Page 60 of WitchCurse
He vanished into the trees cursing me for a long time. Maybe he’d finally convince his mate that keeping their distance would be best for them and their pack, and it might just save them in the end.
CHAPTER20
Nick
We found Robin in the house curled up on the back of the couch in the family room, nose pressed to the fabric more like a cartoon cat. He was a lump of gray fur, but snoring somewhat loudly. The house otherwise empty.
“Is it strange that the house feels…like it’s not here?” Toby asked staring at the walls. I hadn’t thought the house was made from magic like the courts, but maybe I’d been wrong? I tried to see through Toby’s gaze, but the structure and the lines looked normal to me, like a house and a handful of familiar wards. His visibility of the lines and colors was almost as good as Kiran’s, but made less sense as I hadn’t had a couple centuries to memorize them yet.
“I don’t see anything unusual?”
“A ward maybe?” Toby wandered from the room, vanishing out the front door for a minute and coming in through the back. “Nothing I can actually see, but Ifeelit.”
“Describe the feeling,” I said. “Like we are exposed? The house is physically not here?”
“No. We stepped inside, and it’s like a bunker, everything is muted. Space, time, magic, everything. Like we are somewhere else? Not in a house in the normal world?” He sighed. “It’s hard to explain.” His gaze went to the cat dozing on the back of the couch. Not a real cat, though Sebastian and Liam had a real cat who was a black ball of fluff. This fae cat was really good at pretending.
I sat down on the couch and nudged him. He didn’t move, other than to continue snoring. I prodded him again, and he finally lifted his head, giving me an annoyed sleepy-eyed gaze. “Question,” I said, “Are all kitsune unseelie? Is Kiran really part of the dark court?”
He glared at me like he didn’t plan to answer.
“Seriously,” I said. “Kiran’s afraid of going supernova, a bunch of sidhe are out to capture us, and they are sending theHuntalong the borders of the pack. If you want to help Sebastian, then we need some answers.”
“And don’t do the creepy kid thing,” Toby added. “It might work to ease Sebastian’s anxiety, but that shit looks demonic.”
Did he have another form? I’d seen the cat and the child, but never met another puck in Underhill as they’d all been long gone before I arrived. Robin stood up, doing the long stretch that cats did, but moving like he was stuck in molasses.
“We don’t have all day,” Toby snapped at him. “Kiran will be back soon and we need to fix him.”
Finally, Robin leapt off the back of the couch, and I worried for a half second that he was leaving, but he changed. Not into the child, but shifting into a young-looking human male. Light flickered around the edge of his silhouette. Glamour, meaning this still wasn’t a true form, but at least he wasn’t the creepy child, rather a somewhat handsome young man with shoulder-length blond curls. I couldn’t recall if pucks only imitated people they’d met, or they could simply create whatever form they wanted. In general, I knew that pucks were one of the only species who could shapeshift at will, to anything, beast or fae, or human. Most other shifters were locked into, at most, a handful of other forms.
“I do not belong to you,” Robin said, his voice lyrical, “a bargain we must strike.”
Fuck. That had not been part of the plan. I couldn’t think of anything I had to bargain with. What would I know that he might not? I suspected he was likely as old as Kiran, and since he was nestled in the safety of Sebastian’s realm, he didn’t need our protection.
“I don’t have anything to offer you,” I admitted. Not magic, or power, or wealth, or even knowledge. I growled, feeling useless again, anger rising.
His gaze landed on Toby. “Vengeance?”
Toby stilled, face going dark. “No. That will be mine.” The wolf peered out of his eyes in that moment.
Robin shrugged, and turned as if to leave.
Fuck! “What else? You can’t deny Toby his vengeance, he will need it to heal. Is there anything else?” I begged. Kiran would have been angry, calling me reckless and stupid for bargaining with the fae who were known for the worst of turning things in on a person. I could wish for rain to ease a drought and he would provide floods. Or wealth, and die with a big life insurance policy. It was a curse of itself, a trick, and Kiran had always been adamant about not making bargains with anyone, especially the fae.
He turned a glowing gaze on me, studying me for something. I hated it. It felt like he was crawling through everything I was, even though my barriers were in place. But I tried to be hopeful he’d find something.
Finally, he said, “there is nothing you have that I want.”
“Fine,” Toby snarled, “vengeance. You can have it. But you better give us something useful.”
“No,” I told Toby, reaching for him. He might never heal completely without the chance to resolve the nightmare that had torn his life apart.
“It’s fine,” Toby said, though his tone was anything but fine. “How do we set the bargain so he can’t play us?”
He would anyway, but I sighed. “How much will you tell us for Toby’s vengeance?” I glanced at Toby. “It might not be worth it. He may not know anything.”
“Origins are answers like seer’s visions are quests,” Robin sing-songed.