by Sarah Piper
“What the hell do I do?” I shouted.
As if it heard my call, the book heated up in my hands, suddenly pulsing with a soft, blue-green light. I let the book fall open in my hands, and it flipped to a page near the beginning.
An unraveling spell.
It was one of the first Calla had taught me, mostly used in potion-making for fixing simple mistakes like using the wrong ingredient or going a bit overboard with the hemlock.
Not exactly the same situation here, but I had to try.
The book wanted me to try.
I quickly memorized the verse, then closed my eyes, reciting it out loud as I walked backward in a counter-clockwise circle:
“Backward I step, like time rewound
Unravel the ties I’ve thusly bound
Unmake my mistakes one by one
And what I’ve made wrong is now undone.”
As I spoke the words, I visualized the animals backtracking into the woods where they’d lain before my magic had disturbed them. I imagined each one lying down on the sacred earth, resuming the long process of decay until they were once again at rest.
I repeated the verse three times, completing a backward circle for each recitation, directing all of my focus and will into the desired outcome.
Into unraveling this horrible mistake.
“It’s… working…” Asher whispered, barely conscious.
I opened my eyes. A spark of excitement zinged through my body when I realized he was right. The animals were retreating.
When the last of the skeleton mice had finally left us, I dropped to my knees and checked Asher’s injuries. His sweatpants were drenched with blood, his leg trembling.
I wasn’t sure how much time he had, but there was no way I could get him back to the house or go for help.
Sweeping the chestnut fall of hair from his eyes, I leaned over him and offered a gentle grin. “Guess I have to make an exception on that one-time deal, huh?”
Without another word, I lowered my head, pressing my lips to his.
Unlike the night in the devil’s trap, he didn’t pull away this time. His lips parted, and I deepened our kiss.
My hair fell into his face, and he moaned softly, sliding his hands into my curls and cupping the back of my head.
His tongue swept across mine, and despite the dire situation, a groan of pleasure escaped my mouth.
Despite his depleted state, the electric heat of his kiss fluttered all the way down to my toes.
Pulling back just for an instant, he met my eyes and whispered, “Are you okay?”
I nodded, nudging my nose with his. “I’ll tell you if anything feels off.”
It didn’t though. Not when he tightened his hold on my head, pulling me closer. Not when I stretched out next to him, hooking my leg around his uninjured one, losing my mind as he broke our kiss again and made his way down my chin, my jaw, dragging his teeth across the sensitive skin on my neck.
The sweatshirt he’d given me was long enough to cover me from neck to knees, but underneath, I was completely naked. It would’ve been so easy to let this happen. To climb on top of him, tug down the waistband on his sweatpants, and welcome the hot slide of him inside me…
“Damn, Gray,” he whispered against my neck, his kisses becoming more fevered. He wasn’t a mind reader, but the incubus could absolutely sense the very hot, very dirty direction of my thoughts.
I didn’t try to bury them, though. My desire, my touch, my body’s responses to his kisses… All of it was healing him.
He was feeding on me. On my energy. My magic. It went on long enough that I should’ve felt drained, or at the very least tired.
Instead, I felt absolutely amazing.
Which was a clear sign it had to end.
What am I even doing?
He’d moved back to my mouth, but I broke our kiss, slowly pulling myself to a sitting position. Slowly willing my heart rate back to normal.
Asher sat up behind me, his hand on my shoulder. “Shit, Gray. Did I hurt you?”
“No.”
“Why are you panting?”
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. Taking in the sounds of the woods—living nocturnal creatures skittering through the underbrush, the soft sigh of the pine boughs in the breeze—all of it natural and expected once again.
My lips throbbed from his kiss.
Why did he think I was panting?
“Gray?”
I turned and shot him a glare over my shoulder, waiting for the barrage of jokes. The innuendos. The reminders about how sexy he was, how he didn’t even have to use his incubus “sex vibe” on me to get me all worked up.
But Asher seemed genuinely oblivious, the opportunity for poking fun passing us by. Instead, his eyes were full of worry.
He really thought he’d hurt me.
I sighed. “Asher, I’m good. Really.”
“But I took… a lot.” He tugged his pant leg up, peeling the sticky fabric away from his skin. The wounds were still there, but the bleeding had stopped. His flesh had already begun healing.
“It’s weird,” I said. I didn’t know how to explain it, but rather than weakening me, sharing my energy with Asher had only made me stronger. “I feel like I could run a marathon.”
“Are you sure?” He cupped my face, staring at me with wonder in his eyes.
“Okay, maybe a half-marathon. But still. I feel… wow.”
“Funny,” he said, stroking my jaw. “I was about to say the same thing.”
Heat crackled between us again, and I let out a nervous laugh, nudging him away. “Happy to hear it, Ash, but here’s a hot tip: Next time you want to make out with me, just say it with flowers or chocolates like a normal guy.”
His smile was back with a vengeance. Tugging on one of my curls, he said, “A normal guy wouldn’t know what to do with you, Cupcake.”
I lifted a shoulder. “I’m not that hard.”
“I am.”
I laughed, but then my gaze trailed down to his lap.
