by Sara M Zerig
“I am sure you have heard about Sylvie,” Max said.
“Sylvie?”
“My fiancé,” he elaborated, a note of sympathy in his voice as if he was telling her that someone had passed on to the spirit world.
“Oh, yes! Yes, I did. Congratulations.” Delia almost meant it, her heartache overshadowed by her anxiety.
“Thank you.” Max’s tone was dubious.
“I should be in there with Chloe in case she wakes up.”
“Of course,” Max said with a frown, a subtle difference in the usual set of his mouth that was often missed by others. “It was good to see you, Delia.”
“And you,” she returned sweetly, watching him walk away. Max turned back once, frowned again, and then turned the corner.
Chloe twisted toward Ritt instinctively. Her eyes were still closed when she threw an arm around his waist. “Ritt, you’re here.”
“I’m here,” she heard him say. “Wake up.”
She hadn’t dreamt Ritt’s voice. Chloe opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings. A natural light had filled the room from the glass doors earlier, but a soft light glowed from overhead now. She was still in the Coven Realm, but Ritt was there with her.
Ritt wasn’t angry, she sensed. All she felt was love and concern mixed with relief. “How did you get here? Does Cara know you are here?”
“No, she doesn’t. Delia brought me and will be in a lot of trouble if your parents find out.”
Chloe internalized that, thinking how she owed the witch, whom she barely knew, twice over. She brought a hand to a large silver amulet that hung around Ritt’s neck. “What is this?”
“Delia had me wear it. Apparently, it helps hide me from others while I’m here. Someone was here earlier, and they didn’t see me.”
Chloe frowned at him. “But I can see you.”
Ritt lifted a shoulder. “I have no idea how it works. I don’t care. I’m just glad that she brought me here.”
Chloe searched his eyes a moment, then released a deep breath, letting the words spill out. “I’m sorry. It’s just beneath the surface in her, always. It hit me when I met her. I hated knowing something so personal about your mom that you didn’t know. I just couldn’t tell you.”
“I get it.”
“You do?” How could he possibly get it?
“I knew you weren’t human the day we met, but I couldn’t tell you that either.”
“The visions and all the emotions and the heat was all too much. I wasn’t leaving you. I just had to get out of there.”
“I know that, too.” He rested his forehead on hers. “It’s over. There are no more secrets now. You promised to stop tormenting me, remember?”
“No more secrets. I swear.”
He stared her down a moment, his jaw flexing.
“No more tormenting,” she amended.
“There it is,” Ritt confirmed, a half-curve to his mouth.
Chloe hugged him tight. Love and understanding emanated from Ritt like a salve to her battered senses. She felt truly awake for the first time in days, the fog lifted from her head. They lay like that for a while before she ventured to ask, “Does Kimi hate me?”
“No. I think she feels liberated in a way.”
“And Dane?”
“He’s handling it OK, all things considered.”
“And the marking?”
“It’s a problem.” Ritt sighed. “They’re trying to work it out.”
Chloe steamrolled on to the next difficult subject. “Ritt, I don’t know if I can … I mean, I don’t think I can realistically—”
“Live in the Shifter Realm?” Ritt finished the thought for her. “You can’t. You aren’t made for that kind of heat, and I can’t expect you to spend your days stuck in a cave.”
“But it’s your perfect environment—your shifter’s paradise.”
“It would have been my shifter’s paradise, BC.”
“BC?”
“Before Chloe,” he teased.
A breath of a laugh escaped her.
“I prefer the heat, but I can withstand any environment as long as you’re there with me, Chloe. I know your parents aren’t ready to accept me yet, but when you’re better, we can talk to them together. We’ll figure it out.”
“There’s so much to figure out,” Chloe muttered. “I haven’t even met all of my family, my clan. My gift feels like a curse. I miss Nikki and my parents. We don’t know if our lifespans are the same—”
“Chloe, breathe. It will take time, but we’ll sort through all of it together.”
