The WindWard Wolves (WindWard Triad Book 3)

by Noah Harris

  Johnny took hold of Deacon’s chin. “We might, or we might not. But I know we’ll be better off not having someone like you pulling the strings and making it harder. Now, we have a chance to make things better, and I promise you, we’ll take that chance.”

  “You’ll ruin it.”

  Johnny smiled. “We’ll see.”

  He didn’t need the extra power from Kell, or Ash’s knowledge to end the life of a broken man. Pain seared through Johnny as he tore for the power he would need. He wasn’t good enough to use normal magic to kill someone, and he’d never dared use Blood Magic for it in the past. But for Deacon, he would make the exception.

  Johnny locked eyes with him. “But you won’t.”

  The power leapt from him, tearing through Deacon’s mind and shutting it down hard. Deacon jerked, his body going rigid as the magic worked through him. Then, like a puppet with cut strings, the Vigil leader collapsed, motionless. It was quick, and clean, which was better than he deserved in Johnny’s opinion.

  For a moment, he considered taking the man’s mask off, to see the face of the person who had been responsible for so much pain. Yet, just as he never planned on telling Kell the true origins of the leader, neither did he want to know anymore. All he needed was waiting for him in the other room, and on a beautiful mountaintop miles from where he was. He would take Ash’s advice, and he would burn the place to the ground, burying its secrets and all the horrors that went with it.

  “We’ve had enough horror, thank you very much,” Johnny said aloud as he stood.

  Without a glance over his shoulder, Johnny stepped over the bodies he’d left and back the way he came.

  Ash

  Darkness filled his mind as he struggled against the current that tried to hold him down. Pain throbbed in what felt like every nook and cranny in his body. He was sprawled out, the press of something against his back, and he couldn’t move. Fear shot through him, adrenaline giving life to his limbs, and he thrashed.

  Light filled his vision as he shoved himself upward, sitting. Immediately, his vision swam and dizziness nearly sent him reeling backward. Still trying to gain his bearings, Ash looked around the room, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Bare wood walls were hung with strings of interconnected dried spring flowers. A table across from him had only a large glass bowl, filled with rocks from a river, and sprigs of flourishing underwater plants. Over the sole chair in the corner, was a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt with a smiling, cartoon panda on it.

  His pulse continued to pound as he stared around the room in confusion. It was their room, the room he shared with Kell and Johnny in the cottage. It wasn’t the dark room where he’d been blindfolded and beaten for hours on end. There was nobody there, save for him, laid carefully beneath the comfortable, heavy blanket that had been a gift from Maya. Carefully, Ash ran his fingers over the delicate stitch work, a hesitant smile crossing his face as he traced the patterns of blowing leaves and running wolves she’d sewn into it.

  A figure appeared in the doorway, and Ash looked up with a jerk of his head. While he was still processing the sight of home, he didn’t need to make sense of the dark-haired man smiling at him from the doorway. Johnny had a cut below his shining blue eyes, but he looked whole and healthy.

  “You’re safe.”

  They were simple words, and probably thrown out as a reaction to hearing Ash thump about and probably shout. Yet they were enough to take the edge off Ash’s fear, bringing his pulse down to a reasonable beat. They were home, and Johnny was here, which meant everything was okay.

  Ash sagged. “Are you?”

  Johnny smiled brilliantly. “I am now you’re awake.”

  Ash sat up. “Kell?”

  “Resting. Maya worked her magic again and they added another room while you and I were gone. Kell is passed out in there, mostly because Maya told him he wasn’t going anywhere and that you both needed your rest without crowding one another. He didn’t fight for long though, he had a pretty eventful time of his own.”

  Excitement surged through Ash, widening his eyes. “Does that mean…?”

  Johnny winked at him and turned to walk away. Ash made to follow after him and groaned when his body nearly collapsed under the effort. There wasn’t going to be any quick movements for him for a while, or much movement at all. His body was a riot of pain, and he probably looked as bad as he felt. The Cult hadn’t been gentle with him, but from what Ash remembered, Johnny had repaid the favor in kind, with interest.

