’t provide?

“What if? What if he provided somethingweneed?” Nick wondered out loud when we were alone again. He put his hand over mine, squeezing mine gently. “You worry about the strangest things.”

“I worry about you falling in love and achieving some dream, and then my curse destroys it all,” I voiced my concerns. “You must hate me.”

“No. Never.” Nick said. “Dream? What dream?”

I waved my free hand toward Ari and the alpha. “A family? Human normality?”

Nick narrowed his eyes, glanced their way, then back at me. “He’s an alpha werewolf, married to a fae kitsune fox, sire to a dimension of power. There is nothingnormalabout that, no matter the species.”

It sounded ridiculous when he said it that way.

“Because it is.”

I squinted, the world tilting a little as I finished the second pot of tea. The tea did not have the wallop of the cake. How much cake had I eaten? Was it safe for them to have fed me an amount large enough to make the entire world feel like it was a pulsing heartbeat? Usually what they provided was well-balanced and soothed the roiling chaos inside. This time it churned and bubbled like a living thing. Too much this world and not enough wild fae magic? Or was it the wild bits that ran rampant through my guts?

Nick frowned. “Are you okay?”

I had no idea. Swaying a bit, I stood, thinking some fresh air would help, or at least distance if I were about to fall apart. Standing up really made the room spin, everything way too bright, I shut my eyes to the intensity.

“What were they thinking?” Nick asked. He gripped my elbow and led me out, guiding me down the few steps and beyond into the cool night air. I couldn’t see where we went, only that he led me an expanse away from the dead metal of cars and into the peace of earth. Nick ran his hands over my face. “Give some of it to me before you burn yourself up. You aren’t ready for this sort of power after being starved for centuries.”

I couldn’t focus, and simply swayed, trying to understand, give some to him? Nick couldn’t drain magic from me like the fae could. He only borrowed mine if he cast some spell, and he’d been struggling to cast spells in this world. But I dropped my shields completely, even the glamour, as the heat became unbearable. Cold for ages, ice in my gut melted, I could barely stand.

I wasn’t going to last. Cold fire filled me, rather than the heat I needed. No way to convert the bits of this world into actual energy, it froze, while the blaze of wild magic churned and ignited. Dueling wells of magic, neither mixing, both exploding. The heat was too much, I ripped myself away as a long-forgotten sensation burned deep. Like that first time many ages ago, when I’d changed, broken free, and begun to devour the fae like the monster I was.

“No,” I said, stumbling away from Nick, half blind, the change coming. Maybe not the big one, but an uncontrolled shift of that inner monster. I didn’t want Nick to be the first I devoured.

“What’s wrong?” Sebastian called, the pulse of his power like a beacon of warmth. The inner cold fire of my blight ate away at me fast, turning my blood to ice and misting my breath. Some things didn’t really change in this new world after all.

“He’s going to shift,” Nick said.

“Why is he cold? Generating ice? He should be fire. It’s like before…” Seb’s worried voice trailed off. “Kiran?”

“Too much magic,” I whispered. “From this realm.” How much had they put in the cake? Not enough fae magic, too much structured earthen magic.

“But I only sent you tea.”