But, if the ward around that thing was any indication, it was a large stone. Larger meant stronger. Maybe the strongest I’d seen. If someone else passed by this way, they might feel it. What if they got it before I could get back here with help? Was there any real harm in checking it out a little more before leaving?
Now I had to zero in. I walked in a small circle until I narrowed down its location. Then I looked up. Figured. It was halfway up the mountainside.
“What the fuck? Why’d you let go?”
I jumped at the sound of Switch’s voice behind me. I swung around, glad he was alone.
“I didn’t let go.” I wagged a finger. “You dropped me—not that I’m holding any grudges.”
“I don’t drop people. Or I haven’t in a decade. Either way, I was gripping your hand when you yanked away.”
“There’s a stone close. Maybe it called to me or tripped me somehow.” I walked closer to the pull of the magic, looking at a shadow halfway up. Was there a ledge?
Switch followed me, reaching for my hand. “We’ve got to go.”
I pulled away and crossed my arms so he couldn’t catch me unaware. “Did you not hear me say there’s a stone?”
“We have to get back. He’s waiting for us, and he’ll kill me if I don’t hurry. He said so.”
I didn’t even need to ask who he’d told. Ryker. I let out a groan that a grizzly would’ve been proud of.
“I had to. I thought I lost you.” He took a step back, and this time, I didn’t care if he ran away. I wasn’t eager to get back anyway.
“I’ve been gone for five minutes, tops.”
“I panicked.” There was a tiny shift of his shoulders.
“Did you tell him where?”
“No. I said I lost you trying to bring you to the grove. Then I got scared and disappeared when he started threatening me with death.”
Hmmm. Could be worse. He thought I was still in the Valley.
Switch reached for my hands, but couldn’t seem to get past the fact that they were pressed against my breasts. I was a literal boobie trap.
I walked over to the side of the mountain and pointed up. “You want me to leave, I need to get up there. There’s a stone, and I’m not leaving without it. I’m going to get it, and then you get us out of here as quick as you can.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Switch, you can do this. You can help me get this stone because you’re stronger than you ever imagined and you’re as free as a bird. Now it’s time to learn to fly. You with me?” I held out my hand, hoping he wouldn’t grab it under false pretenses.
“Okay, I guess if we’re quick.” He didn’t look so sure, but he was saying the right words.
“You can.” I took his hand. “You get us up on that ledge, I get the stone, and then you get us out quick.”
He nodded, and then we were teetering on a two-foot ledge. I grabbed on to a ridge as we both shuffled, trying to find our footing.
There was some wobbling as we shifted around, bumping into each other here and there.
“Do you have a solid hold?” I asked Switch.
He nodded.
“Good. Give me your hand.” I wrapped a hand around his and let go of the mountain. “I’m going to kneel down. It’s in the crevice by our feet.”
Switch looked down but didn’t see it. Neither did I, but I still knew it was there. I felt its power pulsing.
I knelt and ran my free hand over the area, feeling for a weak spot. They all had one.
“When do I move us?” Switch asked, his twitchiness showing.
“Not until I tell you.” I pushed forward, pausing my fingers over a weak spot. “I think this is going to be easy, but be ready, just in case.”
“Ready for what?”
I gave the weak spot a push and my hand crashed through. My fingers grazed the stone at the same time as heat swallowed me.
Before I could scream for Switch to get us out of there, we were standing in the middle of Ryker’s living room and multiple pairs of hands were patting burning embers from my shirt.
Then Ryker’s hand wrapped around my wrist, holding up the stone in between us. “If Switch was bringing you to the grove, how did you end up with a stone?”
I yanked on my arm, and he let go of my wrist. “We stumbled across it.”
“Where? It wasn’t in the Valley, I know that.”
I tossed him the stone. It wasn’t quite as big as I’d hoped, but it was close. “Here. You can keep it. And if you lose them again, it’s not on me. I’ll replace them once, and once only.”