  When Johnny returned, it was with two swaddled bundles, one in each arm. One of the bundles squirmed, and Ash’s heart leapt as a tiny hand extended out from the folds of the blanket. Johnny walked forward, holding the twins with a care Ash had never seen before.

  Johnny sat on the bed beside Ash. “Look at what we made.”

  Ash’s eyes were wide as he gazed down at the tiny faces peering up at him. Only one of the babies was awake and peered up at him with dark eyes that he could have gotten from either Ash or Kell. The boy gazed at him, innocent eyes open wide with frank curiosity. Ash’s heart thumped as he reached out, moving carefully for both of their sakes.

  “Watch that one, he’s a little fussy when people try to hold him. I’m honestly amazed he wasn’t crying when I picked him up,” Johnny warned.

  Ash nodded, not caring one bit if the child began to cry. His big brown eyes reminded him so much of Kell, and the small smattering of red hair over his head sealed the image. Ash smiled down at the boy as he cradled him in the crook of his arm. The baby blinked owlishly, his little lips quivering dangerously before rising into a crooked smile. Ash gave a soft laugh, recognizing in that smile what he had already known when he’d first laid eyes on him.

  “Hello my boy,” Ash whispered.

  “You always did have good instincts,” Johnny said.

  His son continued to smile, reaching out with flailing limbs. Ash brought his other hand up, his heart swelling as the child’s tiny hand wrapped around his finger. For a moment, Ash was in total awe of the tininess of the baby.

  “God, were we this small?” Ash asked in wonder.

  Johnny chuckled. “Logic says we were.”

  The other baby stirred at the sound of his father’s amusement. Ash gave a chuckle of his own as the baby’s eyes flew open, a bright blue, piercing gaze staring back at him. The baby in Johnny’s arms squirmed, kicking and pushing as hard as he could at the blanket wrapped around him. His tiny brow was stitched together in an expression of pure frustration as he worked to free himself and be included.

  Ash gave another low laugh. “Oh yeah, that one is definitely yours.”

  Johnny peered down at his son, smirking. “Oh I don’t know, I’m pretty sure he might have Kell’s temper.”

  “They’re beautiful,” Ash said, reaching out to rest his finger on the squirming baby.

  His heart ached as Johnny’s son took hold of his finger and tried to give it a shake. His own son was still gazing up at him, trying to catch his attention with little, but awkward shakes of his head. Ash switched between watching both of them, one desperate to be free of the constraints of his blanket, the other desperate to have Ash’s undivided attention.

  As Ash held one, while the other held onto him, he felt every ache and pain in his body melt away. His son gave a soft coo, squinting as he reached out from the blanket to give Ash’s arm a tiny slap. There was no sign of the crankiness Johnny had warned him about, only smiles and soft little noises.

  A sensation like one of his visions, hummed through him. It pulled him from his own body and mind to tap into something greater than himself. Yet it reached even further than any of his visions and dug deeper than any magic he had ever spun. Holding his son in his arms, Ash felt like he understood a little bit more about the universe. Just when he thought he might have reached the peak of the love he could give, there was always another mountain ready to be claimed. That next mountain had been claimed by the two little boys, each fighting in their own way
, to have his attention.

  “They know you,” Johnny said.

  “This, is worth everything,” Ash said, nearly breathless.

  It didn’t matter to him that they had been to hell and back to make sure the boys were safe. It didn’t matter if it took years for him and Johnny to get to where they were, struggling and fighting the whole way through. The loss of one another, the ache of loneliness, the horrors of war, nothing compared to the pure moment of gazing down into the innocent faces and knowing that they were everything.

  Ash looked up. “Names?”

  Johnny gave him a wry look. “In the short time Kell was awake he told me, and I quote ‘I fought to bring them out, you two can fight over their names.’ So apparently that’s still up in the air.”

  Ash laughed. “That sounds like him.”

