Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
Nonsensical whispers nudged me awake. I lay in a cocoon, encased in glowing magic. My abdomen no longer hurt, but gentle tugs against my skin were concerning.
“Stay still, Evangeline.”
My father loomed above me, his brow furrowed as he concentrated. A soft beam of emerald and gold magic poured from his fingers into my abdomen.
“Oh. That’s why it doesn’t hurt.”
“No,” Cernunnos said. “I believe the magic inside the seed has numbed you in anticipation of tearing its way out of you.”
I blinked. “Well. That’s not very nice.”
A soft snort above. I flicked my eyes to the left to see Ben close to my dad. “What are you doing here?”
“Saving your life,” my father said.
I don’t think I could move at all, thanks to Ben’s gentle magic wrapped around me, but I heeded his warning and didn’t even try. “This feels like the world’s strangest C-section.”
“Except the world might end if we tear this thing open before it’s ready,” Cernunnos said.
“You never told me I’d give birth to this thing.”
“No one has ever swallowed the World Seed, so there was no way to know you’d be a mom,” my father said dryly.
“Aww,” I cooed, trying to quell the rising panic, “a bouncing baby tree.”
“Evie,” Ben said, his teeth gritting with effort, “stop talking, please.”
“Sorry. I’m nervous.”
“How do you think we feel?” Ben muttered. “I came because I thought you’d been hurt, not because you got pregnant by a magical tree. This one is out of my wheelhouse.”
Cernunnos let out a bark of laughter. “I’m about to extract the seed. Can you take your structure down? Gently?”
“Um. I can try. It’s usually automatic.”
Cernunnos shut his eyes and let out a breath. “Alright. Try gently.”
I closed my eyes and sent a thread of power out. Pain flared through my veins. A cry of pain tore from my throat. Tears squeezed from my eyes as I breathed in short, choppy gasps.
“How can I help her?” Ben asked.
“See if you can break it,” Cernunnos advised. “Gently.”
“Is it safe to drop my power?”
“Evie, Ben is going to release you. It’s imperative you don’t move a muscle.”
“Okay. Got it. Maybe don’t pull the seed out just yet?”
“Couldn’t if I wanted to. I’m still working around your organs to extricate the roots.”
“Dear gods,” I whispered.
Ben shot him a dark look. “She could have gone without knowing that.”
“Evie needs to know how delicate this is. There’s a chance I won’t be successful.”
My heartbeat thumped against my ribs like a drum. “You’re the Fae King. If you can’t do it, who could?”
A faint smile. “This magic is older than I. It does not conform to our rules.”
“Even better,” I whispered. Swallowing hard, I looked at Ben. “Release me.”
I felt the instant his soothing power fell away and locked my muscles tight.
Ben bent, placing his large hands on the wood.
He grunted with effort as he pulled, but to no avail.
His teeth pulled back, and his eyes glowed a strange, icy blue.
Ben might be a Lord, but he was not a wolf.
Whatever he was, he did not inherit the trademark golden eyes of the other Lords.
He let go, adjusted his shoulders, and bent to try again, a glint in his eyes I didn’t like.
“Don’t,” Cernunnos warned, sensing Ben saw the cage as a challenge. “Give me a moment.”
A crack split the night, the wooden cage splitting in two. Ben grabbed both parts before they fell to the ground.
“I’m about to extract the World Seed. Once I give the signal, I need you to pull Evie away and run as fast as you can. It will attempt to reattach to her because her magic is familiar.” His eyes swirled. “Its power hungers.”
“Oh, goodie,” I breathed.
His swirling gaze caught mine. “I’m sorry, Evangeline. This will be painful.”
I figured it wouldn’t be a cake walk. “What’s the signal?”
His eyes met Ben’s. Faster than I could track, I found myself ripped from the ground. Tearing agony ripped through my abdomen. I screamed, so long and hard my voice went out, and the new Lord ran like the wind, the cool night air slicing against my skin with his speed.
A percussive boom shook the world. Ben stumbled, righted himself, and kept running.
He clenched me tight to his chest, the smell of wilderness clinging to him, as he ran for our lives.
The agony had subsided once the seed was gone, and I reached up to wind my hands around his neck, burying my face against his chest. Warm liquid ran down my stomach and hips.
Blood. I wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Another blast, this one so powerful Ben couldn’t stay upright. He cursed, stumbled, and fell, tucking me against his chest and rolling as he went down, careful to take the brunt of the fall.
We came to a stop, me sprawled and bleeding atop the healer. When I made to move off him, he held me in place by the hips.
“Don’t.” His eyes still glowed, his voice rough with effort. “You’re still wounded. Let me move you.”
He moved his hands up my back and carefully rolled before gently placing me on the ground.
His expression turned grim as he lifted my shirt up and examined the wound.
“How bad is it, doc?” I gave him a hopeful smile.
“Don’t joke,” Ben said quietly. “Stay still and let me attempt to heal you.”
At his somber tone, I pressed my lips together. It must be bad if Ben wasn’t sure he could fix me.
Cool blue light appeared in his palms. He tipped them over and pressed them gently to my abdomen.
A commotion in the woods came a moment later, revealing Caelan and Garrett.
“Evie!” Caelan came to his knees. He reached out for me
“Don’t touch her,” Ben snapped. “Not until I’m finished.”
Caelan’s upper lip curled into a snarl. “Watch it, Ben.”
“You never interfered in a healing. Don’t start now.” Ben’s hands moved over my stomach, the cooling touch of his power flooding my bloodstream.
“She’s lost a lot of blood,” Garrett helpfully observed.
“Giving birth to a tree is hard work,” I quipped.