Ryker held it up. “This doesn’t end with me getting replacement stones.”
I looked like I’d been drop-kicked here and still had gotten a stone. Now he was going to harangue me? I gave up sitting and flopped down on the couch.
Switch looked like he was about to take off. Ryker pointed at him while he continued to stare at me. “Don’t move. Where did you go?”
I yawned, as if he weren’t infuriating. “You know where you’re going wrong? You keep thinking you can dictate to me, and you can’t. I don’t have to listen to you, and I don’t have to answer to you.” I sure as hell wasn’t telling him why I’d gone back to Dorley.
“Switch, where did you go?” Ryker asked.
That got my eyes open as my head jerked toward Switch so fast it was in danger of coming off my shoulders.
He looked over at me and then back at Ryker. His pulse fluttered in his neck as he wrung his hands in front of him. “A bird flies free,” he said with a tremor.
“What bird?” Ryker asked.
I bit my lip as I watched. Would Switch hold up? I wasn’t sure he had it in him.
Switch’s eyes met mine and his chin tilted upward. His shoulders went back and his spine went straighter than I thought possible, since I’d only seen him hunched over.
After a deep breath, he stated, “Me. I’m a bird. I soar high and free.”
His arms rose, as if he were envisioning himself flying.
“You go, birdie!” Even if he hadn’t saved my ass and wasn’t Ruck’s new man, I would’ve cheered him on.
He smiled, his eyes gleaming. Then he was gone.
Nope. I was wrong. I could be prouder. He hadn’t even stuck around to let Ryker harass him for answers. He’d given him a big Switch “fuck off.”
Ryker focused all his attention back on me. “What is this bird thing about? Why is he saying he’s a bird, and why do I think you’ve got something to do with it?” He didn’t wait for me to answer. “Do you realize how stupid it was to go off without telling anyone and without backup? With everything going on, you pull this now?”
I stood, having had enough. “Really? You wouldn’t have done the same if you’d had a chance at a stone? You would’ve hunted me down for permission? That’s the song and dance you’re trying to sell?”
Ryker remained quiet, and I leveled my stare on him.
For the first time since I’d known him, he broke the stare first. He angled his head to the side, giving me a clear view of the tightly strung tendons in his neck. “It’s different. I can kill anything that gets close to me. We merged magic. That doesn’t make you invincible. You can still be killed.”
I huffed. “Everyone can be killed. Even you.”
I walked past him, and he grabbed my wrist. The stone landed in my palm.
“You can’t be replaced.” He let go of me and then beat me out of his place, leaving the door wide open.
As he walked off, I could feel the frown lines on my head wrinkling. Well, that had been almost—nice.
Fifteen
Two stones. I might not be able to ward this whole place, but I could still protect myself with two.
But how to do it best? That was the problem with magic that I hadn’t understood when I’d started. Yes, there might be certain spells you could find, but the best stuff was unique to the user. There wasn’t anyone who could break or make a ward as well as I could, so
how could they tell me how to make the best one I’d ever made? And that was what I was about to do.
I stepped inside my place and pulled out both of the stones, one in each palm, magic sizzling and arcing through me. I moved to the center of my room and closed my eyes.
I stirred up the magic within and let it rise until I could feel it warming me. It grew hotter and larger, and I pushed it outward a foot or two. Then I started to build again, until the heat was nearly burning me. I pushed outward again.
Over and over, I built it up and then pushed it farther until my entire place was protected. Then I collapsed into a puddle on the ground, feeling drained of everything. It was worth it. Whatever had attacked me wasn’t going to touch me again, not in here.
“Bugs!” My door burst open and Ruck rushed in.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, leaning up on an arm.
“What’s wrong? Your place lit up like the damn sun and you looked like you were dead.”
“Sorry. I was warding the place. I’d closed my eyes. Hadn’t realized everyone would see that light.” I walked to the door he’d left open and saw the crowd of people hanging around, watching. I gave them a wave. “All’s good! Just a magic surge. Nothing to be alarmed over.”