A soft knock sounded at the door. Delia poked her head in. She opened her mouth to say something then closed it, her eyes shifting from Chloe to Ritt and back to Chloe again.
“Maybe you can have more time together,” Delia thought out loud. “I will offer to bring your meal so that Cara and Aidan can tend to their guests. But then I really must take Ritt back.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Aidan was relieved from his watch over the scrying mirrors by the Lachlan sons. Max and Cy had completed their mission in the Elven Realm and had come straight to him to offer assistance. If only they had come back sooner, Aidan would have sent Cy to charm Nikki. Appealing as Will was to witches, Cy behaved more like a human than a warlock and might have been better received. Who knew one human girl could be so much trouble?
Abby was able to locate the spelled document Will had given Nikki; it was in Nikki’s car. She hadn’t returned home yet; she had spent the last few nights with friends. Aaron and Will were expecting her to return by this night or the next, though. Nikki had her keys and her phone on her when she had left but not her purse. They doubted she could go much longer in the Earthen Realm without funds or her license. Aaron and Will waited inside the townhome this time, and Aidan kept watch from his study as an added precaution.
Aidan paused on the outer edge of the sitting room where Cara conversed quietly with the Lachlan and Kincade couples. She was radiant in a silver gown just a shade darker than her eyes, her white-gold hair braided into a low bun. He had hardly touched her since they had learned of Chloe’s abduction; they had both been so preoccupied with bringing their daughter safely home. When all this was over, he would make time for the two of them again. It had been too long since they existed as simply husband and wife.
As Aidan approached his wife and guests, Serena asked Cara, “Chloe is healing as expected?”
“It is taking longer than I had hoped,” Cara shared. “It is not an illness we have had to treat before. Delia is sitting with her now.”
“I will check on her,” Aidan volunteered, hoping Chloe might be awake when he did. He still had not met her and neither had Aaron. His daughter was finally home after twenty years, but he had not been able to talk to her. There was time to do so when she was healed, of course, but the delays were aggravating.
“Have we heard any more from the Shifter Realm?” Micah probed.
“No, nothing,” Aidan answered.
“Odd,” Abby commented. “I would have expected more of a fight by now.”
“Perhaps they see our position as reasonable,” Cara proposed in half-jest, eliciting a frown from Micah and a half-snort, half-laugh from Wyatt.
“We should be wary of their silence,” Micah warned. “Shifters tend to act first and think through the details later.”
“Most shifters, true,” Aidan agreed, “but not Dane.”
“What could they possibly be plotting?” Serena wondered aloud.
“If this Ritt truly loves her,” Wyatt theorized, “he will come up with something.”
Serena made a doubtful face. “No shifter can pass through our wards without our permission now.”
Wyatt turned those wild blue-black eyes on his wife. “Do you think that there is anything in all the realms that would keep me from you?”
Serena blushed, and the others laughed. All but Aidan. Wyatt was right. Ultimately, he could no more keep Chloe from Ritt than anyone could
keep Cara from him. Not for long, anyway.
What if she insisted on returning to the Shifter Realm, when she was healed? Could he really say no? Eventually, she would learn to transfer on her own. By that time, either Aidan would have made peace with her being in love with a shifter, or Chloe would resent him for not accepting it and leave on her own. Then he would lose his daughter forever. Twice.
“Fresh air?”
Chloe stood from the bed and reeled from the head rush, steadying herself against Ritt. Before he could change his mind, she confessed, “I’m dying to know what it’s like out there.”
Ritt walked her across the room and pushed the doors out to a large stone balcony. The air was cool and smelled of fresh pine. A grand silver moon illuminated a magnificently purple sky peppered with bright white stars. Not far before them, a wide, sparkling river bordered a dense forest. Pale yellow flowers glowed subtly under the moonlight along the riverbed. Home.
She cast a glance over her shoulder to Ritt. Could this ever be home for him? Could it ever really be her home without him? The door to the bedroom opened then, prompting Chloe to step back inside, Ritt just behind her on the balcony.
