Chapter 48
Enid
Strong arms wrapped around my waist and tugged me back into bed. I fell into the mattress, and Nevan hovered over me, leaning down for a kiss.
“Are you ever going to let me out of this bed?” I asked with a laugh. “I’m starting to think it’s your intention to keep me here forever.”
“After that stunt you pulled last week, it might be,” he said.
“We’ve spent a week here. You’ve only left to tend to emergencies. We need to emerge at some point, or everyone is going to think we’re dead.”
Nevan waggled his eyebrows. “I’m pretty sure everyone knows exactly what we’re doing.”
I shifted so my back was flat against the mattress, Nevan’s chest pressing into mine, my amulet between us.
“Do you think you’re ever going to want to go back to the Otherworld?” Worry lined the creases of his forehead, which I traced with my finger.
“I never wanted to go in the first place,” I said. “I just didn’t know what else to do to save Fairwitch Isle.”
“You don’t miss them at all?” He kissed my nose. “You don’t miss being around deities who know what it’s like to wield magic? You don’t want to be around your own people?”
He searched my face for answers, and like always, I found myself wanting to give them because I knew Nevan wouldn’t judge me either way.
Finally, I shook my head. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. They were never my people, Nevan. They never accepted me or my magic. No one has. Until you.”
He swallowed thickly, Adam’s apple bobbing.
I traced his jaw with my nail, and he shuddered. “Everyone in my life has left me. Until you.” I leaned up and kissed his cheek. “I’ve never felt at home anywhere. Until you.”
This time, I pressed my lips to his, and he groaned into my mouth. I arched my pelvis up, wanting some kind of friction between my legs, but Nevan broke the kiss and shifted his weight off me.
“Before I ravish you again, I just have to say one thing.” He was sitting up now, sheet pulled around his waist, hair mussed and perfect.
“I am so sorry that everyone in your life failed you so spectacularly. But I can’t ever be completely sorry, because a selfish part of me knows that’s what led you to me. ”
This man and his words were always making me tear up. “Stop being so sweet all the time,” I said. “Also, that was not just one thing. That was about five things.”
He rolled his eyes. “You just can’t help yourself.”
I shoved him, and he made a whining noise as I got up and shrugged on my robe.
“You’re wearing far too many clothes right now,” he said.
“I’m hungry.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “So am I.”
“For food.”
He laughed and swung his legs over the bed, then pulled on his trousers. “All right. Let me scrounge us up something. You just stay in bed.” I admired his muscled back as he padded toward the stairs. It was a glorious view.
I flopped back onto the bed. “I am capable of doing some things, you know.” The wounds on my stomach had mostly closed, leaving angry red scars in their place. I supposed with my magic so low, my body didn’t have the same healing abilities anymore.
“I know,” he called from the staircase. “But I like doing things for you. I’ll be right back.”
He disappeared down the stairs and out of sight.
One of my healer textbooks lay on the nightstand, and I grabbed it so I could read while Nevan was busy.
I’d been studying and reading nonstop, my excitement over this new potential career growing daily.
There was so much to relearn about my own bog, and I couldn’t wait to explore it all, to see it in a new light.
A familiar whoosh filled the air, blue and golden magic swirling to reveal Ambrose.
I jumped out of bed and ran to him, healing textbook temporarily forgotten. “Ambrose! Where have you been?”
His brows furrowed. “At Kiln Mountain. Where I live.”
“But why haven’t you come to see me?” I asked.
A smirk lifted the corner of his mouth. “Got bored of the healer already?”
I swatted him. “No. I just meant . . . I wanted to thank you for saving me. Or trying to save me. You actually caused a huge headache, if you want to know the truth, but the thought was nice.”
He rolled his eyes. “You need to work on your thank-yous.”
I threw my arms around him, and he stiffened, but his arms slowly came around my back. “I do care about you, Enid. As a friend.”
I pushed him to arm’s length. “So is that why you’re here? As my friend?”
His eyes darted to the side, and my stomach clenched tight at the worry flashing across his features. Ambrose never worried. He was the most relaxed person I’d ever met.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“There are people outside your city. Scouring this land. Some of them are wearing these odd maroon cloaks with the hoods up. They have magic weapons, objects, animals. And there’s a lot of them.”
My stomach dropped straight to the floor. “No,” I said. This was exactly what I’d feared. “It’s the brotherhood. They’ve found Fairwitch Isle.” Or the humans told them about us and received a handsome payment.
“What will they do?” Ambrose asked.
I started pacing. “Nothing good. From what I’ve heard, the last time they breached the city’s borders, they attacked. Everyone was able to fend them off, but that’s why they moved the castle here—so the brotherhood couldn’t find them.”
Ambrose shoved a hand through his hair. “And now they have.”
“And now they have.”
“Okay, I hope you’re hungry. I’ve got eggs, bread, cheese, and some ginger tea . . .” Nevan trailed off as he came to the top of the stairs and saw Ambrose standing there. He dropped the tray, and it clattered to the floor.
“Ambrose,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
“The brotherhood is here,” I said.
Nevan swore, his face paling. “What are we going to do?”
“Enid said you moved the castle once.” Ambrose twirled his finger in the air. “Can you do it again?”
Nevan shook his head. “It was a one-time piece of magic the castle had. We activated the magic, but we can’t repeat it. We’re stuck here.”
“Maybe I can portal people out?” Ambrose asked. “I was able to portal your friends.”
“But we’d have to leave our city behind.” Nevan took off his spectacles and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’d have no home, no castle. And if we abandon this city and let the brotherhood have it, they’d use our castle’s magic for horrible things.”
I paused, thinking through what Ambrose had just said. “Wait a minute. Maybe you can’t move the people, but you could portal the city, right?”
Ambrose’s eyes widened. “There would need to be a lot of Fair Folk to create a portal that powerful.”
“But you can do it,” I said, though the statement was more of a question.
“Where would we move the city?” Nevan asked.
“To Kiln Mountain,” I said and met Ambrose’s eye.
He sucked in a sharp breath, and I could see the wheels turning in his mind. “We could merge our communities. We could save this city.”
I’d told Nevan about the Fair Folk and their curse, and we’d agreed the people of Fairwitch Isle would welcome the Fair Folk. This could be a viable solution.
“Do you actually think this could work?” Nevan asked.
“I don’t know,” Ambrose said. “I’ll have to go to the Fair Folk and see what they think.”
Nevan looked at me. “And we’ll have to pitch the idea to Cillian and the council.”
From the view out my cottage window, I could see the outline of people far in the distance. I wouldn’t have even noticed had Ambrose not said something, but now they were unmistakable. And they were coming for us.
I pushed Ambrose. “We have to hurry.”
“I’ll be back tomorrow at dawn,” he said.
Tomorrow at dawn. We’d learn if Fairwitch was saved or doomed.