Page 63 of WitchCurse
“I am no sorcerer, merely a fae long past his prime.” I recalled back to my days of wandering between worlds, long ago as it had been, and thought I’d met a handful the princess might call a sorcerer. Mortals with magic, unbound to any supernatural being. Though sometimes the humans traded freedom with shadows for more power, it was never quite the same. “I thought the days of mortal mages long passed, but maybe they hide better in a world so vast? Not all were bound in my youth. Many fae would covet the mortals with the ability to manipulate magic in this world,” I said, not adding that most fae found mortal mages to be little more than exotic pets since the fae could not use structured magic. “You have great strength within you, and a wolf spirit which would make a fine guardian.”
She blinked, mouth gaping a moment. “A wolf spirit? But I can’t change. Dad says wolves are never born, even though he is an alpha and my father, the blood curse doesn’t transfer through birth.”
I let my kitsune spirit rise and gently rub itself along the side of her wolf spirit, like a cat marking her with its scent. Her gaze widened, eyes searching my face.
“No, princess? You do not feel the spirit?”
“That’s…how?”
“An exchange?” I inquired. “A bargain. I can teach you to cultivate your wolf as a protector. You need not shift into the beast for it to act as your shield.”
“And what do I have to offer you?” She flushed. “Dad says not to bargain with the fae.”
“I ask only that you help me learn about the remaining curses binding me. Can you see them clearly enough to draw them?” Nick would know where to start in researching symbols from this realm, but needing him didn’t ease my irritation. I would have to have a long discussion with my scion about boundaries. Strange as we’d never really had to worry about crossing that line before. I’d been careful, but obviously not careful enough.
“Is that safe? Do you own my soul if we bargain?” She glanced back at her pile of books. “I’ve only started reading about the fae. Dad said a lot of the rules don’t apply here now that Underhill is dead.”
Reborn actually, in the child she considered a sibling, but I didn’t correct her. “I would only own you if you were a scion, and I think I have my fill.” The other fae didn’t consider them scions at all, rather slaves, as they were tools to be used and abused, but she would come to hate me soon enough. Time would reveal my ills to her when everyone around me began to perish as they usually did. “A bargain is a give and a take. If I do not teach you, the knowledge you provide me about the curses would vanish. The opposite true. An exchange of knowledge also means a loss of it should we break our word.”
“I don’t know what the symbols mean,” she said after a moment, “but I can see them. Dad might, or Sebastian?”
“Our bargain,” I clarified, “is merely for you to draw the symbols you see. My heart would be less aggrieved to provide you with a way to protect yourself when you choose to wander without guards. Could the alpha or omega teach you how to strengthen your wolf? Would they?”
She flushed and looked away, knowing she was caught. I might not have spent much time among their pack, but I knew the princess was to have guards at all time, especially since the last attack had targeted the human lover of the pack third. Everyone was to be protected, it was how the alpha worked, and to use the wolf spirit, did the alpha fear magic more than he let on? “Okay. Do we have to seal the bargain with blood or something?”
“Your hand, princess, if I may kiss it?”
She held out her right hand, hesitant, but shoulders back and defiant. Strong was the princess, of spirit if not of body. I prayed I could teach her things to keep the darkness at bay, as the brightness of her soul would attract the shadows and all sorts of otherworldly monsters.
I bent and touched my lips to the back of her hand, a gentle seal of the promise, from her to me and me to her. Magic snapped around us for a half second of the binding of the bargain. She shivered, her gaze glittering with the presence of her wolf. Protective was the beast, even if it didn’t yet have real form. That would be easy enough to fix.
“Our promise is sealed. Is there a warmer place we can work? Out of the wind?” I asked, pretending the cold was the reason for her shiver. Fae magic affected everyone differently.
She nodded. “Let me just grab all the books. There’s a grove with a fire pit, the trees provide good shelter.” She paused and glanced out into the distance. “It’s outside the wards.”
“A good place for us to practice, then, is it not? I wish not to disturb your pack with our play, even if it is only simple magic.”
“Simple magic,” she sighed. “It’s probably bad to want real magic.”
“You have real magic, princess, no need towantit, best to learn to control it before it takes control of you. Magic is a living thing no matter the realm it comes from, it seeks life, energy, and function. You can bury it deep and let it seethe until anger rips it from you, causing havoc, or coax it to a partnership. Which would you prefer?”
“Partnership, for sure. Does Sebastian bury his magic? Is that why his kitsune rages?”
“A little. Not all was his will,” I said.
“Right, he was bound for a long time. But I’m not. Partnership, sort of like the wolf with the human? An agreement of wills?” she asked.
“You know much of the wolves of this realm; I know only of theHunt. But yes, it is a balance, give and take, as much of all life is. Let me carry your books. I give you my word that none shall harm you in my presence.”
She stared at me a moment longer, assessing. Was I a threat? Her father tried to shelter her and teach her cynicism at the same time, complicated, but necessary. I knew the alpha well. “Why do you hide your red hair? It’s pretty. Not dark like blood, like Sebastian’s, but sort of golden like copper.”
I gaped at her, confused and lost for a moment, as I’d not had that red since I was a child. How could she see what was lost to me more than a millennium ago? “I know not what you mean, princess.”
She stared for a bit longer, then blinked as if shaking off whatever she saw. Was there seer blood in her? Her eyes had not changed, nor could I sense that pulsing ache of fate within her. The alpha should know right away if there was. Every court would be vying to take control of such a power. The days past of the fae taking humans as toys were gone, but stuck in this world of little magic, I could see them finding resurgence and did not want the princess to be one of their victims.
She gave me a warm smile. “Let’s go. We have a few hours before I’m expected to show up for dinner.”
I gave her a nod and motioned for her to lead, making my way to the pile of books. The books were old, and she’d somehow obtained the one of wyac flesh. Nick would hear about that, as anything made from death could perpetrate death. We kept our distance from the wards, seeing them in a sparkle of shimmering color in the distance, and I scanned the area with my senses searching for any trace of theHunt.