by Nicole Hall
“I carried you. Well…part of the way, I dragged you. The kelpie didn’t follow us into the trod. Oskar was injured, but I think he killed it before it could come after us. He’s fine, by the way.”
Aiden grunted as he made French toast. He was glad Oskar would recover. The troll had come through when they’d needed him.
Maddie continued without waiting for a response. “I dropped you on the floor and freaked out for a minute while your shoulder healed all on its own. Care to tell me about that?”
She sounded curious, but not angry. Maddie surprised him again with her ability to adapt to situations out of her control. He didn’t like to talk about himself, but she’d proved she could handle hard information. More importantly, he’d come to trust her. “It’s hard to damage me in a way that will be permanent.”
“Are you saying you’re immortal?”
He grimaced. “Not quite. I can be killed. If the kelpie had bitten me in the water, I would have drowned like everyone else.”
“Not a mermaid.” She sounded proud of herself.
He smiled and flipped the bread. “You’re right. Not a mermaid.” Aiden pulled out two plates and glanced at her. “My body will usually heal anything that injures me but doesn’t cause death right away.” Her brow furrowed, but he didn’t want her to think about it too deeply. “How did you get me through the wards?”
“The same way I got you through the trod, I carried-slash-dragged you.”
Aiden turned off the stove, plated the food, and brought it to the table. “That shouldn’t have been possible, but I feel like I say that a lot about you.”
She joined him at the table and shrugged. “I only know what happened, not why. I dropped you inside, you healed, I passed out for a while, I showered, I checked on Oskar, I called Zee—”
Aiden’s head jerked up. “You did what?”
She straightened her shoulders and took a bite, waiting until she swallowed to answer him. “I called Zee. I needed to make sure you weren’t secretly dying while I napped. She came out—”
“She found the cabin?”
“Stop interrupting, and I’ll tell you. I went outside the circle, and she followed my GPS. When she got here, I pulled her through the ward.” Aiden opened his mouth to interrupt again, but Maddie glared him into silence. “She was impressed by your little paradise. After she reassured me you were going to be fine, we had some girl talk, and I walked her out.”
He hadn’t missed that she’d glossed over part of the explanation, but the part with the wards bothered him more. “You pulled her through the wards? How?”
“I held her hand and walked through with her. There was a bit of resistance when she crossed the circle, but I pushed some magic at her and she popped through.”
Aiden chewed thoughtfully. No one should have been able to cross the wards without a keystone, and he’d only given her one when they’d left. His was probably still in his pocket when she’d carried him over, but he hadn’t known they’d let unconscious creatures through without intention.
“You showered before calling Zee?”
Pink spread across her cheeks. “You looked like you were sleeping, and your shoulder had healed.”
At another time, he would have enjoyed teasing her, but he needed more information. “Did you have the keystone with you when you escorted her through the wards?”
Maddie glanced at the couch, then back at him. “No. I was wearing your shirt at that point. I’m assuming the keystone is the little white rock you gave me.”
He nodded, then leaned back. “Fascinating. Without knowing anything about wards, it seems like you’re extending your natural abilities to another creature. You’re amazing.”
She blushed again and ate her last bite. “Remember that the next time I almost get us killed while peeing.”
“Where’s the necklace?”
“In my pack. Your shirt didn’t have pockets, and neither do the leggings Zee picked out.”
That explained her anger at the dirty laundry. She’d had to ask Zee for clean clothes. “We’re definitely going to experiment with you and the wards after all this is over.” He didn’t add if they survived, but Maddie grimaced and stood to take their plates to the sink.
She knew as well as he did they’d been lucky so far. Torix was playing with them. He’d intended the attacks to subdue instead of kill, but he could change his method at any time. Aiden didn’t plan to wait for that to happen.
Maddie moved with efficient grace as she washed and dried the dishes. Her blond hair swung in a ponytail as she moved, and he vividly remembered the silky feel of it against his face. Her words came back to him. I’ll always choose you.
Aiden smiled ruefully. He’d chosen her too. At some point when he hadn’t been paying attention, she’d broken through the walls he’d built after Lexi. He could try to shore them up now, but it was far too late. She’d become more important to him than his plan for revenge.
Aiden accepted that he could never use her as bait, and let go of his original plan. The competing agendas inside him aligned with a new goal. Stop Torix before he got to Maddie. Creatures would keep coming until they neutralized Torix. His hands curled into fists under the table as the urge to keep her safe consumed him. He’d stand between her and Torix until his last breath. Maddie was his, and nothing would harm her.
MADDIE
Maddie took her time putting away the dishes. Aiden watched her with hooded eyes, and something about his posture told her he wasn’t thinking about backing her against the counter. She was thinking about that, but she considered it a natural side-effect of all the naked time that morning.
When she had nothing else to keep her hands busy in the kitchen, she sighed and met Aiden’s gaze. “I’m procrastinating.”
“I can see that.”
“Torix terrifies me,” she blurted out. Her fear made her feel weak, but he needed to know. “We have the necklace, and the next logical step is to use it against him, but all I want to do is hide under the covers in your bed. Preferably with you next to me. Some warrior I am.”
