by Nicole Hall
Anger flashed through her, chasing away the fear. Maddie planted her feet and brought her other hand up to break his hold, then she hammered silver magic at his chest with eight years’ worth of pent up aggression, shoving him back a few steps like she’d done to Aiden earlier.
He raised a brow and flexed the fingers of the wrist she’d tried her best to detach. In a quick flick, he sent more magic flying at her, but she deflected with an arm wrapped in shimmery silver. “I’m not your slave anymore.”
She slammed the last layer of her shield in place, and Torix disappeared. Her arm throbbed, and she hissed when she looked at it. Dark welts swirled up from her wrist where the tendrils had been, like a tattoo of stylized fire. She ran her finger over one of the welts and pain shot up her arm. That was going to be a bitch to cover up.
Maddie jerked upright in the cold living room of Evie’s house. The fire had gone out, but she was sweating and shivering at the same time. She ached in a few places, but at least her clothes had returned to normal. The tiny twinge at her neck barely registered against the pain in her forearm. She’d slept in her long-sleeve shirt, so she eased the material up and winced at the same marks she’d seen in her dream.
Predawn light began to chase away the darkness in Evie’s house, where a few sprites floated around being useless. Maddie gathered her belongings and made sure she extinguished the fire completely. The last thing she needed was to burn the place down. She pulled on her coat and went out the back door, locking it securely behind her.
Frost made the grass crunch under her feet. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but people backed out of their driveways leaving for work. Jake and Sera would be awake soon too, which meant Maddie couldn’t stay any longer. She considered giving them another warning, maybe trying to convince them to take a trip to Europe with her parents, but she knew better than most that Sera would be able to defend everyone more easily with a base of power. The Wood, and the Fae that lived there with Evie, would help protect Sera and her family.
Maddie knew staying away from the people she loved was only a temporary solution, but there wasn’t anything else she could do to negate the danger. Torix wanted her first, so she’d do her best to keep one step ahead of him. She didn’t know how much he’d gotten out of her with his ooze, but he’d looked way too pleased with himself.
Her stomach rumbled, and she sighed. She’d given her last granola bar to Aiden. There were places to eat in town, but her funds were severely limited after paying for an emergency international flight. She eyed Jake’s house again. He and Sera had plenty of food, and she was pretty sure they were taking her parents to the airport that morning. Unless the trod had messed with time more than she’d thought.
Maddie shook her head. She wasn’t stealing from her brother and his family. It was one thing if she stopped in and said hi, but avoiding them then taking their food was wrong. Torix had enjoyed making her pop into Jake’s house at the most inconvenient times for him. She’d always been forced to do whatever would be most annoying to Jake, but Jake welcomed her anyway. Love for her brother welled up and made her throat tight. She would not fall back on habits ingrained into her by Torix.
A pull in the center of her chest urged her to the forest. The last time she’d gone, the Wood had helped her. Her brow furrowed. Or had it? Yeah, it had opened a trod which led her to Aiden, but then they’d been attacked by that salamander. Evie had taught her about the Wood’s neutrality, but Evie hadn’t known everything. Maddie licked her dry lips. Trying the trods again was a risk, but she was only risking herself.
Maddie ignored her stomach and trekked back into the trees.
She’d only walked fifteen minutes or so when she noticed the sprites drifting along next to her. The Wood had opened another trod for her. Maddie wondered what would happen if she never reached the end of the path. Would she wander in the in-between forever? The prospect didn’t bother her as much as it should. Torix would have a hell of a time finding her, but she’d miss the opportunity to see if Aiden’s kiss lived up to her dream.
By the time Maddie reached Aiden’s house, the sun had finally come up, but the temperature hadn’t. The marks on her arm had faded a little, and she could touch them without having to catch her breath. She’d discovered the mark on her neck when she’d stopped for water at a creek. Aiden had bitten her. A delicate shiver ran up her spine, and Maddie blamed it on the cold. After She’d purposely tried not to think about the first half of her dream. If she hadn’t lowered her shields for Aiden, Torix wouldn’t have found a way in, but she was finding it hard to regret the decision.
Maddie left the trod only a few steps from the warding circle. The cabin sat clearly visible in the middle of the clearing. Sunlight reflected off the windows, and the trees cast long shadows across Aiden’s garden. Smoke puffed from the chimney, promising a fire inside, but Maddie hesitated before crossing the stones.
The ward hadn’t stopped her from seeing the cabin before, but her hand had slid off of it. She didn’t want to walk face-first into a solid wall, invisible or not.
Maddie pulled the white pebble out of her pocket and rubbed her thumb over the smooth surface. Time to see if her theory worked.
She reached forward with the hand holding the stone and only encountered a token resistance, like pushing through a bubble, which wasn’t surprising when she thought about it. The ward essentially operated as a magic bubble that rebuffed sight and people. She stepped across the threshold, and the chill left the air. The stone crumbled to dust in her palm. A light breeze, warm when it shouldn’t be, picked up the fine powder and scattered it across the yard.
One-time use. Interesting.
She bent to pick up a new stone, but Aiden’s deep voice stopped her. “It doesn’t work from this side.”
