by Eleri Stone
“But before any of that happens, you need to finish healing. You need to rest.”
“I want you to stay.”
A flash of white teeth in the darkness. “Sometimes I think you’re purposefully trying to drive me crazy.”
“I won’t change my mind.” He didn’t argue, but she could tell by his expression that he wanted to. “I know you think I rush into things, but I’m right a lot of the time.”
He bent and pressed a kiss to her forehead. A light sweep of his lips that tingled all the way to her toes. “Give me some time to get used to the idea then.” His lips curved against her skin. “Let me woo you.”
“I’ll let you woo me all night long.”
He swallowed a laugh. “This is Aiden’s home and you were injured. Don’t worry, I’ll be here in the morning. I’ll always be here when you need me, however this turns out.”
When he reached the door, she called his name and he turned around.
“I love you, Fen.”
She could see his smile even in the dim light. “Go to sleep, Rocky.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Kamis walked into the living room on his own feet, leaning heavily on a cane. Christian had driven her home. At least until she figured out where she was going to live permanently, this was her home. She made a mental note to ask Christian if she’d be able to rent the place from him.
Kamis would have to stay here too because...well, he was her responsibility now. And maybe Fen had gotten his wish—next time she rescued someone from demons she was going to think long and hard about it first.
Fen... When she’d come downstairs the morning after the crossing, there’d been too many people crowded into the small house for her to speak with him privately. Aiden—hoping out of sight meant out of mind where the clan was concerned—had wanted Kamis out of his home as soon as possible. She was anxious to see Fen again, growing increasingly impatient because first she had to deal with this—a sarcastic Vanir demigod who wouldn’t stay out of her head. She set aside the book she was reading and when she looked up, Kamis inclined his head in a strangely formal manner.
“Mistress.” There was no trace of mockery in his expression, but she could feel something through their bond that suggested laughter. “May I sit?”
“Of course,” she said. “And I’m not your mistress. Can’t you speak?”
A pained sigh escaped him as he settled into the chair. “I’m physically capable of forming the words, but it will take me some time to learn your language. Will it be a problem?”
“Only if you try to mindspeak a human.”
He shook his head. “They wouldn’t hear me.”
“Kathy will be here later with someone to check out the link. She thinks she’ll be able to modify it so it’s not so...”
“Transparent? I can speak to you through the link, not spy on you. If you had more control over the information you pass to me, it would take care of the problem without risk to either of us.”
“Are you saying I...broadcast my thoughts?”
He lifted his brows. “You send them, yes. It is...distracting but no different from any two of my kind forced to live in close quarters.”
“Maybe no different for you. We don’t read each other’s minds here.”
Another hint of laughter. “No. The Æsir were always a crude and secretive people.”
She bristled. At least the Æsir weren’t destroyers of worlds.
A bleak, empty despair filled the space between them. “No, they were not.”
She fought the urge to apologize. “Do you hear everything?”
“As I said, only what you cast at me, child. You’re already beginning to block yourself instinctively. Within another day or two, I’ll hear only what you send to me directly. Until then I can block you and if need be, I can be discreet.”
She considered how far she could trust him.
He frowned at his hand clasped around the head of the cane. It occurred to her that he could easily wield it as a weapon. “I meant it when I said I intended you no harm.” His gaze met hers. “I owe you my life.”
She didn’t want that, to hold him under that obligation. But she’d use whatever means necessary to keep him from hurting the people here. She stood when she heard a car door slam outside. Kathy and her friend had arrived. “Pay me back by staying out of my head.”
Kathy hugged her tightly the moment she opened the door. Peter was a tall, gaunt man with thinning blond hair and a shy smile. Blue eyes narrowed at her and he took her in while Kathy fussed. Behind them, a chill wind blew the snow around so wildly Raquel couldn’t tell if it was actually snowing or just drifting.
“Come on in. We’re in the living room. Straight ahead past the kitchen.” While she hung coats, Kathy led the way past the stairs and down the hallway.
Raquel took a deep breath, cast one glance at the door before following. Peter was a healer not a witch, but there was a fine line between the two. The Æsir with an affinity for healing tended to be more discerning as a whole, were overall less powerful but had finer control over their abilities. It was the discernment—that sight, the ability to see inside an injured person to the cause of the problem—that really set them apart. People who chose to become witches instead usually had more raw power and tended to rely on runes and ritual to control and direct it. By the way Peter kept sneaking curious looks at her as she served tea and coffee, she wondered what exactly he saw when he looked at her.
“Okay,” Kathy said, setting a black leather-bound book on the coffee table and opening it to a bookmarked page. “Here’s the rune Sheldon suggested we add to the amulet to fix your little problem.”
“I’m sorry,” Peter interrupted before she really got going, which told Raquel that he knew Kathy pretty well. She steamrolled when she’d made up her mind, and her tone of voice said she’d already done just that. Peter set his mug on the table. “How big of a problem is it? The link you’ve formed is solid enough considering the power discrepancy, but any changes we make at this point could damage it beyond repair.”
