I pull her from the floating stasis and move away from the blaze, squeezing her in my arms. “Oh sweetheart, are you okay?” I check her little body for any injury, the light from my fingertips soaking into her soft skin. She coos, grasping at the glowing streaks my magic leaves.
I stand amidst the chaos my power has created, but my feet do not sink into the snow. Instead, I find myself floating above the earth, moving toward my mother, who was blasted to the ground and now struggles to right herself.
She stares at me, slack jawed. While the other Order members lay motionless, my mother is still alert. Whether that’s because she’s the stronger witch or my subconscious intention was to leave her standing I cannot say.
“How did… where did you get such power?” she asks, fear in her eyes for the first time tonight.
“It is mine by blood,” I say. “And you are done here.”
My mother’s lips curl like a rabid dog and she reaches for her wand and pulls at the blue fire still burning between us.
“I didn’t want it to be this way,” she says. “I wanted to spare you. But you’ve made that impossible.”
With a flick of her wrist, she casts the fire at Rain and me, intent on completing what she started, even if it means I die with my daughter.
Without thought, without knowing what I’m doing, I call my magic to me on instinct. My intent is enough. A golden shield forms around my child and myself, and when the blue fire comes for us, it is repelled backward by the vibrant light.
My mother’s eyes widen. Before she can manage a scream, the fire wraps around her body, her own flames consuming her.
As relieved as I am to be alive, I can’t help but feel the pain of losing her all over again.
I hold Rain so she can’t see her grandmother die, but I watch. I bear witness to the consequences of messing with dark magic. Of bringing back the dead. And trying to kill the innocent.
When her screams die to nothing, the fire flashes. I blink, and when I open my eyes again, my mother is gone. Nothing remains of her body but a dim blue light fading out into the night.
Around the eternal witch’s fire lay the remains of the Order, all unconscious but alive.
But they are not my concern.
I look around, seeking out the three men who have turned my life--and my heart--upside down in such a short time.
I find Zev first, in wolf form. Laying a hand on him, I press my magic into his fur and close my eyes, willing him to heal, to live.
His body twitches, then jerks and he shifts to human under my hand, his green eyes opening. I exhale in relief as he pulls me into a hug, careful not to crush the baby between us.
My tears fall on his shoulder, and he pulls away to wipe them. “I guess it’s not so bad,” he says with a smirk.
“What’s not so bad?” I ask.
“Being mated to a witch. It could be worse.”
If his words are a shock, the kiss that comes next nearly undoes me. My body is already raw, exposed from the inside out, so when he takes my lips with his, cupping the back of my head with one hand as the other wraps around my waist, I feel everything. Every sensation, every emotion, every shift in his body against mine. I feel him under my skin, in my heart, in some primal part of me I’ve been denying my whole life, and if I were a wolf, I would howl right now. But, alas, I am human.
Or rather, I am witch. And so I kiss him back, deeply, passionately, with nips at his bottom lip as my fingers dig into his back.
I pull away, painful as it is to do so, but I can’t go on knowing there are two of our pack still missing. “We will talk more later,” I say. “About this mate business.”
His eyes are filled with need, but he nods, nuzzling my neck once more before pulling away. “I’ll go to Rune. I can hear him in the clearing. He is alive. You find Darius. He will need your blood.”
I hand him Rain. “Take her,” I say. “If I have to feed Darius my blood, it’s best if she’s somewhere else.”
He nods, accepting the child, his face softening as it always does when he looks at her.
Before I can leave, Zev cups my face with his palm. “It was always you,” he says softly.
The very same words Tilly spoke to me before she died.
I kiss him once more, then turn to find Darius. Around me, the night fills with the scents and sounds of the forest. With a heightened sense, I experience every shift of the trees groaning deep in their roots, every tiny movement of each animal and insect, every shimmering moonbeam lighting my way. It’s heady, intoxicating and dizzying. I have to stop and lean over to catch my bearings again. The world around me is too bright, too noisy, too filled with wonder. I feel as if my head will explode.
