Chapter Nineteen
Neith
M ael seems to sense my desperation because he picks up his speed even more, and the others do the same. Within moments we get to a clearing and as we race across the empty space, River appears in front of us. I don’t think, and running on pure instinct, I throw myself from Mael’s back and land on River, my arms wrapping around his furry neck tightly. River’s Kitsune is so big that my weight knocking into him doesn’t make him move a muscle, not even an inch. It’s fucking impressive.
“Hey there, handsome,” I say, as I hold on tight and hope that my holding him will either stop him from disappearing again or that he will take me with him.
I don’t know when I outpaced the guys, but I hear the hooves of their kelpies thunder into the clearing.
I don’t pay it any attention though as suddenly instead of hugging the giant kitsune, the arms of the man wrap around me tightly. We’re on the floor, my arms are still around his neck, and my legs are on either side of him as he sits cross-legged underneath me. His head buries into my neck, and his whole body is shaking with panic, fear, or exhaustion. I’m willing to bet that it’s a mixture of all three.
My hands move into his hair as I gently run my fingers through it.
“I’ve got you,” I say softly. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here.”
His arms tighten around me, and his breath shudders out of him. I can feel his magic, and it is a hell of a lot stronger than I have felt it before, and it’s actually similar to the burst of power that I felt when he went all hot as fuck alpha on Ahren because Ahren pushed me.
I glance up at the guys, and my eyes widen in shock. They have all gotten off their kelpies, but their kelpies are now bowing, their front legs bent and their heads looking down at the floor. That’s weird enough, but what is even more strange is that the guys are all doing something similar, and they are all on one knee, with surprise in their expressions and worry in their eyes. Even Reed
is balancing on his knee. If I had to guess, then I would say that the strong magic that I can feel coming off River right now, and the similarity it has to what happened with Ahren, means that it’s River’s alpha magic, but he’s fucking insanely strong if he’s able to make the guys hit the floor like he is, and even the kelpies. They aren’t technically shifters, and he shouldn’t be able to make them dip in respect to him.
I don’t want to worry River, not while he’s still shaking and clearly struggling to calm himself, but I also need to know. My gaze connects with Raiden’s, and I mouth the words, “Can you move?”
He shakes his head slightly and mouths back, “Can’t get up.”
I nod and run my eyes over all of them to make sure that they’re okay. If any of them look like they’re in pain, then I’m going to have to try and get River to do something about it, even though there is probably a good chance that he has no idea how. Fortunately, they all seem to be fine, a mixture of worry and surprise in their eyes. Although Evander’s eyes are still worried, there’s a slight smile on his lips, and I can’t pick apart why, not right at this moment.
He sees me watching him, and he mouths, “We’re good, help River.”
I nod and carry on, muttering to River. I have no idea if what I’m saying is helping him or not, but he hasn’t told me to shut up, and he’s slowly stopped shaking.
Evander
I don’t know what the fuck is going on with River, but I do know that it’s absolutely undeniable what Neith is able to do for him. I didn’t mean to upset him earlier when I brought up the thing about Neith being his mate. I’ve witnessed them interact, and with the way that River’s alpha magic has gotten stronger and how he’s now challenging people, who he quite frankly wouldn’t have been bothered to in the past, even though he could, I think that it’s very telling and at this point. I would be more surprised if it turned out that she isn’t his mate.
I don’t know how because kitsunes can only find their mates with other kitsunes, and River is the strongest of his kind, but it’s Neith, and she has never and will never play by the rules. For all we know, she could be some kind of extinct kitsune that deals with death. That may be a reach, especially since we know that she takes after her mother and we know that her mother is an extinct supernatural listed in the book that Sully gave us, and an extinct kind of kitsune wasn’t listed in it, but still, my point is that we don’t know what Neith is and I think that she is absolutely River’s mate.
As I share a look with the others, it’s obvious that they are thinking the same thing. She’s calming him and has stopped his magic from acting erratically, which is a whole other issue that we’re going to have to deal with. Right now, though, the most important thing is to get River calm.
Eventually, River lifts his head from Neith’s neck, looking slightly shaken but nowhere near as panicked as he was. He turns his head to the side to look at us and frowns.
“Why are you all kneeling?” He asks.
“That would be because of you,” Reed replies, sounding more amused than anything else.
River’s confused frown deepens, “What? Why?”
“Your alpha,” Raiden starts, and River’s eyes widen as he realizes what has happened. His magic snaps back to him, and we all stand back up.
“What the fuck?” River asks. He looks at Reed, “My alpha command was so strong that it affected you?”
Reed nods, “Yeah, man. You’ve never been that strong before.”