“Then we form another,” Kathy said. “I can place it this time.”
Kamis’s posture changed subtly. Peter spoke before the Vanir could raise an objection, “That might not be as easy as you think. Raquel barely has the power to anchor him and—” he looked at her again with those wide blue eyes, “—I imagine he was far more willing to let you place the geis than he might be now.”
They all looked to Kamis, who nodded. “I would suggest that you make no changes to the amulet itself, for the girl’s sake if not my own. There’s as much danger to removing such things as placing them.”
Kathy threw her hands up. “Then what do we do? You can’t have a Vanir witch eavesdropping on clan business. Aiden won’t stand for that.”
Raquel, who’d been far more consumed by the invasion to her personal privacy, hadn’t even considered that.
“A Svalinn focus,” Kamis suggested.
Svalinn was the sun shield of Norse myth. Raquel was vaguely familiar with the concept but didn’t understand how that type of shield would block Kamis.
Peter nodded thoughtfully. “That might work.”
Kathy looked between the men. “How?”
Peter cocked his head to one side. “The link’s not really open in a way that will allow him access to her power or her thoughts. She is the one who is in a position of power here. If she blocks her thoughts, they are blocked. If she sends them, he receives. A Svalinn focus is a training device that we can key to help her control what she’s sending.”
“Then he couldn’t eavesdrop on me?”
Peter gave her an apologetic smile. “Technically, that’s not what he’s doing now. You’re sending your thoughts to him. A Svalinn block will help shield your thoughts until you’re able to do it on your own.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What’s to prevent him from pushing through the link to search my mind?”
Peter shook his head. “That’s not
how the link works.”
“And even if the link allowed it,” Kamis said. “I would not do such a thing.”
Raquel looked from Kathy to Peter. “Make me the focus.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cleaning up after a wedding wasn’t the most fun in the world. Cleaning up after a wedding that never even happened was particularly miserable. With Raquel learning how to deal with Kamis, the brunt of the task had fallen to Audrey and her mom. When Raquel walked into the hall, Audrey gave her a quick hug and pointed her toward the kitchen.
“How is she?”
Audrey shrugged. “Not good. But you’re lucky, Fen told her all about the crossing in terms that made it clear exactly how dangerous it was. Right now, she’s just happy you’re alive. You should run with that.”
“Fen was here?”
“He still is. Downstairs with Christian and Grace sorting through the boxes Mom had shipped to figure out what can be returned.”
They should be home recovering from the crossing. Raquel blinked back tears as she stepped into the main room. The chairs were stacked on wheeled metal carts and a radio was on in the kitchen. It sounded tinny out here in the big echoey space. “They all came to help?”
“Even Lois stopped by for a bit. Settled the bill with Mom, made a few snide remarks about you being impulsive. Mom looked like she was going to take a swing at her, but Aiden stepped in before it actually turned into a fight. Good times.”
Raquel pulled her sister into another hug. “I don’t want you to leave.”
Audrey patted her on the shoulder. “You are endlessly entertaining, but I do have school. Those of us without such high callings need to make a living too. I’ll be back this summer...provided the town’s still standing and all.”
Raquel laughed. “Okay. What still needs to be done?”
“Have you worked out your problem with the link?”
“Yes, thank God.” She held up the silver necklace Kathy had made with Peter’s help. “This blocks my thoughts from passing until I figure out how to do it myself. So as long as I’m wearing it, I’m golden.”
“Good,” Audrey said. “That would be pretty creepy otherwise. He’s creepy.”
“Kamis?”
“Yeah, with the mindspeak thing and the way he looks at you with those cold, dead eyes.”
Raquel shook her head but didn’t know how to explain that there was more to him than that. He’d been through a lot. He had secrets she wasn’t sure she was ready to hear. But...Raquel remembered the look on his face as he faced death. The sacrifice he was willing to make for their sake. There was something...human inside the ancient witch. Only time would tell whether he was human enough to make it here in Midgard.
Audrey gave her a curious look. “So you and Fen...”
Raquel raised her brows. “Yeah?”
She elbowed Raquel in the side. “You know what I mean. What’s going on? He seemed distracted and he asked about you, several times. I think he was disappointed that you weren’t here. Or relieved, it was hard to tell.”
Raquel looked toward the door to the basement. “He asked me out.”
“A date?” Audrey rolled her eyes. “I thought for sure he was going to tell me you’d bonded but was giving you the chance to get to me first.”
“A date is a big step for him.”
“If you say so. Before you go and chase him down, come talk to mom. At least let her see that you’re alive and okay.”
Audrey led her into the kitchen where their mother was standing on a stool trying to shove a box of napkins into a full cabinet. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled.
“Raquel, you’re here. Should you be out of bed?” She climbed down and crossed the room, wrapping her arms around Raquel’s shoulders and then pulling back to take a look at her.
“I’m fine. Really.”
Her mother stole another hug and then gestured at the room. “You don’t need to stay. We’re only tidying up.”