A large man entered the room. Not quite as big as the shifters of the Shifter Realm, he was still well over 6’ tall. Dressed in fitted black leather pants and a white, long-sleeved tunic, he was built of solid muscle. He looked to be in his late thirties. His dark hair was cleanly cut. He strode forward and then halted in the middle of the room, his glimmering emerald eyes meeting Chloe’s. Her father: Aidan St. Cyr.
“Chloe?”
Chloe held her breath, hoping against hope that Delia’s magical amulet would work on Aidan. But … no such luck. Aidan targeted Ritt with a harsh stare. “How did you get here?! Who brought you?”
Delia arrived in the doorway then, out of breath and eyes wide, Cara close at her heels. “I did.”
Cara gasped. Aidan seemed hard-pressed not to yell. He did not turn back to Delia to say, “Then we will discuss your part in this later.”
Delia left the room sheepishly. Ritt stepped forward, prepared to face Chloe’s birth father. Chloe tensed. After a long-suffering pause, Aidan said, “Cara and I have discussed this at length, knowing you wanted to see Chloe. We are disturbed by our daughter’s condition. I need to understand how you could let that happen.”
Chloe attempted to speak up, but her father cut her off. “I am asking Ritt.”
“It’s all right, Chloe,” Ritt said softly. He addressed Aidan, “I would want to know too, if I were you.”
Ritt filled in Aidan and Cara on Chloe’s general discomfort in the Shifter Realm and the tumultuous exchange between his mother and Dane. Chloe inwardly cringed as he relayed what he knew of the story, knowing how hard it must be for him. He explained to them that he had left Chloe inside to find his mother, at Chloe’s insistence. Before he could return, she was gone. When Ritt finished, Cara moved to place a hand on Aidan’s arm, her expression softening toward Ritt.
“Aidan?” Chloe spoke tentatively, cognizant of the fact that she was addressing her father for the first time. “I do love Ritt. I can’t easily live in the heat of the Shifter Realm, but I’ll manage if I have to. I can’t be without him. He’s my mate.”
Mate came out effortlessly now, no longer an awkward, unfamiliar term to her.
“Witches do not mate,” Aidan bit out uncomfortably. “Witches marry.”
“Then we’ll marry,” Ritt responded boldly.
Her father’s brows drew up as her mother beamed. Cara inclined her head at her husband, as if to give him the first opportunity to be agreeable. Aidan seemed to recognize that look. And he did not seem to like it.
Aidan relented gruffly. “He sleeps in a separate room. She needs to heal fully. Then we can discuss a wedding.”
“A wedding!” Cara could hardly contain her enthusiasm.
“I said we can discuss it,” Aidan corrected.
“Fair enough.” Ritt extended a hand, and Chloe held her breath. After a moment, Aidan took it. Chloe blew out a sigh. A weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Now she could finally rest. Now she was home.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Delia had been gone from her post at Chloe’s door just long enough to make a plate of food. She found Cara to give her an update and realized Aidan was already at the top of the stairs. Rather than draw attention to herself by transferring, she took to the stairs on foot. Cara noticed her haste and followed. Somehow, the amulet that had disguised Ritt in plain sight before Max, if only for a moment, was useless before Aidan.
When Delia returned to the main floor, she attempted to usher out all the guests, explaining that Chloe was awake and meeting Aidan for the first time. But Max and Cy remained in Aidan’s study to continue their surveillance of Nikki’s home. Delia’s father likewise stayed behind.
Delia sat alone in the formal, ivory and gold sitting area. Aidan and Cara could be upstairs for hours; there was a lot to sort through. At the end of it all, maybe they would forget about her small crime. Perhaps they would thank her for her role in facilitating the resolution. She smiled at the thought, even while dismissing it as highly unlikely.
She should just leave. There was no reason, as far as her father and the Lachlan brothers knew, for Delia to stay. Giving Aidan some time to calm down before he addressed her could not hurt, either. In fact, now would be an opportune time to stay with friends in another realm a while.
