Page 91 of WitchCurse

The kitsune’s nose wiggled from the sensation of my touch. I leaned in and kissed it, happy to find it warm and dry. He snuffled, hesitant to wake it seemed, fearing we were a dream? This all felt like a dream to me, yet insanely real, but which was it? I’m not certain it mattered when Kiran opened his eyes to look our way.

“How about we help you build later?” Nick offered, tearing off a bite of the lemon cake and placing it beside Kiran’s snout. “Maybe some real food will make you less tired?”

CHAPTER29

Kiran

Idreamed for a long time, building up things I thought Nick and Toby would enjoy and not bothering to venture outward. The process of building was exhausting. More energy ever filling the space meant I had to keep expanding, crafting, and building as it was only me to shape everything.

Had Nick had this trouble in the past, I wondered? He never mentioned it. The realm ached with memories of them, and the ones I longed to share with them, but each time I reached out to touch them, they were nothing more than a seed. Still bound, and that gave me hope, but didn’t stop the lonely tears that only sleep kept from falling.

Their voices flittered around me first, the fox pup having come and gone, always burning bright like a candle in the dark, begging for play. I didn’t often have the energy to play with the child, and hated taking a break from building. What if Nick and Toby returned and it wasn’t done? And now that I heard them, I wondered if I’d ever finish the creation I’d started.

I opened my eyes, expecting to be alone in the giant forest of childhood memories, but found my head resting in Toby’s lap, and Nick curled up at my side, both of them running hands through my fur, the bond blazing to life between us like an electrical current. I jolted up, my heart racing as I stared at them. They’d been dead, all that I’d been able to hold onto had been a kernel of their souls. Forever bound to me as everything else I’d ever destroyed had been. And here they were, having a picnic at the base of the tree where I slept? Was this a dream?

I shifted, changing from the kitsune form to human skin as I hadn’t done since the destruction of the barrier inside and the breaking of the curses. The body felt small and unfamiliar for a few seconds as I adjusted. Then I reached for them. Nick grasped my hand and Toby slid in close, both warm and pulsing with life. How was that possible?

Nick touched my jaw and turned my face toward him, a kiss breezing over my lips. “Can you ease your shields? Let us in?”

I wondered what he meant, and my brain was half short-circuited by the touch of his lips on mine. Let them in where? Were they not in the realm with me? It looked like my realm. I’d been building a while, but it allfeltlike my realm. Safe, warm, and without battle. The ground still a bit sleepy like the spring thaw beginning.

“Hey, Red,” Toby said, his fingers curling in my hair and turning my face his way. He kissed me too, his lips warm and more demanding, his fingers tugging on my braid. He eased his face away and lifted the tail of the braid. It was a golden red, orange like fire. I frowned, thinking he hated it, and began to pull glamour around myself. “Don’t do that, please,” Toby asked. “I like the red. Can you just be you?”

I blinked at him, trying to understand everything when it was all too much. Were they real?

“You’re shielding from us,” Nick said, pointing to his head. “Keeping us out. Can you relax that a little?”

Was that why I couldn’t feel their minds even when they were both pressed against my body? And I was nude beside them, though neither seemed unsettled by that, nor the change to my skin, which looked almost as dark as Sebastian’s.

It took a few seconds to realize I had magically shielded my thoughts, with not one barrier, but dozens. I dropped them all, feeling the realm around us seem to sigh in relief. And Nick was the first to slide into my mind, his happiness making me flounder as I turned his way again.

“There you are,” Nick smiled, taking my lips with his, a delicate kiss, but one that said he wanted more. “So much more. But I think you need real food first. It’s why you’re tired.” He pressed a piece of cake to my lips until I opened and let him slide it onto my tongue. It was a delightful pop of sweet and sour, the bite melting in my mouth.

“Bacon too,” Toby said from behind me, handing Nick a piece of crispy bacon. The crunch and bite were divine.

“How is any of this real?” I asked between bites, letting them feed me.

“You’re a demi-god,” Nick said. “Not some fae prince, though I suppose your mother might have been seelie sidhe. Your father was a god, that much we know. The ice queen stole you as a child, and the goddess or the sidhe fae who was your mother created the kitsune in your memory. Your father laid down and sacrificed his body and soul to heal the damage his rage over losing you had caused the land.” He waved a hand at the surrounding trees. “Sort of like what you’ve done here?” He squinted, studying us. “I don’t know if we are actually real or not. Ghosts? Memories? The remnants of souls? Sebastian was here and he didn’t know. You’ve been a little selective about letting anyone in or out.”

“Don’t stop eating,” Toby said. “I can sense your hunger, and it’s not theneed magickind. Do gods normally get hungry?”

“I think it’s because he’s from the mortal world,” Nick said as he took a bite of chocolate cake before feeding me more of the lemon. “A mortal god? Sounds like an oxymoron, but also feels right at the same time.”

Toby created a couple of sandwiches out of the sweet bread I recognized as Liam’s creation, and handed it over with a cup of tea. “Food first, then worry about the philosophy of life and death?” He waves his hands in the air. “I wish I had my cards.”

“You always pull the Death card,” Nick said.

“Change. And we had a lot of change, right?” Toby nodded, as he ran his fingers over my face. “No flinching when I touch you?”

“Your wolf is not raging or demanding control?” I asked trying to sense the divide, but it was gone. Toby and the wolf were one. They wouldn’t always agree on things, much like all mortal beings, but they found a balance.

“You feel a bit like the omega right now,” Toby said. “But there is no separation between us anymore. The memories are still there, and they hurt if I hold them too long, but the wolf is willing to stand with me, even when we are in pain.”

That sounded like tidings worth celebrating. I studied them both as we ate, feeling a bit ravenous as I devoured everything they set before me. Soon all the dishes were empty and even the teapot dry.

“Need more?” Nick asked. “We can see if we can get more from Sebastian. He gave us a way to contact him from inside here.”

“Yeah, we aren’t certain we can leave,” Toby said.