There were five big rolls of tulle stacked on the island. Her mom had ordered them online to decorate the hall. She’d always considered the big communal space the clan used for their gatherings to be dated and far too plain for the grand ceremony she envisioned—late-1980s Knights of Columbus when her mother had wanted elegance.
Raquel ran her hand over the satin-covered guest book sitting beside it. “I’m so sorry, Mom.”
“We’re saving it.”
“What?”
Her mother’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “Dad’s not coming out because Gary was injured on the hunt. Not badly, but he says since if there’s no wedding there’s no reason for him to be here and every reason for him to stay home. Which is fine because he would have me pack up everything I spent the last two years picking out.”
“But...there’s not going to be a wedding.”
“Today,” her mother said, and Audrey gave a slight warning shake of her head. Her mother grabbed Audrey’s hand too. “But look at the two of you. My two beautiful daughters. It’s only a matter of time. We’re not canceling the wedding so much as delaying it, Christian was kind enough to point out.”
Audrey grinned at whatever expression was on Raquel’s face. “Wasn’t that kind of Christian? He’s very devious.”
Something about the light in Audrey’s eyes when she spoke of Christian made Raquel pause, but then her mother turned her around and pushed her toward the door. “Can you go downstairs? The boys are supposed to be finding a place to store the boxes. Make sure it’s dry and well ventilated, will you? And you—” she swung on Audrey, “—I thought you were headed to the store for more bags?”
Raquel slipped past them both and into the big empty room, heading for the stairs. There was still one table set up beside the stairs. She recognized the binders that held everything from dress clippings to seating arrangements. Raquel paused beside the table when she saw it was opened to the guest list. Two typed pages of names and phone numbers. A small checkmark in blue ink beside each entry. Her stomach sank, and she sat down.
She’d done the right thing. The only thing. She couldn’t imagine getting married today.
Not to Christian.
“Having second thoughts?”
Fen stood in the doorway at the top of the stairs, his long legs splayed and his hands open at his sides. He wore beat-up jeans and a black T-shirt, the fabric worn and molded tantalizingly to his chest and biceps. A jolt hit her right in the chest, just like the first time she’d set eyes on him. Her instinct was to rush him, throw her arms around his neck and kiss him silly, but she thought that might freak him out. Instead, she tried to put some of that same welcome into the smile she cast his way. “No regrets. Not about this.”
Glancing over his shoulder as if checking to make sure they were alone, he crossed the room. “Audrey said there was a problem with your link to the witch. I was on my way to find you.”
“It’s fixed.”
His brows lifted, but she didn’t want to explain it all again. She couldn’t sense the witch at all right now unless she focused all her attention in that direction. And all her attention was here, on the man in front of her, looking tense and uncertain and so freaking perfect it made her heart ache. “Then it’s not...”
She tipped her head to the side when he paused. “Not what?”
“Rocky...” He knelt so they were at eye level and his arms settled to either side of her body as though he was afraid she would bolt. Even as part of her was alarmed by that, the rest of her was melting because Fen was finally touching her.
She smiled. “Fen.”
“I need you to check me for a mating bond.”
Her heart clunked in her chest, stopping and then turning over like an old car. “But...you said you didn’t bond to Carly.”
“Not Carly. You,” he said, searching her face. “I think I might have already started to bond to you. That’s what I was worried about—that my bond might have interfered with the geis. That me not telling you about it put you
in danger.”
“And you think you bonded to me?”
He reached up to brush a tendril of hair away from her face. “Who else?”
Any woman with eyes and a brain and a heart. She didn’t think it was possible but reached out with her magic to check anyway. She found the geis first and dismissed it before moving on to the tangle of emotions that hit her every time she thought about Fen.
While she looked, searching for that telltale thread of magic, Fen’s hands slid up, slowly, over her hips to bracket her waist. “The first time I saw you when you stumbled through the portal, it felt like getting zapped by a thunderbolt. And every second we’ve spent together since has made it stronger. I fought it because of Christian. Because I still think you deserve better than someone already bound to a pack. You want children.”
“I want you more.”
His arms tightened around her, pulling her to the edge of her chair. As much as she wanted to sink into that embrace, she continued to sort through the magic that surrounded them both. There was enough of it to make it complicated—her a witch with some of her magic still tied to the wards. Him a hound with all of his pack ties.
“I didn’t suspect a bond until I decided to sleep with Carly and couldn’t even get an erection.” He said it as if it were an awful confession.
“Good,” she said fiercely. “I’m glad.”
His mouth turned up at the corners. “You’re glad I might be the only hound to ever bond to a woman without getting to enjoy even one night of sex?”
“You’ll get at least one night.”
She’d meant it as a joke, but he flinched. “I don’t want a pity fuck, Rocky. Don’t do that to me.”
She stopped what she was doing to focus on him. Pressing her hand to his cheek, she looked him straight in the eyes. “I already told you what I want. I love you, Fen, that hasn’t changed. Remember? I’m just waiting for you to get used to the idea. I’m waiting. And we both know how good I am at that once I’ve made up my mind.”