But Darius. I need to find him. He could be almost dead, meaning I have no seconds to spare.
I push through the discombobulation, but I can’t remain upright. Instead, I crawl through the snow, my ability to hover now gone as I struggle to settle my mind and stabilize this new power surge I’m having. If not for Darius’ blood flowing in my veins, increasing our connection, sending me a guiding ribbon of light to follow, I’m not sure I would have been able to find him through the snow now falling once more. It’s as if nature is trying to reclaim the forest we have defiled with fighting and death.
I choke back emotion as my mind wanders to Tilly and my mom. To everything that has happened here.
I blink against tears, and against the memory of Darius bursting into flames.
Feeling through the snow with hands that are becoming numb from cold, I hit on what I know is the vampire’s body. Relief surges through me as I sense the smallest speck of life still present in him.
I pull myself up to where he lays, my head swimming as I study his too perfect face, which is now covered in charred burn marks. Rage swells up again at my mother and the suffering she caused, but I push it back. I can’t afford anger right now.
I need healing. Love. Peace. I need to bring this man back to me.
I search his cloak for the knife I know he keeps there, and hold it to my wrist. Praying it’s sharp enough but not too sharp, I swipe at my vein, releasing a crimson ribbon across my arm that glows with the same golden light as my skin. I squeeze my eyes against the pain that follows the swell of blood, then I hold it over my vampire’s mouth.
I hope the magic in my bloodstream will be an extra healing elixir for Darius.
It takes a moment, but as my blood drips into his mouth, his body comes back to life, the burn marks on his face healing first to pink puckered scars, and then to smooth, clear skin.
When his eyes open, revealing the dark orbs that always pull me in, my heart skips a beat in relief.
When he pulls me into him, replacing my wrist with my neck as he continues to feed, my heart skips a beat in desperate desire. The pain of his teeth sinking into my flesh is turned to pleasure as his lips caress my neck, as his hands grip my body laying on top of his. As his strength returns to all parts of him.
And when he continues to feed, to consume my blood, and my reality dips and spins and closes into darkness, my heart skips several beats. And then is silent.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Bernie?” A voice calls my name, but he sounds so far away. Like a dream through mist and clouds.
“I think she’s coming to,” another voice says.
It isn’t until I hear a heart-rending cry that I find my way out of the fog I feel I’ve been lost in for ages.
When I open my eyes, three beautiful faces stare down at me. Silver eyes that glow with an inner light. Forest green eyes that take me into the wilds of the woods. And eyes so black I am lost in their eternal darkness.
“Welcome back,” Rune says, his voice filled with worry. “You’ve given us quite a scare.”
“Rune used every potion and herb on you,” Zev says. “I’ve never seen his magic so useless.”
Rune glares at the werewolf who just shrugs.
“Even my blood did nothing to revive you,” Darius says, his voice
choking on more emotion than I’ve ever heard from him. “I nearly killed you. You should never have offered yourself that way to me. I had no control.”
Zev, much to my surprise, puts a comforting hand on the distraught vampire. “But you did stop. You stopped in time. Because you love her and would never hurt her.”
It’s the first time I’ve truly seen a glimpse of who they might have been had they not turned on one other so many eons ago, and it makes me hopeful for what might yet be. But also… love? That’s a big word. One I’ll have to unpack later.
I try to lift myself, to get a sense of where I am, of what happened, but the room is spinning.
Strong hands support my back. “Easy there. You’ve been out a long while.”
“Rain?” I whisper, my throat dry as sandpaper.
Someone hands me a glass of water. “Drink,” Zev says.
I do. And someone else hands me a bundle that squirms in my arms. “Rain.” Tears fall as I hold her close to me. As my vision clears, I realize I’m in my bedroom. The Sexies are all here. I’ve got my baby. And AJ is sitting in the chair in the corner, her head lolled to the side in sleep.