  Beneath Johnny’s smile however, Ash could feel a twinge of something sad. An image rose in his mind, Kell’s face, as he looked upon Ash’s bruised body. In the memory, Ash really did look as bad as he felt, and Kell’s horror and heartbreak was obvious. Tears ran tracks down Kell’s face as he reached out, gently stroking Ash’s cheek as he whispered something Johnny had been unable to hear.

  Ash winced away, shutting the sight out. “It’s stronger than ever.”

  “Sorry.”

  Ash shook his head. “No, don’t be. That’s just how things are for us, and if there’s the occasional bad moment, then I consider it a fair trade for the wonderful things I have. My bruises will heal, and Kell will be back on his feet. We have our sons.”

  Johnny smiled down at his own son, and Ash thought it was the most beautiful expression he had ever seen on Johnny’s face. If seeing his son had given Ash a moment of understanding, he could only wonder what it was Johnny saw when he looked at his own. Together, the three of them would give the twins a life their parents never had. They would never be ripped from their family as Johnny and Kell had been, nor would they be shunned and hated as Ash had been.

  Johnny looked up. “Maya says you should be on your feet in a week or two, though your bruises aren’t going to be very pretty for a little while.”

  Ash snorted. “I’m not worried about being pretty, just so long as I can sit up without feeling like I’m going to tip over.”

  “In time, for now it’s just good that you get some rest. So long as you get the rest you need, we might be able to convince Kell to do the same,” Johnny said.

  “He is alright, isn’t he?” Ash asked.

  “Do you think I’d be sitting here smiling if something was wrong? He’s exhausted, between the birth and keeping his power under control. And well, he did find out something had gone terribly wrong with our mission while he was in the middle of labor, so I imagine that didn’t help much,” Johnny said guiltily.

  Ash blinked. “So that’s how you managed to break the sealing spells on yourself.”

  Johnny nodded. “Turns out they didn’t think to block that sort of thing, but I don’t know how they would anyway. Whatever Kell did when he drew out your wolf, it affected us on a far deeper level than their wards could touch.”

  “Probably the soul, though if we wanted to be romantic, we could say the heart,” Ash said.

  Johnny chuckled. “Well, whatever it was, it worked. Kell was putting off a hell of a lot of energy and I was able to tap into that to get my own magic working. I got us out of there after tearing those bastards a new one. Thankfully, Kell had managed to get Maya to understand something was wrong with us, and she found a way to inform Earl.”

  “Someone who I’m sure you were positively thrilled to see again,” Ash laughed.

  “If it meant getting you out of there to where you were safe, I would have called him myself. Earl managed to find us, do a little bit of first aid on you himself to make sure you’d be okay, and then we came back here. It’s funny, the trip back seemed to take forever, but it didn’t take as long as we did coming down,” Johnny mused.

  Ash glanced toward the window. “And the Wards? Are they still here?”

  Johnny frowned. “Maya said…something, in that way she does. As far as I could understand, they’re gone, but they will be back. Apparently, with the Cult pretty much made useless, and the Vigil in complete disorder, they went to take advantage of the situation.”

  “Wait, how long was I out?” Ash asked.

  “A few days. Don’t feel bad, I think Maya was doing something to you when none of us were looking to make sure you were sleeping. She left earlier, said that when you finally woke up to tell you not to get out of bed. I figured it would just be easier for me to plop a baby in your arms and you’d stay put.”

  “It’s almost like you know me.”

  Johnny grinned. “Amazing, right?”

  “So, we actually did it then, we screwed over the Vigil and took care of the Cult?”

  Johnny snorted. “I wish it was that easy. But we both know things in life are never that easy. The Cult was essentially being run by Deacon, and he was the head of the Vigil. Without their head, it looks like the Vigil is falling apart. It’s only been a few days, and they’re already fighting among themselves.”

  “I guess the Children are seeing opportunity there,” Ash said.

  Johnny sighed. “Oh they’re doing their normal arguing thing. It also seems that someone, though no one’s taking credit, apparently decided to tell the Children about the Cult.”

  “Earl?”

  Johnny shrugged. “If he did, then he’s not owning up to it. I’m not even sure how this person managed to convince them it was a thing, but somehow they did.”

