Page 28 of WitchCurse

I landed on the first, and bit deep, drinking of the energy of fae. The blight began to recede, and I devoured the first quickly, then raced to the next as they began to run, trying to get away. The excess magic lit me on fire, warming me to the core, spinning into something tangible, and I cast out the energy into the bond, sending it to Toby and beyond to Nick, as I devoured the handful who couldn’t escape my claws in time. A branching of doors leading in several directions, but not telling us which way to go when the fae had vanished through all of them.

But a low growl emerged from the depths, claws on stone echoing as the last of the screams died beneath my jaws. And theHuntemerged from the halls. Only some beasts wolfen like Toby, the rest a mix of fae monsters brought to this world. Stupid sidhe should have left all those monsters in Underhill.

I backed Toby behind me, thinking I could kill a few, and separate out the strands of magic? But almost two dozen was a lot for me even if my strength had been completely restored. With my magic weak and chaotic, I could only hope to destroy a handful. I’d need to devour most of the court to regain even a quarter of myself, which is what the sidhe had always feared.

Stay close, little wolf.

He snarled, annoyed to be called little. It was almost like another voice in my head. His wolf a deep grumbling presence of irritation, anger, and will to hunt. I gazed back at him, finding his eyes no longer the mortal blue, but a glowing gold. My magic blazing in them. Interesting.

Stay alive, I instructed as I launched myself at the nearest fae beast, sinking in fangs and claws and drinking down the magic even as others landed on my back, tearing at me. I bled, they bled, and I ate.

These beasts were a mix of magics, part fae, part this world, and a lot of swirling cold. My mother’s magic. The pieces of this mortal plane of magic, I shoved into Toby rather than keeping it for myself, and kept the fae magic, using it to soothe long starved edges of my soul and awaken my power. The rise of energy intense. An expanding of magic that made me stagger, half drunken by feeding deeply after ages starved. I didn’t have anywhere for it to go, I realized. I could give some to Nick and to Toby, but they were beings of this world. Sebastian and Liam had their pack, ever growing, and now their own realm which had begun to spring with magic and more life. I was much more limited, stunted in this world, no allegiance to a court to create fae magic.

Nick could reshape it, use it like he had to build our sanctuary, even if we had no one to fill those walls.Sorry,I apologized to Nick as I sent power his way, leaving him no choice but to use it for something or burn out. Escape and survival the only real goal in my head.Don’t die.

He cursed, but took the energy, the bond between us blazing bright and white-hot as the one with Toby. I headed for the next, determined to devour them all if I had to, protecting my scions and freeing us from yet another prison. I only prayed it didn’t end up forcing my change, and sending me into madness instead.

CHAPTER11

Toby

Ifound the weave of magic fascinating and distracting, giving the wolf the chance to take over. Which was fine until there was so much magic, we were drowning in it. The wolf struggled through the tide of magic as it saturated everything, giving weight to even the air, until it was hard to breathe. I gasped, trying to understand how to sort it faster, only it was impossible. Kiran cycled it through Nick and me, using only the tiniest portions to heal himself as he sucked down theHuntbeast’s magic. Why was he taking so little?

It was a mess. Half madness, half chaos. His starvation forcing him to seek more and more, even while it barely touched the depths of his hunger.

My wolf fought with tooth and claw, backing up Kiran’s kitsune form as it ripped into beast after beast, but the roll of magic had us scrambling as the inner world ignited. It was so hot that I was surprised nothing was on fire. The water of the divide evaporated, leaving the boulders and a lot of scattered memories flopping around on nothing but muddy sand like dying fish. I gaped at them, glimpsing a handful of things the wolf had tried to hide from me, but now was not the time to examine the wounds of the past.

The wolf spirit curled around me, layering over me much like Kiran had, seeking a break from the heat, which had been turned up like an oven on broil. I realized Kiran couldn’t use the magic as it was. That’s why he forced Nick and I to take it. I could feel Nick scrambling to do something with the mess of wild and structured magic, and thought about all the books of alchemy I’d read. Symbols popping into my head, but the simplest solution was to take the ice that caged Kiran’s kitsune warmth and use it to cool the growing heat.