I could feel another set of eyes on me, could see a shadow off in the corner. It was Marra. I stared back, waiting to see if she’d come forward or turn away.
She held my gaze for a moment before leaving, and I shut the door. I walked to the bed and flopped down on it.
“If it’s warded, how’d I get in?” he asked.
“I focused on blocking only those who would harm me. The more precise the threat to me, the stronger the ward works.” I waved a hand toward the table near my bed that had a basket of biscuits. “Can you get those? I need sustenance, and I don’t want to move again.”
He grabbed the basket, and my canteen from near it, before dropping down beside me.
“Where’s your boy Switch?” I grabbed a slightly chilled biscuit. I’d buttered them all in preparation for this a couple of hours prior.
“He’s lying low, trying to avoid Ryker—said he might ask him more questions.” He ate half a biscuit in one bite, barely chewed it before he swallowed, and then continued. “He told me what happened earlier. Then he kept talking about being a bird or something. They better not have broken my boyfriend.”
My eyelid twitched. I rubbed it, hoping it would stop before he noticed.
Ruck wasn’t looking at me, and yet somehow he’d caught it. “Why does your eye have a tic? Did you break my boyfriend? You only do that when you feel guilty.”
“I can’t break another person unless I kill them. If anything, I tried to give Switch an uplifting pep talk.”
“Uplifting? Like maybe a bird? Is that how you got him to take you to Dorley?” He leaned over, his face inches from mine.
“Maybe.” I threw an arm over my eyes, trying to hide the evidence. “I didn’t mean to mess him up. To be honest, he needed it.”
“I know. That’s one of the reasons I came here. We have to talk. I don’t want to go back to Dorley, and neither does Switch. Don’t tell me you want to be there either. That sideshow scene was a joke.”
My lower lip tasted really good all of a sudden as I tried to think of a reason Dorley still might be better than staying here. There was only one, and its name was Ryker.
“Are you really going to lie there and say you want to go back?”
When I didn’t answer, he lifted my arm up.
“I don’t know.” I rolled over onto my stomach to avoid the all-knowing gaze.
“Because you still want to get in the big man’s pants and have him tell you you’re the one and only?”
“Yes, if we must spell it out. I don’t know why I can’t seem to get past it. I don’t even like him most of the time.” And yet I had to give myself a pep talk to keep my shit together whenever I was around him, and it wasn’t just the way our magic reacted.
Ruck flopped onto his stomach next to me. “You know what my suggestion is. Climb on a different dick.” His voice was very sincere considering his words.
“I don’t want another dick. I haven’t had a first dick to compare.”
“It still might help. Hair of the dog that bit you.”
“But I didn’t get bitten, and that refers to drinking.”
“It’s just as relevant. I have more experience. You need to trust me on this.” He gave my hand a pat. “Look, wherever we end up, Switch wants to come with us. He doesn’t want to go back to Dorley and he’s afraid to tell Knife. He says he needs to be free like a bird.”
Switch had really grabbed on to this bird thing. I’d needed a lift to Dorley, which had taken him all of ten minutes. Now I was going to have to negotiate his release. Somehow that didn’t seem like a fair swap.
I lifted to my elbows so Ruck could see how serious I was. “Knife isn’t going to let him go easily. Do you realize how special Switch is?”
“That’s why I need your help. I know how special he is too, and not just for his magic.”
I was glad I was lying down, or I would’ve fallen. There wasn’t a hint of humor or a smirk. He was serious.
I leaned a little closer, watching every nuance of his expression as I asked, “Is he the one?”
He nodded, smiling shyly at first. The smile morphed into a giggle. I didn’t know Ruck even knew how to giggle.
Wow. Switch was the one. I groaned and dropped my face onto the bed. “You had to fall for Knife’s most valuable Wyrd Blood? Seriously?”