“Is she okay?”
Rune nods. “She hasn’t left your side. We didn’t want to wake her.”
“What happened?” I ask, instinctively pulling out a breast to feed my daughter.
Before they can answer, I notice my skin and pull Rain away, handing her to whichever Prince is closest. “What’s wrong with me?”
It takes me a moment for memories to return. The power I inherited from my grandmother. The surge of energy I felt when my mother died. The glowing skin and glowing blood.
I stand, pushing away the hands that try to stop me, and stumble to the full-length mirror on my closet door. I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
“I’m still glowing. How… why?” From head to toe. My skin shines like diamond dust, my eyes shimmering like living sapphire and even my hair is streaked with gold and silver glitter. I didn’t expect it to last past that night. It’ll be real hard to live a normal life if I… sparkle. Oh Jesus, I can already imagine the jokes at the bar.
“The power you possess is too much for a single body,” Darius says, the worry clear in his tone. “When your grandmother returned your magic, she also gave you what was left of her own. And then, when your mother died by her own flame, the magic in her blood flowed into yours.”
“So, what are you saying?” I ask. “I’m three witches in one?”
Darius nods. “Essentially.” The vampire comes up behind me and slips his arms around my waist. “You have more magic than your body knows what to do with, which is why you can’t control the glow of your skin.”
I cling to him and lean my head against his chest, feeling suddenly unstable, nearly blinded by my own reflection. My head is spinning and I twist away to vomit, but there’s nothing in my stomach, so it’s a painfully dry heave.
“You’re being poisoned by the magic in you,” the vampire whispers, laying a cool hand over my fevered forehead.
I turn to face him, gripping his biceps. “What does that mean? What do I do to stop it?”
“I can bleed some off of you by drinking your blood,” he says. “That seemed to help. But it’s only a temporary solution.”
Rune approaches. “Darius is correct. That won’t keep you alive long term. We need a more permanent solution, and soon.”
“The Council has reconvened,” Zev says, approaching us. “All of our kind have united in one purpose.”
My stomach tightens and my pulse races. “What purpose is that?”
“Rain,” he says simply. “They all want your child. They’ve decided they will share her, to try and save everyone.”
“Share her,” I say, my brain coming to life slowly. “You mean kill her?”
They each nod solemnly.
“And you’re going to help them?” I ask, pulling away, my voice full of hurt and accusation. As I do a blast of light rips out of me and slams into Darius, pushing him across the room and into my wall, where he makes a man-sized cut out.
“What the hell?” I run over to him. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry.”
Darius steps out of my wall and dusts himself off. “I will be fine. Your blood still flows in my veins, and it’s very powerful. It’s you we need to worry about right now.”
I’m shaking as I look again at my hands, which seem to have a mind of their own. I pull away from all of them, retreating into a corner of the room like a scared animal. “What if I hurt one of you?” I ask, then my gaze lands on the bundle in Rune’s arms. “What if I hurt my child?”
“You’d never,” AJ says, sitting up and stretching. “That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“But how can we be sure,” I ask. “Maybe my mother was right about one thing. This power is dangerous. Unnatural.” I’ve never feared myself, what I’m capable of, and it’s not a good feeling.
Darius clears his throat. “I have an idea. Wait just a moment.”
With vampire speed he disappears from the room and reappears a moment later holding something I’d entirely forgotten about.
It’s the star that brought these men to me. The rock I pulled from the wall just before Rain arrived. I inch forward to look at it, wondering if my magic is causing my eyes to play tricks on me. “It’s glowing the same color as my skin.”
Darius nods. “It’s been glowing since you got your powers back. Maybe it can help you control them until we think of something more permanent.”
He offers the rock to me and I reach out nervously to take it. I don’t know what to expect, but the moment I wrap my hand around it, I feel a shift inside myself, a settling. Light from my skin pours into the star until my body stops glowing and I return to normal.