It was easy, a flip of energy, soothing the cold over us, and cooling the raging fire. It had the effect of warming the ice cage that surrounded the core of Kiran’s power, melting it, though not removing it, and easing the heat wrapping my wolf and me, until it could have been a warm spring day rather than a death trap.

I kept pulling the ice, and it stretched like taffy, never ending, no matter how much of it I tried to drag from his core. It was as if the magic binding that inner spirit was boundless and magnetized.

Outwardly I felt a change ripple through me. The wolf and I together staring out at a world that only appeared half real as the magic revealed itself around us in colored lines and patterns. The walls and floors a strange mix of structure and wild power, some of it wriggling like it was a separate living thing. The physical space looked like a warehouse, but the rooms and decorations within were nothing but magic. Fascinating and maddening all at once. I wanted to study it all, but we were still under attack.

The wolf and I focused on the battle, the first time we had been truly together since our change. There was no internal tide to tear us apart, just a gorge filled with dying memories of the past, and I let the strength of the wolf guide us in the fight. He was fierce, thrilled to rip and tear, and my human heart sought to protect those now bound to me, spinning the magic to try to cool the ever-rising heat, wrapping it around us in a protective barrier, while dragging the ice from inside Kiran to free him.

I’d have a lot of questions to ask later. Like why there were hundreds of strands ofsomething,spells or curses, binding him? Was that the blight? I had thought it was starvation. But it was much more than that, which meant I needed a lot more answers than I thought I did.

The wolf reminded us we needed to be free before we sought mortal worries like breaking curses. The walls and power around us too confining for our tastes, and Kiran’s panic about being caged was far too strong, even though I knew he tried to bury it. Instead of having rivers tearing him apart like I did, he had barriers, internal wards trapping the darkness and that ever persistent ice wrapped core. That was something I was going to tackle as soon as we got free of this nightmare.

A wave of power swelled from in the distance. The scent of honey and lavender trickling through my senses. The omega had entered the realm and his kitsune energy burned hot. A beacon, I realized, calling for me, as I was considered his to protect. I thought briefly that this was what Kiran should have felt like, not the overwhelming mess of heat, which was half out of control, but a rippling warmth that blanketed everything in waves of protection.

I felt Kiran’s unease and turned to find him staring at me. His thoughts thrumming with worry and fear that I had been taken by theHuntanyway and was dead.

A beast leapt at me. I snatched it out of the air, ripped it in two and tore the magic out of it, giving Kiran the wild bit. It wasn’t a delicate dance or spin of the chaotic mix of magic, but effective as I was still spinning the cold away from his core to cool the constant heat of the raging inferno of magic roaring through me. I suspected it was going to take more than a few minutes to figure out how to be bound to a fae prince with the same level of power as Sebastian. For the moment I made do with what I could, trying to feed him, and keep us all from combusting, while searching for a way out of this stupid realm.

I live, we told him, wolf and I in unison. I gazed out over the remainingHunt, many backing away, but I couldseesomething different about them that I hadn’t noticed before. Ties, almost like those that Liam used when he bound me to the pack, they were gray and faded, but it still gave me the impression that they could be bound? Did that mean they were some sort of unit? Or were these the severed remains of whatever pack or group they used to belong to? Did fae have packs?

Sebastian’s power thrummed through me again, a tug of pleading.Come home, he begged. I looked Kiran’s way.

Omega close,I informed him, not certain if he could feel it too. I glared at the remainingHuntbeasts, snagged the nearest faded tie with a claw, dragging it close. It was a magic thing, both structured and wild, but unbound it seemed a lot like Kiran’s had, starved and faded? If I had more time, I would have studied it, instead I poured strength of will through that tie and told them tostayto keep them from following us as Kiran leapt over the scattering remains of other beasts. I trailed after him, keeping an eye behind us for signs of movement and trouble, determined to protect him. The wolf agreed with me; we would guard him. We had wanted him a while, him and Nick. The wolf thought they were ours already, and never understood why we hadn’t finalized that desire.

But there was enough of humanity left in me to know that nothing was that simple, and finding a way for us to work was going to take time, and a bit of freedom. I followed Kiran, hoping for a way to escape the chaos. He glanced back, gaze searching behind me, for theHuntmaybe?

I told them to stay.I informed him.

He seemed to process that for a moment, then asked,Direction of omega?