Page 30 of WitchCurse

“And we expect you to stay out of our territory,” Liam added. He pointed at Toby and then motioned toward the doorway Nick held open, our new ability to spin magic through the wolf seeming to give him the ability to use doorways again. His gaze fell on me with a bit of anger, and I tried to hide my flinch. Lesser evils were still evil and someone always ended up hurt. Usually, me. The Stag had been right, I’d made the wrong choice, and should have killed us both. I sighed.

I waved at Sebastian to go ahead of me, his hands gripping Toby’s fur, and we all made our way to the door, Liam at our backs, waiting, but close. He didn’t look like much. Not the towering mountain of a male like Zephyr, but his resolve and unyielding stance said he had fought and won many battles. I really hoped he didn’t plan to find a cage for me once we got out of this hellhole.

I entered the portal, feeling the distance stretch and reshape as we landed in the yard near Liam’s home. Everyone emerged around me, Sebastian, Toby, then Liam and Nick. All of them settled unfriendly eyes on me as the door closed and vanished.

The weight of all the rolling magic, no longer pulled like taffy between the three of us newly bonded, slammed into me, and I gasped, somewhat thankful for the rising blackness that came to rip me from their accusatory gazes.

CHAPTER12

Nick

Icaught Kiran as he crumpled. The churning weight of magic rippling through the bond came to a screaming halt, and I could finally breathe. I’d been tossing every bit of the reserve into building a sanctuary around the camper we’d been given, but the intensity of the mess made it hard to control. I could only imagine how difficult it had been for Kiran, as weak as he was. I would have thought devouring the magic of high level fae, which I caught from both his memory and Toby’s, would have made him stronger.

Toby shifted back to human form and tugged on clothing that Sebastian handed him from a bag on his back. I was grateful Kiran’s glamour held, though the illusion of him having clothing meant I needed to get him warm fast.

“It’s the wrong mix,” Toby said. He glanced at the group around us. “Did everyone know the symbols all over him are binding spells? Or was I the only one who missed that?”

Sebastian’s eyes went wide. He had missed that. Liam didn’t look surprised. He had known, but we’d spent years together in Underhill before its collapse. I suspected there wasn’t much he didn’t know about Kiran or myself.

I turned and carried Kiran in the direction of the camper, it would be warm at least, and his skin was cold as ice. My own gut churned with unease about a million things and one big thing, and I could feel him stalking close behind us.

Toby.

Desiring the wolf, and finding him suddenly forcibly bound to us, were two very different things. The fact that something about his binding with Kiran made my magic work again, was frustrating. What did he have that I didn’t? We were both of this world. Was it because I wasn’t a wolf?

I couldn’t help the jealousy. Kiran was mine first. Had been for hundreds of years. And while I’d never gotten to explore a romantic relationship with him—he’d been too far gone before I realized what my feelings had blossomed to—our relationship was an intimate one.

Yes, I had known the symbols were spells. Had spent centuries trying to find ways to undo fae magic combined with the stain of mortal witches etched into his flesh. Never looking for a way free of my bond to him, but of his endless array of curses.

It wasn’t really fair to be mad at Toby. Kiran was a wrecking ball with some things, and I caught images of the Stag from his memory. A seer? Kiran can have more than one bond, yes, but keeping a mortal servant alive took magic and energy, both of which Kiran was running short on. How was binding another helping him? Maybe I was the weak part of this equation, holding him back?

“We can fix this,” Toby said quietly.

“I’ve been trying for centuries,” I snarled at him, still walking, not caring if it was miles. That was the biggest dig. I’d spent centuries trying to fix something I felt I’d broken, or at least added to, and now the addition of one little wolf was going to fix it?

Toby snarled, taking a step back, not happy being called a little wolf. Then I caught a memory of him talking to Ari. “You did this?” I asked incredulous. “Asked Ari to give him power?”

“I thought everyone was keeping him on a short leash, not letting him feed enough to heal because they were afraid of him,” Toby defended. “I was trying to help.”

“Whoa, wait a minute,” Liam said stepping between us, hands up. Sebastian touched Toby’s back, probably using his omega calm on the wolf. “Let’s get him resting and then we’ll try to sort this out together. Okay?”

I worked hard to hide my anger. It made Kiran curl in on himself as he’d been faced with a lot of rage in his life. He didn’t need it from me, and in that moment, it wasn’t directed at him. Nor at Toby. Not really. More internal. I was pissed off at myself for not being enough. For taking strength from the man I loved, and being unable to save him. Toby was young, and with youth came recklessness.

“You could have killed him…us…” I whispered. There was no point in me living if he was gone. I could hope a fade took me fast, but it would likely be my own mind that was the end of me after he was gone.

Tears burned in my eyes, and I refused to let them fall as I returned to the trek to the camper, heart pounding, muscles stiff. I had become a warrior for him, using his magic to build myself into a protector, but what use were human muscles against fae magic? The last few months, stripped of the ability to really use his power, I’d felt helpless, watching him further deteriorate, and thinking we were running out of time. I often wondered how Liam used Sebastian’s power with ease, even when the two had been in separate dimensions.

The answers hurt. The why, was it because I was not the right fit for him? Our bond one of convenience, not necessity. He would eventually have freed himself from the spells keeping him in the old palace. Sebastian had begun to unravel them, and with time Kiran would have completely melted the physical bonds, even if the internal ones remained.

Why had he called me at all?

I’d been hiding in a cave not far from the palace after escaping the battle that got Sebastian booted from Underhill for devouring monsters. It was the first time I had seen the full change of a kitsune. From fox to some sort of mutated monster of fire. I marveled at how it had become something impossibly strong, but still subject to the whims of Underhill’s power when it had thrown him through a portal.

When I fell asleep in that cave, starving, exhausted, and freezing, expecting to finally die, without familiar sanctuary magic, I heard Kiran’s voice. I had no idea who he was, only that we entered a sort of ball of legends. The things I read about in books, with masks and gowns, and a live band playing classical tunes. A masquerade of sorts, of which I wandered the edges for a time, feeling like an outsider, though a mask covered my face too. Never in my life had I experienced something like it, and it didn’t occur to me to think of it as a dream.

Strangers danced, their movements stuttering and blurred, faces imperceptible, and even if I tried to focus, they remained faded. Memories? All except one. He stood aloof from the rest, watching from a corner. Broad shouldered and strong, hair golden as his skin, which I knew now to be glamour. His mask was white and red, with glittering lines of gold and cat ears. I hadn’t known what a kitsune really was, Sebastian’s form more foxlike than cat, and the books I had read prior to our bonding hadn’t really mentioned them.

The male’s gaze met mine, and everything fell into place. His voice in my head, solid and clear. He crossed the room in a handful of long strides, sweeping me into his arms and swinging me in a slow dance. It was soothing, the fear and pain vanishing beneath his touch. I could have refused, pushed him away, but found myself intrigued instead, like he was an unopened book and I needed to read every line.