Chapter Twenty Nine
The morning starts lazy enough, with warm morning sunlight pouring in on Jaak and I while we sleep. I roll over and look at my husband. He’s human again. I reach out and run my finger lightly down his nose before I trace his lips.
I can see him as he was last night if I look hard enough.
There’s hints here and there of what he looks like as a minotaur.
I wonder how long it will be before I can convince him to stay that way.
I lean over to brush a kiss over his lips and he catches me then.
He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me in close.
“Where were you off to, witchling? To cause mischief?”
I grin and kiss the tip of his nose. “No. To eat something. We got distracted last night and I’m starving. I’ve been starving,” I tell him and put my hand to my stomach which follows my stage cue and growls. “The things I would do for a cheeseburger are ungodly.”
He raises an eyebrow and looks up at me. “A cheeseburger? Just one? I’ll get you a dozen.”
“I want a restaurant," I joke.
“Done. Shall I buy you the restaurant in this town or would you prefer another?” The demon is dead serious about us going into financial ruin as restaurateurs. I better knock it off.
I swat him and sit up. “I don’t really want a restaurant,” I tell him. “They have terrible overheads. Everyone knows they’re nightmares. If I was going to own anything it would be a bookstore.”
Jaak props himself up on one arm and watches me scrounge for clothes in the dresser we filled the day before.
The ones I wore yesterday are on the floor in a tattered pile along with his.
I toe the edge of what I think is the remnants of his pants, could be mine though.
I pull on another sweater and am working on pants when there’s a booming sound.
I freeze and look at Jaak. The sound is loud but it sounds a distance off.
“What was that?” I ask, looking up at the ceiling. “Was it the house?”
Jaak gets out of the bed and shakes his head. “No, that was outside.” He goes to the windows to look while I hop around with one leg in my pants. I’m about to get the other leg in when I hear a rattling sound. It’s like the frame of the house is vibrating. I can feel it in the floorboards.
I lift my head and look at Jaak. He’s still at the window. “Do you feel that?”
Jaak doesn’t answer me. Instead he turns to me with a shout. “Get down, Meadow!”
“What? What’s happening?”
Jaak rushes towards me and wraps himself around me.
“Get down!” He drops to the floor and holds me tight while he covers me with his body.
A fraction of a second later the windows in the bedroom explode.
Glass shatters and flies across the room.
Furniture goes flying and something big hits Jaak in the back.
I can feel the blow through him even though he’s taking the brunt of the explosion.
Everything around us goes still as suddenly as it began. Wind blows into our bedroom, knocking loose pieces of glass and wood from the window the blast hadn’t broken entirely. Jaak is the first to move.
“Are you all right?”
“Jaak!” I turn to grab my husband and check him for wounds but he stops me because he’s already doing the same with me.
“Answer me, Meadow.”
“I-I’m fine. Nothing can hurt me, remember?”
His lips press into a thin line. “Right, but still, tell me. Do you feel okay? Even if you are strong now. Pain is still very real for you.”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m fine. You protected me from most of it.” We stand together and I look down at my hands, arms, and legs. I’m fine, there’s not even a scratch on me which is nice because I’d just gotten dressed. Jaak, though… I suck in a sharp breath and reach out to touch him.
His back and shoulders are bloody. Glass is embedded in his body, and blood gushes from the cuts on his arms and legs.
I grab his hand and he looks at me. “What happened? No, no, no.”
“The blast was…magical.” Jaak lifts up his hand and looks at it. There’s a shard of glass stuck in the back of his hand, right between his fingers. He pulls it free with a wince and drops the bloody glass to the floor. “I should have suspected something like this.”
That’s all he says before he turns to the mostly still intact dresser and starts rummaging for clothing.
I watch him with an open mouth for a moment before I rush to his side. “What do you mean you should have expected this? And what are you doing? We have to tend to your wounds.”
“We must find the head mage. They know we’re here and there isn’t much time to stop them. Not if they’ve resorted to this.”
“What’s this? I don’t even know what happened? How are you hurt? Why aren’t you healing?” My last question comes out broken and confused. It’s true, he isn’t. Some of the shards fall to the floor as Jaak moves, but the wounds remain. “I don’t understand. Why are you hurt and I’m not?”
“I shielded you,” he tells me, pulling on a pair of pants.
“This kind of explosion was arcane. My wounds will not heal as they would normally, not when the attack was designed for my kind. For you. I suspect our home was the only target of their magic.” He glances at me and I see worry and pain in his eyes as he looks me over.
I’m not hurt but Jaak is looking at me like I am as he speaks, “It would have injured you just as much if you had been in its path and that I cannot abide.” I watch Jaak pull out a button up but it’s going to be a bloody mess if he puts it on with the way his wounds are bleeding.
“Stop,” I tell him and still his hands. “You-you can’t just get dressed like it’s business as usual.
You’re hurt. We have to clean the wounds and get the glass out or it won’t heal properly.
” Jaak opens his mouth and I know the demon is going to protest so I put a finger to his lips.
“Don’t argue with me. You’re hurt and it’s my duty as your wife to worry.
You will sit and let me clean your wounds, do you understand? ”
I feel Jaak’s lips turn up against my finger before I see his smile. I smile back at him, I can’t help it. Not because of the brainwashing I’ve endured that stops me from frowning but because Jaak’s smile means the world to me.
“Very well,” he says, letting me take his hand and lead him out of the bedroom.
I would take him into the bathroom to work on his wounds but the windows there are also destroyed.
We have to go somewhere else. I leave the bedroom and the light at the end of the hallway above the stairs flickers on.
I head that way. I know when the house is giving directions by now.
“We’re going downstairs, okay?” I put one of his arms over my shoulder and help him walk. I don’t like how heavy he feels or how much I can see the effort it takes for Jaak to keep going. What did this to him?
I’m going to make whoever set that explosion off pay. I’m going to rip them limb from limb until I hear them beg for mercy, and even then I won’t stop. It will never be enough. No amount of begging will erase what has been done to my beloved.
We descend the stairs and I look up at Jaak. “Don’t you dare risk yourself to keep me safe. Never again. If something big and magical comes for us, it hits us both.”
He snorts. “That I cannot do. I will not sacrifice my heart for my body. You are what is most precious to me in this world and I would ensure a thousand punishments to see you safe.”
I sigh as we reach the bottom of the stairs and repress the urge to shake him. “Jaak, I mean it. It’s not-”
There’s a sound of a door opening and closing.
The front door, to be precise. Both Jaak and I freeze and I don’t hesitate to put myself in front of him.
I can already feel the pull that happened in the toy store rising up in me.
I hear someone walking and they’re in the entryway now.
They’ll be in sight in just a few seconds once they cross the hallway.
The memories that are mine and Jaak’s mix and mingle in front of me.
Whatever fool just walked into our home is going to meet an untimely end.
“Meadow, no, get behind me.” Jaak tries to pull me back but I brush him off with reflexes faster than I could have ever imagined. He grasps nothing but air and I look over my shoulder to shake my head no.
“Meadow, yes. I’m protecting you now. I’m the Bride of the Hell Maw, remember?” I turn back to face the archway. The steps are just on the outside of it. One more second now and they’ll be at my mercy.
I raise my fists and feel the knowing that guided me before taking over. “Who dares enter my home? Show yourself now!”
No sooner have the words left my mouth does the intruder round the corner and come into the room. I can hardly believe my eyes. I drop my fists and rub my eyes to make sure I’m not seeing things.
“Charlie?”