That settled in her mind, Delia sought to transfer away, the glittery glow of dematerialization just beginning to spark, when she heard Aidan’s voice. “Stop.”
She wished she could pretend she had not heard that. Aidan stood at the top of the stairs, looking grim. Unfortunately for Delia, Cara was not by his side.
“Study,” he directed.
Delia walked to the study with her head down. Her father sat in Aidan’s chair while Cy casually leaned against Aidan’s newly built desk. Max sat in a burgundy chair across from them.
“There she is,” Cy said in that easy speech of his that was sometimes more Earthen than Coven. “And is she not a sight for sore eyes?”
“Hello, Cy,” Delia managed.
Cy’s well-defined muscles rippled beneath the soft, gray cotton shirt he wore. His eyes were almost completely black, only slightly glimmering with deep chocolate flecks. His tightly curled black hair was buzzed closely, leaving a thin dark covering over his perfectly shaped head.
As the realm’s most notorious heartbreaker, Cy’s affection was hardly something to brag about, but his flirtatious comments usually lifted Delia’s spirits anyway. Usually. But not tonight.
“Delia?” Max inquired, knowing something was wrong.
Delia said nothing. Aidan walked in behind her. His disapproval, though unspoken, was clear and clearly directed at her. “Will you two give us a moment? Wyatt, you should stay.”
Cy and Max took their leave without question. As they passed, Delia heard Cy needle his brother quietly. “Well, I guess she is finally over you … did not even acknowledge you.”
Her father stood from the desk and moved beside her. Aidan took his chair, asking, “Who escorted you?”
Delia blinked. “Escorted me?”
“To the Shifter Realm to collect Ritt,” he detailed impatiently, as if he thought she was playing naïve. “Who escorted you?”
She had not considered that would come up. Stars help her. Delia sighed, having no way around it. “No one escorted me. I went on my own.”
“Collect Ritt?” Wyatt asked, attempting to keep up. “He is here?”
“On your own,” Aidan returned doubtfully.
Now did not seem like a good time to point out the whole written letter of the law vs customs thing, so Delia simply nodded.
“You transferred, alone, to the one place Cara warned you not to go,” Aidan restated.
Wyatt spoke up again. “Why would you do this?”
“I did not visit the First Dwelling,” she sought t
o clarify. “I had business in the Sixth Dwelling, and the elders and Ritt found me there.”
“Business,” Wyatt groaned, eyes rolled to the ceiling as if seeking divine strength. “You knew better than to bring him here without the St. Cyr’s permission.”
“I meant no disrespect to you or Cara. I was worried for Chloe, and I know that mates should be together when one is ill,” she told Aidan sincerely. Seeing Chloe with Ritt proved the theory in Delia’s mind. Chloe had never looked more alert.
The word mates seemed to wound Aidan. He sat back, regarding the book-lined walls of his office for several agonizingly long minutes. Then he addressed Wyatt. “The unprecedented has come upon us in droves. A witch abducted as an infant and right under our noses … has this ever happened?”
It was a rhetorical question, Delia knew, but her father responded anyway. “No.”
“A witch mated to a shifter?”
“Never,” Wyatt confirmed.
“They want to marry.”
Wyatt nodded, as though he had suspected as much. Delia wondered how that would be received by the rest of the Coven Council. There was no law against inter-realm marriages, but they never happened.
“And now a pair of warlocks have been outmatched by a single human,” Aidan grumbled.
Wyatt barked out a laugh. “I would like to meet this young woman.” At Aidan’s sour look, her father went on, “It is the Age of the Xxyryn. The unprecedented is the norm now.”
“I suppose it is,” Aidan agreed reluctantly. He straightened in his chair and returned his attention to Delia. “However pure your intentions, Delia, the ends do not justify the means.”
A knot formed in her stomach as Delia realized the logic she applied when she agreed to help Ritt was flawed. Did she really think that, because she had no gift, there could be no consequences? That Aidan and Cara would simply endeavor to be clearer with her in the future?