“How do you feel?” Rune asks, passing Rain to Zev to come kneel before me. He peers into my eyes, studies my palm, takes my pulse.
“A bit better,” I say with relief. “Not so dizzy or out of control.”
“Try setting the star aside,” Rune suggests.
My eyes widen. “What if I hurt you?”
“I’ll be alright and Zev won’t let anything happen to Rain. But we need to see what we’re dealing with.”
I nod and carefully set the star on the ground and then release my hand from it. The moment I do, power rushes back into me like a tidal wave. My hands blaze with lightning and the dresser near me explodes in shards of wood.
Quickly, I grab the star and hold it to my chest, my breathing rapid, my body practically buzzing.
Once again the star absorbs the excess power and I feel myself stabilize.
Rune reaches for my hand to help me stand.
With one hand clutching the star, I give my other to him and let him pull me up.
“It would appear she needs to be in physical contact--”
“With the star to control her magic, yeah,” AJ cuts Rune off, not needing the play by play. “We were literally all here watching, Elfie.”
Before the two can get into one of their sibling spats, I interrupt. “Okay, so I’m a magical bomb about to explode and all of your kingdoms are coming for my kid. What about you three?” I ask, looking at each of them. “The pledge you made is broken. I broke it.” I glance at Darius who holds my gaze with his. “Will you go home? Take your rightful places and help them?”
“We are not working with our kingdoms,” Zev says.
Rune nods. “We have taken a new pledge.”
“What kind of pledge?” I ask.
Darius takes my hand in his, speaking directly into my mind. We are yours, Bernie. Yours and Rain’s. We will each lay down our lives for you if we must. Forever.
I suck in a breath, unsure what to believe. But then he pulls up his sleeve and shows me a tattoo he didn’t have before. A triangle with a star in the middle. Rune and Zev have the same marking on their arms. And then I notice my own arm--it has a matching symbol.
“We are bound to you,” Rune says. “And w
e will do whatever we must to protect you.”
So many emotions flood me. After nearly losing my child, watching my grandmother die, watching my mother die, worrying the men I’ve come to care for would betray me, and now being filled with so much magic I can’t control, I don’t know what to do or think, but I know what I feel.
For the first time in a long time. I feel hope.
Darius caresses my cheek. “We will find a way to keep both you and Rain safe. You have my oathe.”
I stare into the glowing full moon that casts its silver light over the water, breaking through the surrounding fog and giving a soft glow to the night sky. It’s peaceful. A peace I don’t think I’ve ever felt before.
“Shall we?” Rune says, extending his hand to guide me.
I turn and look at the handsome fae, his expression genuine and understanding. Zev and Darius stand behind him, both wearing tailored black suits, as is Rune. Dashing as ever, but now in a more formal, earthly way.
Darius’ mind brushes mine lightly, and I feel his emotions. A steady calm mingled with great tenderness. This is a new thing between us that started after he fed on me. I can’t say that I mind. Now, it’s as if we can touch each other even when we aren’t together. It’s a comfort I never imagined I would find so valuable.
Darius stays with me as I extend my hand and give it to Rune. Under the light of the moon, my skin is glowing, and not in the way people said it glowed while I was pregnant, which I still think was bullshit since I was red and sweaty through most of it. No, my skin very literally glows these days, a soft amber hue flowing through my pores, even when I’m holding the star. Darius will need to feed on me again soon, or I’ll never be able to leave the house.
And just as intimately, I feel the wave of a wild, primal connection when I look at Zev. We still haven’t talked about what he meant when he called me his mate, though I have ideas. And the thought of it, while slightly terrifying, also heals something in my heart I didn’t know was broken.
I look forward to exploring these complex emotions with each of the men in my life, once things get back to normal.
A Werewolf, a Vampire, and a Fae Walk Into a Bar Page 21