  “Well, it’s really hit the fan then, hasn’t it?”

  “Oh, they’re completely losing their minds. Right now they’re doing a whole lot of the blame game as they scramble to figure out who’s responsible. Coven and Pack are already rushing to clean house, and I bet that’s going to be an ugly mess. But, at the very least, it seems like they’re going to leave us alone.”

  Ash couldn’t help but laugh, causing the babies to stir restlessly at the sudden burst of sound. Guilty, he slammed his mouth shut, waiting until the babies had settled once more before allowing himself to talk.

  “Of course they’re leaving us alone. We just did their dirty work for them, and we’ve got a Ward or two on our side. If you ask me, they were more interested in using Kell than in destroying him. But Deacon went and twisted that around on us, and with him gone they don’t have someone whispering in their ears. Now they have to cover their asses.”

  Johnny grinned. “Careful, you’re starting to sound like me now.”

  Ash sighed, suddenly feeling tired. He knew damn well that even with the proof of the Cults activities, they weren’t going to change overnight. They would debate and argue, blame would be thrown around as easily as a cheap party favor, and the wheels would spin without any real forward motion. Yet, they had managed to eliminate the Cult, and cripple the Vigil, removing two great threats to a more unified future, and the two groups who wanted them dead the most.

  Johnny held out his free arm. “Here, give him here so I can lay him down. You look like you need to get some rest.”

  Begrudgingly, Ash carefully held his arm with his son out toward Johnny. It took some delicate maneuvering before he could successfully place his son into the crook of Johnny’s arm. The boy stirred a little, settling himself only when Ash reached to gently stroke his cheek with a single finger.

  “I’ll be right back,” Johnny said.

  Ash watched him go, waving to the babies before they disappeared from sight. He knew he was going to see plenty of them for the next several years, but he couldn’t help the pang that went through him when they were gone. He’d only seen them the one time, but he was already smitten.

  When Johnny returned, it was with a tray. A glass of water and a few pieces of fruit were laid out on it. Johnny carefully maneuvered the tray onto the bedside table before sitting down again.

  “Mmm, breakfast in bed,” Ash said, eyeing the
bowl of berries.

  Johnny laughed softly. “I didn’t want to overdo it.”

  “I was beat to hell, not sick to my stomach,” Ash said, reaching for a strawberry.

  Johnny’s face fell. “I’m sorry Ash.”

  Ash paused mid-chew. “For what?”

  “I let us get distracted, and the Cult…Vigil, I don’t even know if there’s a difference at this point, got the jump on us. And you were the one to pay the heaviest price for it.”

  Ash scoffed. “I said it then and I’ll say it again, I would have preferred it be me instead of either of you. It’s not the first time I’ve been beaten up, and with the way things go, probably won’t be the last. Wasn’t even the worst injuries I’ve had.”

  Johnny lay a hand on Ash’s leg. “Maybe so, but I wish there’d been more I could’ve done.”

  “Stop, it’s not your fault and I don’t want you punishing yourself for it.”

  “Kell said the same thing when I apologized for missing the birth.”

  Ash winced. “Hell, I’d almost forgotten about that.”

  “Kell said we were technically there for part of the labor, so we shouldn’t feel too bad.”

  Ash laughed. “I can actually hear him saying that.”

  “He also pointed out that we had been ambushed and kept prisoner by a group of fanatics and he can understand why we might not have been there for the birth.”

  “A valid point, but I can’t say it makes me feel better,” Ash frowned.

  Johnny squeezed Ash’s knee gently. “We have time to make it up to him, don’t you worry.”

  “And years to make it up to the boys.”

  Johnny smiled, closing his eyes. “God, we’re parents now.”

  “I want to say it hasn’t hit me yet but there was a moment there, when I was holding him that I just…” Ash began, unsure of how to explain what he’d felt.

  Johnny grinned. “I know what you mean, I got a little teary eyed.”

  Ash stifled a yawn. “We’ll be okay, we’ve got each other still.”