He sat up, taking another biscuit. “He’s still got plenty of other Wyrd Blood, like Dez, even if no one knows what the hell she can do.”
“How am I supposed to get Knife to let him go?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but Knife doesn’t even talk to me. Hard to negotiate with someone who doesn’t acknowledge your existence.” He took another bite of biscuit, as if all his worries had been handled now. “These could’ve used a little more butter, by the way.”
It didn’t stop him from grabbing two more before he left.
I shoved the stones under my bed, just in case someone not meaning harm stumbled in here and moved them. The thought of not having them on me all the time was nearly painful. The idea of being attacked in my sleep was even worse, and I couldn’t ward this place every night.
Sixteen
I’d been at Dorley for six months, and within a couple of days back in the Valley, I was already looking over my shoulder for Ryker and trying to do the dodge. I’d scrambled in and out of breakfast before most people were wiping the crust from their eyes. I’d done a lap of the area where the monster had made its presence known before most others had reported to work. I wasn’t ready for another talk about where I’d gone with Switch and how I’d found another stone. Silence and distance was my foreseeable plan of action.
A moving target was harder to hit, so I’d scoured every inch of the Valley perimeter that was close to where the monster had attacked me. If it had come in, and it was no longer here, it must’ve left. I’d spent hours upon hours trying to find a trail. By the end of the day, I snuck into my room like a thief in the night, my feet throbbing and my legs shaky.
I stripped out of my clothes in the dark and shrugged on my sleep shirt before crawling into bed. My head hit the pillow and exhaustion made my limbs feel like they were a thousand pounds each. There was no bed that existed in the universe that felt better than this one in this moment.
Ryker’s voice broke the silence and ripped my peace to shreds. “You ready to talk yet? I didn’t want to wait until you did five more laps around the place tomorrow.”
Fuck. How had I not felt him in here? I’d just…
“Did you watch me change?”
“You’ve stripped in front of me before. Didn’t realize you’d become bashful in the last few months.” A match was struck and the lantern by my bed flared, casting Ryker in harsh shadows.
“How come I didn�
�t sense you in here?” Before the merge, his presence was unmistakable. After the merge, it was a punch to the gut. But not right now.
“While you’ve been hiding at Dorley, I’ve been working on subduing it.” He walked to the corner and dragged the chair to the side of the bed, its back facing me. He sat down, his arms resting on it. I knew then that my night was going to be ruined, because he was too big to physically drag out of my room, no matter how that appealed.
Had I gone to the bathroom before I went to sleep? Yes, but maybe I needed to go again. I sat up. He was shaking his head before my feet hit the ground.
“I need to—”
“No. We’re talking and you’re not running away. Drink if you have to, but you aren’t leaving.” He reached into a back pocket, and a flash of silver glinted. I caught the flask before it hit my lap.
Being told what to do had always chafed, like nails dragging over raw skin. I leaned my back against the wall, stretched out my legs, and crossed my arms.
“I need answers, and I’m getting them tonight. Whatever is going on with the missing stones, the creature attacking you, the attempts to kill you, it’s no coincidence.”
I didn’t open the flask, but I didn’t give it back to him either. I set it on the table next to me, just in case.
“I need to know what you remember from your past, your parents, where you grew up. Any detail you can give me.” His stare said he’d sit there all night until he got them. His eyes never lied.
I picked the flask back up and took a swallow.
“Why?” Talking to him was always a bad idea. I should’ve made a run for the door and then fought until I lost consciousness.
“The Debt Collector sold you to somebody. The Queen of Cacoy made an attempt on your life. There’s more here than you’re saying. You can’t tell me that it’s not all connected somehow.”
“This has nothing to do with where I came from. I was born to dulls.”
My attention shot to the door. Could I make it past him?
“Neither of us are leaving this room until you come clean. We can’t afford the secrets anymore. I’m trying to keep you alive. You might want to help.”
Blood Binds: Wyrd Blood Book Three Page 9