Holy hell.
Sweatpants left very little to the imagination on most men. On Asher, they were downright obscene.
“Quite a conundrum,” he teased.
I was about to tell him to go wander off behind a tree and deal with that conundrum himself, when a new arrival captured my attention.
“What’s wrong?” Asher asked, following my gaze to the raven that had landed on a sugar pine bough a few feet away.
“I’m pretty sure that’s Liam.”
“Seriously?” Asher groaned. “First a zombie cougar decides I’m a snack plate, and now I’m getting cock-blocked by Death himself? I should’ve stayed in bed tonight.”
I got to my feet, glad to see Ash was feeling better, and glad that after days of radio silence, Liam had finally found his way back to us.
Glad that he’d interrupted what could have been a total disaster. The worst.
My unmet desire turned into relief that turned into giddiness, and it quickly overtook me, filling me with a warmth and lightness that bubbled out in a laugh.
“Sorry, Liam,” I called out. “You missed all the fun.”
“More like you ruined all the fun,” Asher added, but he was on his feet and smiling, too.
The raven vanished, and a black shadow slunk forth from behind the tree, skipping the usual explosion of feathers and fluidly morphing into a man with sun-kissed blond hair and glowing blue eyes that blazed with…anger.
Oh, shit.
“Gray Desario and Asher O-Keefe,” Liam bellowed, snatching a fallen leaf from his shoulder and crushing it in a way that made me feel completely insignificant. “What against all that is holy have the two of you done now?”
Six
LIAM
The stench of death was heavy in the air, tinged with the sweet, electric hum I’d come to associate with Gray. Her magic was as much an aroma as a feeling for me, yet it was becoming harder to distinguish from the scent of decay, as if the latter were at
taching itself to the former like a parasite.
That was… worrisome.
“I was doing a rededication ritual for my book of shadows,” Gray explained. “When the earth magic connected with mine, it all kind of…” She made a starburst gesture with her fingers.
“Define this for me.” I mimicked her gesture. When she didn’t further explain, I reached for her hand. “Come. We have much to do and little time in which to accomplish it.”
The incubus stepped in front of her and folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t think so, Spooky.”
“Your protective instincts are admirable, yet wholly misplaced, not to mention detrimental to Gray’s education as a witch and—”
“Yeah?” He didn’t budge. “Ever had a boot wholly misplaced up your—”
“Okay, boys.” Gray placed a delicate hand on the demon’s bulging bicep, which I was certain he’d flexed on purpose, and offered me a pleading glare. “Let’s all take a deep, cleansing breath.”
Reluctantly, we did as she asked.
“Better?” She nodded, as if answering for all of us. “Okay. So, Liam? I’m really glad you’re back, and I’m sure you’ve got some concerns. Ash and I would love to tell you all about our wildlife adventures, but maybe we can move this party inside? Where there’s plenty of tea and cookies and blankets and best of all, no dead things shambling around?”
“You make a compelling argument, little witch.” I nodded and lowered my hand, but I didn’t enjoy the soft pulse of emotion her pleading look had engendered inside me.
Perhaps I needed to consider alternate vessels.
“Could I get that in writing?” Gray asked. Her face, which had been pinched with worry in the wake of my admittedly rude opening remarks, transformed with a smile.
“That won’t be necessary,” I assured her. “The word of Death is more powerful and binding than ink on a page. I am everywhere, from the smallest speck of dust to the tallest mountains and—”
“Beyond. Yes, we’re all aware.” Gray smiled again, looping her arms around my neck and pressing her body against mine in an unexpected show of pure affection. “I was seriously starting to think you’d forgotten about us little people.”
I patted her back awkwardly, still unaccustomed to my human vessel. Unaccustomed to her very warm, very human touch.
“I haven’t been able to sense you until this evening,” I told her, disengaging from the embrace. “I worried you’d left this realm altogether.”
“What?” she asked.
At this, the demon finally showed a modicum of concern. “You’re saying you couldn’t get a read on her at the house?”
“If said house is where she’s currently spending the majority of her time, then yes, that is what I’m saying.”
“It’s spelled,” he said, snapping his fingers as the realization dawned. “Fae magic obscures it.”
“A worthwhile investment,” I said. “It’s impervious even to me.”
“But tonight isn’t the first time I’ve been outside the house,” she said. “I go out every day.”
“Not this far from the property line, though,” Asher said.
“And likely you weren’t using your magic,” I said, “so there was nothing for me to pick up on, so to speak.” My mind clouded with frustration once again. “Unlike tonight, during which you could not have sent a brighter beacon if you’d—”
“Clearly we have a lot to catch up on.” Gray smiled at me once more, then turned her back, heading toward a tree where it looked like she’d left her things. “Just give me a sec to get my clothes, and then—”
“Gray!” A male voice crashed through the woods, followed by a second, and then a third, each calling out for her as though she’d been lost to them for years.
I recognized them immediately. The crossroads demon, the vampire, and the wolf shifter.
Stealthy her friends were not.
