Page 20 of WitchCurse

“Ari brought him cake,” Nick said. “A lot of cake. Didn’t that come from you or Liam?”

“No. Fuck!” Seb cried. He wrapped his arms around me. It was an instant vacuum. My starvation latching onto the flavor, like a dream of a long-ago feast. His power trying to pull back the bits of this world I couldn’t handle, and feeding me bits of fae strength.

I had a vision of ripping his power in half, and that final monstrous change. Didn’t he know how dangerous it was to touch me at all? It was why I’d been locked away in an abandoned palace, stitched into the ice like some sort of snow globe cage.

I roared and shoved him away, falling back and spiraling into the agony of a change I hadn’t had ripped from me since long before Underhill had begun to unravel. Power erupted in a wild explosion of magic from beneath my skin, unable to use it completely, but shoving it into the shift eased a bit of the discomfort.

CHAPTER7

Kiran

The change was brutal. An eruption of something inside, ripping free and bursting from my flesh. The shape felt familiar, four paws, a sleek cat-like musculature I knew how to use, but the size was wrong. I towered, larger than I ever had, even with the top of Nick’s head, his startled gasp telling me the change was different than we’d seen before. They all looked like food in that moment, glowing with the woven threads of magic, even Nick. The shifting churn of energy tempting me to eat and continue to change until I devoured everything. The glamour collapsed under the weight of my hunger and I heard gasps from behind me when the shift took over. The fox shocked at seeing how far my self-destruction had advanced?

My body no longer the kitsune of legends, but a corrupted, blotched darkness and rotting thing. Mutated, not dragon; at least Landon had been beautiful in his throes of death, while I’d always be a monster and a thing of nightmares. Months of starvation in this world after lifetimes of sparingly devouring the few remaining bits of Underhill had left me famished and out of control.

I turned and ran, no direction or focus in mind, only that my beast needed to be guided away from the rest. If this wasthechange, then so be it. I prayed they’d kill me before there could be any real damage. Death rather than a cage. It was long past time to finally rest.

Do not let them cage me again,I begged Nick.Death, please.A final boon, selfish as it may be, since I would drag him with me. Anything but another fucking cage.

I raced into the trees, trying to keep my drunken flight through the trees rather than where the mortal dwellings swelled. I crossed some roads before finding the giant stretch of silence that told me it was something less inhabited by mortal creatures. Not a bird or bug to be heard, but magic pulsed like a heartbeat. A draw somewhere deeper, maybe even to this forest god the fox often spoke of? Was he similar to the forest spirits I’d met of old? I didn’t want to cause them harm either if they still existed.

Kiran?I heard the alarm of Nick’s voice in my mind as the barest whisper. Too much power, yet not enough. Hunger etched a deep need in my gut. Like if I could find that forest god, I’d devour it in a single gulp, even if that meant the destruction of this world. It would certainly mean my final transition to a beast they would need to vanquish.

Don’t follow, I tried to send back, not certain he could hear, my mind too muddled. Maybe distance would save him.

I don’t want to be saved. I want you safe. Come back to me.

Foolish man. Still so naïve after all these years.

I paused at the base of the mountains, shocked to have gotten that far so quickly. The pulse of energy and life in every living thing, tempting, but out of reach, like the magic of the land was not mine to have? Because it belonged to the fox and his mate, or even this unknown forest god? I huffed out a frustrated breath, surprised to feel more than a little disoriented. I couldn’t go back even if I wanted to.

What awaited there? Death? My final transformation? Would Ari be forced to destroy me? They were too young for such a burden. And the babe would lose their beloved Uncle Nick. Too young for a loss that great. Would it turn Ari into something dark and cruel like Underhill had been?

My breath misted white as I paced the small area trying to clear my thoughts from the pulse of magic. A branch snapped in the distance. I whipped around ready to pounce, expecting an attack from the fox in his kitsune form, but it was a wolf. The little wolf that Nick had grown fond of, a pale stripe of color down the beast’s nose helped me recognize him. Stupid mutt, did he want to die?

There was no fae magic in him, I had taken it from him when he’d been touched by a curse when we first arrived. The ribbons of energy remaining were an incredible wrapping of earthen power. Was that what Nick had meant when he said this little one was bound for great things? The energy of this world not convertible to me, his death would be pointless, as that was all the power in him, yet still I craved it.

He tilted his head my way, staying near the edge of the trees. I could leap that distance in a heartbeat and end him. Why didn’t he run away? I snarled, expecting him to step back, but he didn’t move. Was he leading the others my way, like the alpha? My senses blazed with too much stimulation, magic, and need for more, so that I couldn’t clarify anything around us.

He took a few steps closer, and I paced backward trying to keep the distance. He might as well have been that chocolate cake the fox had been feeding Nick earlier, as I could have devoured him in a sweet bite. A taste of what I could have if I consumed the entire pack, and the magic of this world. The fox would be forced to kill me then, to save his people. He would never devour his own as I had for centuries. And forcing his hand would ensure death rather than a cage. My only worry was Nick, his affection for this little one, and how he would suffer when I died. Not an instant death as often those bound to fae faded after the death of their master. I’d never shared that tidbit of information with him, but suspected he knew, my wily scion.

When the alpha had opened the door between worlds, I’d hesitated. Not wanting to extend the madness, and to finally free the remaining fae. They’d rushed through and scattered, thrilled to be away from me and their impending doom. But Nick had stood at my side, waiting, willing to stay behind with me as Underhill self-destructed. I’d crossed the veil for him, and I would let the wolf live for him.

How sentimental had I gotten in my old age? No longer the destruction of all living beings, but some neutered mutt bound to a human?

I crouched low and the wolf mimicked me. Waiting. Ears forward, rather than back. No snarl, more curiosity. This little one often threw itself at the other wolves, seeking a fight it might not win. The alpha and the fox kept the others back, the human inside the wolf often battling with the beast for control. A docile human, a rabid wolf, both a contradictory relationship. Did the wolf want to die and be free of the human’s control forever?

We both waited there for a time. The power pulsing in waves, making me a bit dizzy, too long starved and no way to burn off the excess, I wobbled on my feet. A mix of magic my body wasn’t certain how to use yet. Ari was born from a mess of this world, and the corruption of Underhill, too much, and not enough all at once. That was the difference in what the fox and the alpha fed me, and the baby had provided. Theirs was a careful mix that I could actually use, this was a heap of magic I couldn’t convert.

I could release another shift, mutate into something else, beyond the distorted kitsune I was now. Expend the energy by burning myself out. That wouldn’t necessarily save the baby wolf.

Nick liked him.

Jealousy rose again. My sight flared white and blinding for a second, and I took a step forward, but stumbled, leg giving out as the rot on that side had weakened the muscle. My left shoulder hit the ground, face smashing into the mud, but I didn’t force myself up. Easier to resist the temptation with my nose in the dirt. The sparks began to drip away, leaving burned spots of color across my vision. He was closer now, careful, but not afraid. Stupid wolf.

I let my back end fall, exhausted and still fighting the change. I needed a way to blow through the magic but didn’t have energy to run again. He was close enough to reach my jaw now, leaning in to sniff me. My gut growled in hunger, churning with a mass of energy but demanding more, something we could use, the familiar taste of fae, or something darker, though that was not the wolf’s flavor.

A tentative tongue licked my lower jaw, then he nuzzled my face, as though asking if I were hurt. Did he not understand how dangerous I was? I huffed at him, breath coming out a white mist instead of fire. I could ignite the flame of my kitsune, break through the ice of the curse for temporary warmth, and burn off some magic, but it would probably set the forest ablaze and trigger another transformation.