His face softened. “There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. You have more of a reason than most to be wary.”
“Not more than you,” she said quietly.
Aiden inclined his head. “Maybe, but you’re stronger than your fear.”
Maddie pushed away from the counter and approached him. He scooted his chair away from the table to give her room to slide into his lap. His arms came around her, and Maddie’s spike of fear subsided. He had so much strength in him. Her head rested on his shoulder, and she let herself relax against his heartbeat. When had he become so important?
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” His voice rumbled against her, and she remembered him saying something like that before, when she’d been scolding him for the kelpie bite. A fierce protectiveness rose up inside her. He wasn’t the only one who could make promises.
She raised her head to meet his eyes, golden and intense. “That goes both ways. We’ll keep each other safe.”
A smile tipped the corner of his mouth, and he nodded. “Okay, but that means I have to come with you the next time you have to pee.”
Maddie giggled, all her fear forgotten. “Perv.” She smacked his chest playfully, but Aiden winced and hunched over, rubbing his temple. The smile drained from her face. “Aiden?”
He shook his head. “I’m okay.” When he straightened, he leaned sideways to search out the window.
Maddie propped herself up to look, but she didn’t see anything unusual. “What?” Before he could answer, an orange cat streaked across the yard, well inside the boundaries of the wards. It disappeared under a full rosebush, but Maddie had seen enough.
“Was that Seth?”
“I hope so. He punched through the wards hard enough to give me a headache, but he hasn’t said anything, which is unlike Seth. He loves the sound of his own voice.”
Maddie reluctantly got off Aiden’s lap and backed aw
ay from the window. “Can he hear his own voice when he communicates telepathically?” She rolled her eyes at herself. “Nevermind. Not important right now. What’s he doing here?”
Aiden got up and checked the other windows on the way to the bedroom. “Let’s find out.”
Maddie followed him to the doorway and watched him change into his full leather armor. Last time, he’d left the top—she couldn’t remember the name for it—behind, and the leather definitely would have protected him from the kelpie if he’d been wearing it. In any other circumstance, she’d have thoroughly enjoyed herself. Aiden in leather was a fantasy all on his own without adding in the knowledge of what he looked like naked. Who was she kidding…she’d enjoyed herself anyway.
He opened the locked cabinet in his wardrobe, and Maddie got her first look inside. Vials lined up behind bunches of dried herbs, small pouches, and a lump of something she couldn’t make out.
The questions nearly choked her, but it wasn’t the time. He grabbed two vials, a pouch, and a flat stone she hadn’t seen at first. She concentrated, and this time when he closed the cabinet, she could feel the small pulse of magic he used to lock it. How interesting. There were so many things she had yet to learn.
Aiden paused while filling his pack and tilted his head to listen. She’d assumed Seth would communicate with both of them, but it looked like she’d been wrong. Or at least, someone seemed to be talking to Aiden.
He nodded, and his attention came back to her. “We have to go. Is your pack ready?”
Maddie frowned. “Yeah, what’s wrong?”
“Something is trying to take down the wards.”
“Something besides Seth?”
“Yes.” He urged her into the living room, where he grabbed the rest of his gear.
“I thought no one could find them?”
“You may have left a mark on them when you pulled Zee through. I’m not going to go check now, and I don’t have time to reinforce them. We have to go.”
There’d be time for more answers later, she hoped. Maddie grabbed her pack, glad she’d thought to stuff the dagger inside when she’d refilled it. She steadied herself and lifted her chin. “Okay, where to?”
He took her hand and led her outside to his garden. The forest looked peaceful around them, but Maddie knew looks could be deceiving. If she turned her head just right, she could see the shimmer of the wards like a giant bubble surrounding them. At the far end of his property, almost hidden under a lush honeysuckle bush, stood a stone arch.
They stopped in front of it, and Aiden set the flat stone into an indentation she hadn’t noticed. A moment later, magic flared, and a shimmer similar to the wards appeared between the pillars of the arch. Maddie leaned closer. It wasn’t a trod; there weren’t any sprites or a path of any kind.
Aiden moved toward the shimmer, but Maddie hesitated, stopping him. She’d never heard of anything like this, and strange magic made her nervous. Maybe they were overreacting to a stray cat running around.
Go!
She jumped at the lashing voice in her head. Seth had finally deigned to speak to her. Aiden squeezed her hand, and she tore her gaze away from the arch to face him.
“Trust me.” He implored her with those golden eyes, and the unease in Maddie calmed. Whatever it was, wherever it led, Aiden wouldn’t hurt her. She believed that absolutely.
Maddie nodded and followed him through the shimmer.
11
MADDIE
The sweet, warm air on the other side reminded Maddie of Aiden’s garden. She’d tried to keep her eyes open on the way through to see what happened, but the change was almost instantaneous. They’d appeared in a forest, but different from every forest she’d been in. She tilted almost horizontally trying to spot the tops of the ancient trees surrounding her, taller than the redwoods she’d seen once on vacation with her family. This place looked like her world, but not quite.
Maddie gaped at the flowers bigger than her head growing all around the arch. They ranged in color from soft, delicate pink to vivid purple with multiple layers of petals and long antennae-like centers. She leaned down and gently touched one of the flower antennae, and the petals snapped closed over her hand. Maddie squeaked and jerked back.