“Ronan? Guys?” Gray called, squinting into the trees. The smile touching her face far outshone the one she’d offered me, and again some foreign unpleasant feeling overtook my vessel.
The trio burst forth like water breaking upon the shore, and she ran to them, letting them envelop her. It seemed an overdue reunion.
“How did you know we were out here?” she asked them.
“I scented you guys,” the shifter said, offering the incubus a brief nod of acknowledgment. “And something that smelled a hell of a lot like death. And I don’t mean Colebrook.”
Gray wrinkled her nose. “It’s… kind of a messed-up story.”
Ronan took her hand, pressing a kiss to her palm. “You’re okay though, right?”
“Better than okay.”
Confused by the relief I sensed among them at their reunion, I asked the incubus whether fae magic had kept the others away, too.
He shook his head and laughed, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Stick around, Spooky, and you might just learn something here.”
“Save your patronizing for another being, demon. A single eyelash on my vessel contains more knowledge than all of your feeble minds put together.”
He laughed again, and I’d meant to ask him what he found so humorous, but that would’ve been a waste of time. I needed to know about Gray, not the company she kept. I needed to understand what had happened here. What her magic had created… and destroyed.
It was the first I’d seen of her since they left the city. For her protection, they’d kept her under magical lock and key. I couldn’t fault them for that—in fact, I appreciated the caution.
But I could fault them for this.
“She should not have been encouraged to perform such a powerful ritual unsupervised,” I said, glaring at the incubus. “Magic has consequences, and—”
“And Gray is perfectly capable of handling them,” he said. “With or without supervision. Or permission, for that matter.”
Gray lowered her eyes, blushing at his comments. “Thank you.”
“The natural order is not something to interfere with lightly.” I took a step closer to her. “She could’ve been seriously injured or killed. Would we still be standing here arguing about permissions if that had been the outcome?”
“Dude. She took out a pair of zombie coyotes with her bare feet and bludgeoned a wolf with a spellbook.” Asher wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. “Give the girl some credit.”
“Come again?” Ronan said, glaring at them both.
“Yes, clearly we’ve lost the plot somewhere along the way,” Darius said, looking from Asher’s bare chest to Gray’s still-bare legs with a mixture of confusion and unchecked desire.
Emilio, her wolf shifter, remained silent, eyes and ears scanning the woods for danger.
Obviously, he was the smart one of the operation.
“I didn’t mean to bring them back,” she said, her earlier confidence dimming a bit. “The magic was a lot more powerful than I expected, especially since my book seemed completely dead before tonight.”
“Not unlike the creatures who’d nearly killed you,” I said.
“Hey!” She broke away from the demon and jabbed a finger into my chest. “The book is part of my magical heritage. You’re the one who kept telling me to embrace it. So I did.”
“Yes, but my intention was for you to do such embracing under the proper supervision.”
“You mean under your supervision,” Asher said. “Why is that, Colebrook?”
“The answer to that question is more complicated and multifaceted than your mind could ever hope to comprehend, and so is she.”
I allowed him to interpret that as an insult, but the truth was, there was still so much I didn’t even comprehend.
I’d made many assumptions when I’d selected this particular Shadowborn for my plans, and ever since her birth, she’d unknowingly challenged every one of them, forcing me to revise and improvise, to keep my ideas as fluid and fleeting as smoke.
She was, quite simply, like nothing I had ever kno
wn.
“Try me,” Asher said now.
“Primarily,” I said, quickly losing patience, “to ensure something like this doesn’t happen.”
I nodded behind the group, where two raccoons approached, trailed by a family of woodchucks. All of their eyes were vacant, their bodies in various states of decomposition.
Gray gasped, taking a step back. “I must’ve missed a few stragglers.”
“Gray, what are you talking about?” Ronan asked.
Ignoring him, she grabbed her book of shadows and searched through the pages. “I’ll try the unraveling spell again.”
“That won’t be necessary.” I swept my hands across the expanse, instantly ending the last few resurrected lives she’d missed.
They dropped to the ground, animated no more.
“Show-off,” the incubus muttered.
“Yes, well… I don’t have a bludgeoning spellbook,” I said. “I had to improvise.”
No one made a sound.
“That was… a joke,” I explained.
“I wasn’t aware Death had a sense of humor,” the vampire said.
“We have the ultimate sense of humor, vampire.”
“We?” Ronan said.
I waved away his comment. How I chose to self-identify in my present form was none of his business, and this was hardly the time for philosophical discussions about the multidimensional nature of beings unconstrained by the physical rules of the prime material plane.
The tension among us still lingering, Gray finally set down her book and excused herself again to finish dressing. I noticed she put the demon’s sweatshirt back on over her clothes, inhaling its scent as she did.
I shook my head. Humans were an odd creation indeed.
The men watched her closely as she jogged back over to us, each lost in his own private thoughts—thoughts they probably believed they were hiding.
Wherever the three new arrivals had been, they were clearly pleased to be reunited with Gray and the incubus. Nevertheless, I couldn’t let this most recent incident go unmentioned.
“Gray,” I said when she rejoined the group, “I’m not sure I’ve impressed upon you the severity of what happened here tonight.”