Maddie spun around. Aiden stood in the doorway with his arms crossed. Her eyes narrowed. She was disappointed to find him fully dressed, then annoyed at herself for being disappointed. “I guess I need to study up on my wards.”
“How’d you find the cabin?”
She shrugged. “What, like it’s hard?”
“Answer me.”
“You’re grumpy this morning.” She sent him a sweet smile as she walked closer. “Have trouble sleeping?”
He grunted, then moved aside so she could enter. “You could say that. How’d you find the cabin?”
Maddie dropped her pack next to the door where it had been before and curled up in the corner of the couch. “The Wood sent me.”
“For someone who can’t call trods, you’re getting a lot of use out of them.”
“I can’t explain that one. More interestingly, both times it sent me to you.”
He closed the door after her and walked into the kitchen where plants were spread in various states of dehydration. A pot boiled on the stove, and the strong scent of lemons filled the house. Her stomach rumbled again, and she willed it to be quiet.
“You may find this hard to believe, but I wasn’t planning to come here.”
He watched her for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. Why don’t you tell me what happened last night?”
She reached up to touch her neck, and his eyes followed the movement. “That was an accident.”
He raised a brow. “And now you’re here by accident. That’s edging past coincidental.”
Warmth crept into her cheeks. “Maybe, but I didn’t mean to invade your dream last night.”
“You didn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t asleep.”
She held up a hand. “You had to be. It’s the only way we could have interacted with each other.”
He shook his head. “Still so sure you know everything. Have you ever dreamwalked before?”
“No.” Maddie took her coat off and flinched as the sleeve came off her arm. She’d thought Aiden was distracted by the mess in the kitchen, but he approached her side in an instant.
“What’s wrong with your arm?”
Maddie h
esitated with her first instinct to hide her injury and make him back off, but he’d already seen her unconscious and weak. There was no reason to be petty. She carefully peeled the sleeve back, but she couldn’t hold back another grimace when the fabric rubbed against the upper swirls of the mark.
It looked better than it had before, but Aiden frowned. She missed his smile. The errant thought slid in sideways, surprising her with its tenacity even when she tried to push it away. He gingerly picked up her arm by the fingers and elbow to check the underside. The mark went all the way around; she’d checked. His jaw ticked, and he slid the sleeve back down over the marks.
“What happened?”
Maddie met his frown with one of her own. “You first. How did I dreamwalk with you if you weren’t sleeping?”
“It wasn’t a dreamwalk. Neither of us is Fae, and even if we were, the wards should have kept you out. You were here in spirit.”
“You’re talking about astral projection. That’s not a thing.”
“It’s definitely a thing. Even the humans are aware of it. Lucid dreaming. Spirit travel.” He shrugged. “They’re all basically the same idea. You go into a trance, and your spirit goes elsewhere.”
She noticed he excluded her from the humans as a group, but that required a whole other discussion. Snippets of the night before sped through her mind, and the blush returned with a fury. “You couldn’t touch me because it was only my mind. That’s why you needed me to lower my shields.”
A wicked smile curved his lips. “I warned you about the consequences of entering a man’s bed.”
“I thought I was dreaming.”
His gaze skimmed over the bite on her neck. “I assume the mark on your arm happened after you left.”
“Yeah. Torix found me.” She expected some kind of reaction to that, but Aiden had a great poker face. “He monologued for a while, oozed all over my arm, and left when I finally got my shields back up.”
Aiden’s brows drew together. “Your shields aren’t instant?”
“No. That’s why it took me so long to lower them last night. I had to keep Torix talking and away from me while I rebuilt them.” Maddie held up her now-covered injury. “Clearly, I need to work on that last one.”
“Why does he want you?”
She hesitated, but keeping the secret hadn’t helped her. Maybe sharing it would. “The magic inside me isn’t mine. It’s his.”
4
AIDEN
“That’s not possible,” said Aiden. He’d suspected as much, but he’d also seen Torix suck the magic out of her.
She snorted. “That’s what I keep saying, but you keep proving me wrong.”
He crossed his arms. “What happened after Torix took his magic back?”
“Jake got me away from the clearing. I woke up hidden in a shallow divot under a downed tree. I felt like myself again, and I couldn’t stop crying. It wasn’t until a few days later that I realized I still had power. I got angry and broke a mirror across the room by throwing a shard of silver magic at it.” She took a shuddering breath. “I was alone in the house, and I didn’t tell any of them. I went to visit my parents in Europe because it would be easier to hide there. Then I tried to learn and practice anything I could get my hands on.”
“You don’t know why?”
“No. I knew it was Torix’s right away. It makes me cold.” She rubbed her sternum. “In here.”
Aiden wanted to wrap his arms around her and warm her up, but he couldn’t afford that kind of distraction. Already, his mind kept trying to wander to memories of last night during a conversation he should really be paying attention to. “It’s not the same magic.”
“I know. I can’t explain that either. Right before Sera intervened, Torix had started pushing himself into me. Not just his mind, his essence. Sera interrupted him. It felt like a splinter broke off when—” She stopped, and Aiden’s hands clenched into fists. He understood. They’d both done things against their wills, and though he’d been bound longer, she’d had it worse than him. Under Torix’s influence, he’d always been himself.