She checked to see if Aiden had noticed, but he’d been busy running his hand over the top of the arch. He stopped and fiddled with something in the very middle, then pulled a flat stone from the top. The magic dissipated, and the shimmer disappeared.
Maddie gasped. “It’s a portal!”
Aiden grunted in assent.
“Where are we?”
“My home.”
Maddie raised a brow. “That’s not very specific.”
“Remember my pocket trod?”
“Yes?”
“This place is like a bigger version of that. The human world became dangerous for my clan, so they made a new home here.”
Maddie didn’t think her eyes could get any bigger. “They?”
“I was born here. This was the only home I knew.”
A burst of knowledge hit Maddie. “Until Torix.”
He nodded and carefully stowed the stone in his pack. “Seth left for Terra—”
“Terra?”
“What we call your world. Lexi and I followed him. Torix was waiting for us.” Aiden had tried to keep his face carefully blank when he’d said the name Lexi, but Maddie saw the pain flash in his eyes. She hadn’t heard the name before, but then, there was a lot about Aiden’s past she didn’t know. Like all of it. But this name was special.
Maddie could figure out what happened next. Torix enslaved Aiden, Seth escaped to survive on his own, and she’d bet they wouldn’t find Lexi in this pocket world. Most likely, Torix had killed her. Three of them had left, and none of them had returned.
Aiden scanned the area around them and inclined his head at a path through the trees that looked the same as every other direction. “The clan is that way.”
Maddie wasn’t ready to leave just yet. Seth hadn’t come through the portal. The panic in his voice had been real, and Maddie’s worry about what they’d left behind increased.
“Why didn’t Seth follow us?”
Aiden’s jaw ticked. “He’s not allowed back. The portal is locked against him.”
She propped her hands on her hips, inexplicably angry. “Why? If we were in danger, so was he. We can’t just leave him behind.”
Aiden’s eyes stayed trained in the direction of his clan. “He knew what he was doing. Seth is proficient with wards. He told me to take you and run while he reinforced, and I quote, ‘the tangled mess I should have outgrown by now.’”
Seth’s irreverent attitude and Aiden’s confidence that he’d be okay made Maddie feel a bit better, but that didn’t explain Aiden’s reluctance. She put a hand on his arm. “Who’s Lexi?”
He stiffened. “My wife.”
Pain sliced through her. Maddie recoiled internally, but didn’t back away. He’d been married to another woman while getting naked with her? Her hand tightened on his arm. “You have a wife?”
“I had a wife. She betrayed me to Torix, and then Torix killed her.”
The pain in her chest disappeared, replaced by the need to comfort. She slid her arms around his waist and pressed herself close. “I’m sorry.” She was sorry, but relief left her lightheaded. She’d fallen too far to save herself at this point.
He curled around her, holding her tight and dropping his head next to hers. Maddie knew pain, and she’d do whatever she could to help ease his.
“How long ago?”
His breath tickled her ear. “A hundred and twenty-five years or so. I was a wolf for a long time.”
She wanted to ask more questions, to find out what happened. How had Lexi betrayed him? Why? How had he stayed sane for that long? But she didn’t. He had his reasons for keeping quiet, and she trusted that he’d tell her when he was ready. She thought of one relevant question though.
“Why didn’t you come ba
ck when we were released?”
He raised his head and straightened, but kept her against him. “I promised myself I wouldn’t come back until Torix paid for what he’d done.”
Maddie winced and tried to pull away. “And you had to break that promise because of me.”
He held her in place and met her eyes for the first time since they’d come through the portal. “I chose to break my promise for you.”
The solemn intent in his voice settled inside her. Since the dream in Wales, they’d both changed. She hoped for the better. A long history stretched between them, most of it painful, so Maddie resolved to help him focus on now.
She stretched up on her toes to plant a quick, hard kiss on his mouth. When he started to deepen it, she danced away, and his hands fell to his sides. “Enough dawdling. Your clan awaits.”
She kept her tone light and confident, even though the prospect of meeting his family inspired a wealth of dread. What if they hated her? Aiden gave her a look that said he knew what she was doing, but he led her toward his people anyway.
They walked hand in hand through the forest, and Maddie’s head swiveled back and forth finding something new and amazing approximately every six seconds. A rustle from behind a leafy fern covered in berries made her tense up; things kept attacking her from bushes in the woods. Aiden ignored it, and a few seconds later, a tiny squirrel creature with a fluffy tail popped out.
It had dark brown fur with lighter rosettes like a reverse leopard, most likely to help it blend with the shadows in the trees. Long whiskers poked out of a small triangular face and quivered as it sensed the air. Maddie contained a squeal of delight, but her joy must have been written all over her face. Aiden took one look at her and slowed to a stop.
“A caid. They’re harmless.”
Maddie watched it stuff its mouth with berries while flicking its tail at them. It sniffed a bright blue vine twined around the base of a giant pine, then scampered up into the branches far above them.
She stared after it, craning her neck to see where it went. “How are there creatures here if you guys created this space?”