Ben’s lips thinned.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“You aren’t in pain?” Caelan asked.
I shook my head. “Not anymore.”
“And that’s why I’m concerned,” Ben murmured.
“It’s bad, isn’t it?” I asked.
Caelan met my eyes. “Yes. And your natural healing ability isn’t kicking in.”
“Because she’s drained,” Ben said. “Whatever that thing did, it sucked every bit of power from you.”
I sucked in a breath and reached deep within. There. A flicker of power.
“Temporary,” Ben said. “You’ll need a large meal and a couple of days’ bed rest at least.”
“You’ll stay here.” Caelan’s jaw tightened in that mutinous expression I’d come to love.
But it also annoyed the hell out of me.
“No. I’ll stay at home. All my things are there, and the land has always helped me heal.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. “And who will take care of you?”
“I’ll stay with her,” Ben said.
My jaw dropped with shock.
“The hell you will,” Caelan snarled.
Ben lifted his gaze. “You called me the best healer in the country. I’m not trying to steal your Lady. But this wound will require attention I can’t give her if I’m not close.” He lifted his palms and shook the residual magic off his fingers.
“Evie?” Caelan inquired.
I watched Ben. There was nothing in his expression that made me think this was anything other than what it was—a simple request from a Healer concerned about his patient. “You don’t think I’ll be fine on my own?”
I asked because Ben did not like me when we last parted. “There’s really no reason for you to go to all the trouble. Caelan has Pack Healers he can send.”
Cernunnos walked into the clearing stirring up the smell of pine and fresh air. “Take the big man with you. He has a profound gift.”
My father bent and studied my wound. “I’m sorry, Evie. I can’t heal you completely. The magic is ancient and will not respond to my call.”
“Where’s the seed?” I asked.
A faint smile. “Attracting attention.”
Garrett let out a soft exhalation before turning and running in the same direction he came from.
“It grew?”
Ben’s warm hands gently probed my stomach, his touch giving me goosebumps. My shirt and pants were soaked with blood, and I was freezing.
“She’ll need a ride home—an easy one. I’ve done the best I can with the wound, but her magic is unstable right now. She’s healing like a human, and I don’t have the right tools to stitch her up.” Ben sat back on his haunches, his face drawn.
I reached over and patted his knee. “Thanks for trying.”
Ben sighed. “You are so fucking weird, Evie.”
With that, he rose and stalked away.
I blinked at his back. “What did I do?”
Caelan lay his hand on my thigh. “You didn’t yell or bite his head off for one.”
“Do people do that a lot? Seems like a wild choice.”
“Our kind as well as humans get angry about things we can’t control. As a healer, Ben feels…more than most of us. It hurts him deeply when he can’t help someone.”
“Considering my intestines are still inside my body and I’m not bleeding to death, I’d call it a win.”
“You aren’t out of the woods yet,” Caelan rasped, his gaze following Ben’s back as he disappeared into the woods. “I don’t like the idea of him staying at your house.”
“You’d rather my wound open up, and I bleed out while I’m sleeping?” Jealous shifters and their insane tendencies made me want to punch them right in the kidney.
Cernunnos winced and took a few steps away, turning his back to us.
Caelan’s eyes narrowed. A savage smile tilted his lips up. “I’d much rather be your doctor.”
I rolled my eyes. “So you can yell at me every time I move? No thanks. Ben is a healer, and he’s no slouch in the protective department either. And I’m no slouch at magic. It will be fine.”
His jaw tightened. “I don’t like how close you were to him.”
“No shit,” I said with a snort. “It’s pretty obvious Ben does not like me any longer. I don’t see why I can’t attempt to be friends with him. Besides, that’s not even what this is. Ben will be there to ensure I heal properly. There’s nothing nefarious.”
“You don’t know how far a Lord would go to secure something he desires.”
I stared at him. “Do you even hear yourself right now? Of course I know how far one would go. One of those Lords,” I said, poking him in the arm, “is sitting on the ground with me after I almost bled to death bitching about a male healer staying with me for a day or two.”
To his credit, Caelan’s cheeks heated. Cernunnos interrupted.
“I think it’s time to get you home.”
I shook my head. “Show me the tree first?”
“I’ll get her,” Caelan said, gently scooping me into his arms. Careful not to jostle me, he headed through the woods, Cernunnos clearing a path with his magic. We stopped at the edge of the woods.
I sucked in a breath. “Holy shit. That’s four times the size of the Jacaranda.”
And it was. A massive, sprawling tree loomed above us, its trunk twisted into spirals. Long, sloping branches hung close to the ground, leaves of a brilliant greenish gold glowing in the night sky. I craned my neck up and couldn’t see the top.
Caelan stood stone faced.
“Umm. Sorry?”
The Shifter Lord closed his eyes, and I could almost hear a phantom voice counting. When he opened them, he shook his head. “It’s not your fault. It’s mine.”
“The bright side is this didn’t happen in the middle of Evie’s shop or the town square.” Cernunnos laughed out loud when we turned identical thunderous expressions toward him.
Ben walked out from the woods gaping at the sight. He stopped beside me, his hands in his pockets. “Is this thing permanent?”
Cernunnos shrugged, a human expression for him. “The World Tree is reborn with no set schedule. When it tires, it will cease to exist, and the seed will land in another worthy person’s possession.”
“Let’s just hope they don’t swallow it,” I murmured under my breath.
“What happens now?” Caelan asked.
He still held me firm in the circle of his arms, his warmth seeping through my bloody clothing. I put my palm on his chest and lay my head against his shoulder. Guilt filled me.
Ben was right.
I am fucking weird.