She was stronger than he’d given her credit for.
“He took back the magic coating me, the parts in my mind, but he left the bit inside me. The splinter healed over, and the magic changed.”
“Are you cold now?” The question slipped out, and he willed himself to stay behind the couch no matter her answer.
She tilted her head, looking inside. “I am, but it’s distant.” Her stomach gurgled, and she groaned. “Sorry.”
“That’s the second time your stomach has rumbled.” He shook his head as he headed to the fridge. “Why does it feel like I’m always feeding you?”
“I may have forgotten to eat after I left here yesterday.”
Aiden pulled out sandwich ingredients and considered his options. If she really possessed the last vestige of Torix’s magic, and he had no reason to doubt her, she really was the perfect bait. It explained Torix’s eagerness to reclaim his lost slave, and why he’d sent a salamander instead of a more deadly enemy. Unfortunately, Torix knew she’d returned to Mulligan.
The mark on her arm was at least partially his fault. He’d lost his mind the second she’d appeared in his bedroom in those tiny pajamas. Unlike her, he’d known it wasn’t a dream, but he’d pushed her to put herself at risk because he’d wanted to touch her. That dangerous choice offered a powerful reason to track her from afar until he’d finished preparing to take on Torix.
But he needed her safe up to that point.
He put the sandwich on a plate and brought it to her. “You were right. We should team up.”
Maddie did a sexy little shimmy, either for the food or the words, he couldn’t tell. “Can you say that first part again?”
The words then. She inhaled the sandwich, and he wondered how often she forgot to eat. She’d have to stay with him. The wards protected her even if they didn’t affect her. He glanced over his shoulder at the mess in the kitchen. Nothing time-sensitive there, but it wasn’t safe to leave some of the herbs lying around. He concentrated and drew a sigil in the air. The herbs shimmered and disappeared. Maddie gasped behind him.
“What’d you do?”
She’d shared her information with him. It went against his nature, but he should probably reciprocate. “They’re phased. When I’m ready for them, I’ll pull them out of the in-between.”
“The in-between? Like the trods? You have a pocket trod?”
The phrase was interesting, but it wasn’t wrong. “Sure. A pocket trod.”
“Teach me. I need a pocket trod. It would be useful in so many ways.”
Aiden shook his head. “I can’t. You have to be able to call trods to do it.”
Her face fell, but she remained undeterred. “Teach me anyway. It might come in handy one day.”
“I’ll consider it, but we have other concerns to deal with first. You’ll stay with me.”
She raised a brow. “Excuse me?”
“If we’re going to be a team, you need to stay where you’re safe. With me. I don’t have time to be constantly healing you.” He hadn’t shared all of the truth, but she looked satisfied. Her face smoothed, and mirth danced in her eyes.
“If we’re going to be a team, we need a team name.”
“No.”
She nudged him. “C’mon. It’ll be fun.”
“I already regret my decision.” That got him a full-blown smile, and he almost took a step back from the force of it. He’d always found her beautiful, even limp and covered in blood, but the happiness in her smile made her impossible to resist. Blood rushed south, and it took everything in him to keep from leaning over and taking her mouth to see if he could taste the joy.
Even holding back, he couldn’t seem to stop taunting her. “You’re welcome to join me in the bed, but I’m not sleeping on the couch.”
Maddie didn’t back down. Her eyes wandered over his chest before meeting his gaze. “I guess we’ll see tonight how mu
ch your warning has sunk in.”
His hands clenched to keep from reaching for her. “Get ready to go. We have places to be.”
He pushed away from the couch and went into the bedroom to change and gather his own pack. The full truth was that he wanted her there. In his bed. He’d wanted it since he’d first changed from the wolf in the clearing. It would be smarter to stay away, insist she sleep on the couch or the floor, but he knew his limits. She’d bared herself for him once, and he wanted another taste. It was her choice.
If she chose his bed, chose him, he planned to claim what she offered.
He’d have to be careful not to get too attached. The body could indulge, but the emotions had to remain separate. They couldn’t afford to be distracted from their goal to finish Torix.
Aiden dressed in his leather pants and tunic. They may not have been fashionable, but magic inscribed into the hide protected them. He’d had them a long time, and they hadn’t failed him. It was too bad he hadn’t been wearing them when Torix had taken control.
He shoved a few filled vials into his pack with his other necessities. They had to travel far, and he wasn’t sure of the reception they were going to get. He left the room, and Maddie stood waiting by the door.
“Are you going to tell me the plan or just issue cryptic commands?”
He liked her smart mouth. “I thought I’d start with the commands and see how it went.”
She speared him with a look as she preceded him out the door. “It’s not going well. What’s the plan?”
“The Fae are notoriously hard to kill, even without power, and I think we can both agree that Torix isn’t without power. He’s borrowing it from somewhere, and we need to know where. We also need protection from future enslavement.”
Maddie followed him as he exited the circle of wards and reset them. He tossed her a stone this time. “For when we return.”
“I assume you have some way to gather the information you think we need?”