River frowns slightly as he stands up with Neith still wrapped in his arms, and I chuckle quietly at the surprise and then heat that flashes through her eyes. He reluctantly puts her down, although he doesn’t let go of her, and tucks her under his arm, pulling her close.
“I have never been able to teleport before either, and that’s what was happening. I was involuntarily teleporting all over our property,” River starts to explain.
“Just within the barrier?” Raiden asks, and River nods, “Was it your magic, or was someone doing it to you?”
River shakes his head, “No, it was definitely my magic, but it was stronger than it ever has been.”
Raiden nods, “It would make sense that your magic kept you inside the barrier where you are safe even though it was bugging out.”
“All of your tails were exposed,” Ransom points out. “None of them were hidden, and you still had a few months on that enchantment before it ran out.”
River’s eyes widen, “Seriously?”
I nod, “Yeah, I noticed it too.”
“The magic was strong enough to burn through your enchantment?” River asks, worried.
Ransom nods, “Yeah, it would definitely appear that way. Were you only teleporting?”
River shakes his head, “No, all of my gifts were going crazy too and were stronger than they should have been. I had a couple of new ones as well.”
Raiden’s eyebrows are high as he asks, “Seriously?”
“Yeah, I could make it fucking snow, and I was moving with shadows at one point,” River explains.
We’re all silent as we try to absorb what he’s said.
“Are all of your gifts still stronger?” Doc asks curiously.
“I have no idea,” River replies.
“What about the teleportation and the snow and shadows? Do you think that you could still do that?” Doc asks again. “It may be that because the teleportation is a new gift, it’s behaving erratically. My teleportation behaved like that when I first got it. It might be the strongest out of all of your newly gained gifts, so it’s overriding any of the others.”
“It would make sense. I mean, gaining a new gift could easily trigger your other ones to misbehave,” Raiden agrees.
River shrugs, “I really don’t know, and I’m a little hesitant to try it again in case I get stuck in a loop again.”
“We won’t let that happen,” I reply. “Neith calmed it, right?”
River looks down at Neith and nods, “Yeah, she did.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Neith says, exactly the right words and what River needs to hear. “We sort of need to know; I wouldn’t usually put any pressure on you, but with the Choosing coming up I don’t want you to be in danger because of something like this.”
“Shit yeah, you’re right,” River replies, “and actually, it’s probably better to jump straight back on the horse, so to speak, than freak myself out thinking about it and put it off for even longer.”
“That’s true,” Raiden agrees.
“If, for whatever reason, you start flitting and can’t stop. I can cast something that will contain you,” Ransom adds.
“And I’ll bear hug you again,” Neith grins.
River nods dips his head, and thoroughly kisses her before he steps back and then gently pushes her toward the rest of us.
“I don’t want you to get hurt if my magic decides to go haywire,” River explains when Neith refuses to move.
She hesitates, “I’m not going too far, just in case you start to blip.”
“Neith,” River cautions, and he releases a burst of alpha command that drops us to our knees again.
Unsurprisingly, Neith isn’t affected, and she raises her eyebrow at him, as her own magic seems to rise up and respond, if we weren’t already on our knees we would be from her power.
“Fucking hell,” Reed mutters from beside me.
“River, I’m here for you, and I will not let you go through that again. I will step further away so that you don’t panic, but I’m not going any further,” Neith replies firmly.
River’s eyes flash to his kitsune, and his lips curl up into a smirk, “Fuck, you’re incredible.” Neith gets all flustered at his words, and he pulls her in again, kissing her once again before saying, “Fine, but if things get super hairy, you back up.”
“Fine,” she agrees. Both of their magics settle back down, and we get up.
It occurs to me that it probably should bother me that he is kissing the woman that I want to be mine, but honestly, I don’t feel anything even close to that. From the moment that she turned up on our doorstep, I’ve known that she is ours, not just mine, and that we are all hers. I don’t know how to explain it, it’s just the way that it is.
River winces when his eyes land on us. “Shit, sorry guys, that’s going to take some getting used to.”
“It wasn’t just you,” Griff says, his expression proud as he looks at Neith.
Her eyes widen, “What me?”
“Both of you,” Doc says with a smile.
“Well, shit,” Neith replies simply, making me chuckle. “Alright, I don’t really know what to do with that, so River, you’re up gorgeous. Do your thing.”
River’s eyes light up at her words, but his expression quickly becomes serious again. “Okay, I think I’m going to try the teleportation first since that seems to be the strongest and the one that I would rather get out of the way.” He looks at Doc, “Doc, since you teleport, do you have any advice?”
