Page 62 of WitchCurse
Rippling magic echoed on the breeze, not wild, nor the set structure that seemed to be bound in this realm, untamed? Someone was practicing magic on the fox’s land.
I came across the princess, child of the alpha, though growing quickly into her womanhood, she was what Nick called a teenager in this world. Her contrary nature fit well with my own, and the snark she threw back at Sebastian most days brought much amusement. She paused to glance my way, freezing in place for a moment, books at her feet, as though I’d caught her doing something she shouldn’t have, and then she leaped to meet me.
“Hey,” she said, smile wide, and her dark curls a bit unruly. Unlike many of the others in the new realm, she never hesitated to greet me. Had her youth made her less wary of my kind? I’d likely have to teach her otherwise, which would not only lose her easy friendship, but enrage the alpha. Her safety was more important.
“M’lady,” I said with a slight bow, her presence easing the lingering anger, not all that unlike the omega could. Despite her interest and attempts at magic, her soul glowed with a light rarely found among any living in this realm. “Your brilliance eclipses the morning sun.”
She laughed. “Um, sure. Korissa is fine, no m’lady needed, and that’s lovely, I think.”
“Right. It is uncommon to acknowledge status in this new realm,” I recalled. Liam could call himself a king in a dozen ways, but rejected them all, keeping only ‘alpha’ as his title. Sebastian asked for no titles and often became visibly uncomfortable with them.
“We don’t really have kings and queens here,” Korissa said.
“There are not lords who rule over all with wealth and power?”
She frowned. “Okay, well, not officially, and I’m not one of those.” She changed the subject. “You look better. I hope Ari didn’t cause too much trouble; they are still learning.”
“The child’s will is pure,” I agreed. That may someday change, power and life corrupted. Maybe they would become a place of dreams, magic, and peace. “I shall preserve. Lady Korissa, I am concerned that you appear to be without guard? My bondmates said theHuntstalked the boundaries.” I did not tell her of the recent assault, no need to frighten her, though I sensed nothing nearby.
She flushed and looked around. “And you are without your scions while you’re still recovering?”
“They are otherwise engaged.” Did mortal women her age have intimate relations? I didn’t think her father would take kindly to me telling her about the sex lives of my mates. “I’m a fae prince, not a snack for theHunt.”
“You seem mad at them. Did something happen?” She was far too observant.
“They seek things I am not willing to give.”
Her gaze roamed over me, but it paused to focus on my torso, near my heart. She reached out, fingers hovering, but not touching, eyes glowing with something, not wild magic, but structured? In my early years traversing these realms there had been whispers of mortals who held power in their blood. Sebastian often used the term for himself,Witchblood, to indicate his mixed magic. The princess, however, was much more mixed magic than any I’d seen before. All human, mortal, and filled with a brimming well of power. Her strength glittered not unlike the shadows I had once preyed upon, yet bright enough I knew her power would burn. I sucked in a deep breath, what did she see?
She blinked and looked up at me, then away. “The pack is busy. They always are, but more on weekends. I’m out here on my own practicing magic. The wards would warn me if something is close.” She waved her hands. “It’s nothing. I’ve been studying Seb’s books. I have a bit of a knack for it actually. Dad says I don’t get in my own way like Sebastian does, but he hesitates to teach me. Worries I’ll end up like the mad scientists in books, turning myself into darkness or something. A lot of the books do end that way, mages turning themselves inside out on a quest for power.”
I shifted my gaze to look at her with kitsune eyes. “No darkness,” I assured her, “only bright luminance as befits a princess.” Layered over her in a dozen ways, a glimmer of a faded wolf in the deepest part of power. Not the blood curse of the wolves of this realm, but something she might call to her, with practice, as a protector, a guardian of sort. “Do not all men quest for power?” I asked her and shrugged thinking about my mother. “That madness is not engendered as much in this world. It can be easy to fall, turning your back on the light. I request you continue to bask in the glow and leave the darkness to those of us already lost.”
“That’s cool when you do that. I can see the spirit of the kitsune wrapped around you. You’re not afraid of the kitsune like Sebastian is?”
“I am the kitsune. It would be like fearing my own hair, or the shade of my eyes. Part of me. Sebastian’s form was locked away in his formative years, giving life to hesitation and discomfort. In time he will find it as natural as his earthen fox.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“Are not all creatures dangerous in some way? A rabbit can bite, or kick hard enough to hurt. A squirrel has sharp grinding teeth.” I never understood Sebastian’s fear of his kitsune. That part of me easily sank to heel, it was the darker reaches within that really became an issue when the accumulation of magic reached cognizance and became feral. Were they one and the same for him? “The kitsune is a predator, and your omega has a tender heart, so it is a bit of a contrary nature.”
“In some ways,” she said, “he can be as ruthless as Dad. His fox is a predator too, but he really only shows his aggression when someone threatens us.”
“As a true protector should,” I agreed.
Her hand hovered above my lower right ribcage, studying whatever she could see.
I looked down, trying to see what she saw, but while I felt the tugging restraint of likely a dozen deep ties, I could see none of them. “What do you see that I cannot?”
“Are they curses?”
“You tell me. I feel them, but cannot see them. Like stitches,” I said pressing my hand over the spot. “Knotting it into place? For all I may know of structured magic, they could be binding my soul to this mortal shell.”
She looked away, frowning. “It might be better to ask my dad.”
“He is a great sorcerer,” I soothed, thinking perhaps she was sad because she didn’t yet have the training or knowledge to answer.
“Yes, and no. I mean, without Seb’s power, he wouldn’t be. Do all sorcerers have kitsune power or fae magic?”