Doc nods, “Yeah, focus on a point in this clearing. Gather your magic to you and then move.”
River nods, “That sounds easy enough.”
We all watch as he takes a deep breath, and then his magic releases. He’s suddenly on the opposite side of the clearing. He seems tense as if he’s waiting for his magic to play up again, but when it doesn’t, he grins triumphantly and then teleports back to us, immediately taking Neith’s hand again.
“That was so fucking cool,” he grins.
“You should probably try the others,” I suggest with a smile.
River nods, moving away from Neith again. This time he doesn’t hesitate as much as he did before with the teleportation. Within moments, he has surrounded himself with shadows, and then they clear again. Without any prompting, the air around us cools dramatically, and snow rapidly starts falling from the sky.
Neith’s laughter fills the clearing as she stares up at the sky in wonder, and River’s smile widens as his eyes stay glued to hers. All of us are smiling as River keeps the snow falling for a lot longer than he used the shadows.
Eventually, it stops, and the snow that is left on the floor begins to melt.
“That really was magical,” Neith smiles. “I love snow.”
“Me too,” Raiden agrees with a smile.
River’s smile is still wide as he replies, “Then it’s a good thing that I can make it now.” His features fall into a frown as he asks, “Am I supposed to get a new gift now, years after my magic first showed up?”
I shake my head, “No, but I shouldn’t be able to control the ocean.”
“And I shouldn’t have different colored wings from the rest of my kind,” Raiden replies.
“Good point,” River admits.
“It might be a good idea for you to shift so we can see if the bursts of magic really did burn through the enchantment on your tails,” Ransom suggests.
River nods, takes a step away from Neith, and then effortlessly shifts. Sure enough, he’s got nine tails, all visible.
“He’s bigger, right?” Reed asks.
“Definitely, he’s usually waist height, which is pretty big for kitsune, but his shoulders are now at Neith’s shoulders,” Raiden replies. “Kitsune’s never get that big. They are bigger than the Earth Realm foxes, usually closer to the size of a wolf, but they aren’t ever this big, at least not that I have read about.”
“Well, that’s probably got something to do with his magic as well,” Ransom points out.
“Agreed, we’ll get to the bottom of it and why all of us are feeling different things in our magic,” I reply. “Now that we have determined that River’s magic is not going to be a danger to him or us, and we are fairly sure that his magical flares were a part of his emerging new gifts, we need to put this on the back burner too. We can look into it obviously, but we need to try and look into the Choosing more and find out what we can.”
“Agreed,” River says as he shifts back. “My magic has settled down a lot, and I don’t think that it’s going to become uncontrollable like it did before.”
“We need to get that enchantment back on, your tails,” Griff says suddenly, a sense of urgency in his tone.
“A vision?” Doc asks.
Griff shakes his head, “No, but a very strong feeling.”
Ransom pulls a vial out of his pocket, “I had just finished it when Neith yelled that you were in trouble.”
River frowns, “Neith did? How did you know?”
Neith shrugs and pulls a confused face that is absolutely adorable before she replies, “I had a vision, I think. I couldn’t see anything, and then I saw you moving through the woods, and the ground around you was shifting like there was something moving underneath it, and then it cracked open, and you disappeared again.”
River’s eyebrows lift, “Yeah, that happened. So, you must have had a vision. That’s pretty cool.”
“Yeah, I didn’t like being vulnerable like that though. I hope it’s a one-off occurrence, and I’m incredibly grateful that it happened while I was here and safe,” Neith replies.
I have a feeling that her having a vision was directly linked to the fact that the person who was in trouble was River and not that it’s one of her innate gifts that is developing. I share a look with Raiden, who is clearly thinking the same thing, but when he opens his mouth, I shake my head slightly. We don’t want to get River’s hopes up and be wrong.
“I wouldn’t worry,” Griff says. “If it is one of your gifts, it should only be your first two or three visions that will give you loss of sight. After that, you’ll be able to almost split your vision, so you’ll be able to see what’s happening in the vision, but you will also be able to see what’s happening in real life.”
Neith nods, “Well, at least that’s somewhat reassuring.”
“Why did you bring it with you?” I ask Ransom.
Ransom shrugs, a small frown drawing his eyebrows together, “I don’t know.”
“Well, that’s a whole lot of weird for today,” Doc grins. “Let’s get the enchantment back on River and then head back to the house. It’s nearly dinner time.”
“I could eat,” Neith grins.
Ransom nods and looks at River, “Since your magic has switched it up on us, I’m going to need you to add some of your blood to this so that it still works for you.”
River nods, “Yeah, of course. No problem.”