Chapter 5 – Clawdia
CHAPTER 5
CLAWDIA
CHAPTER 5 - CLAWDIA
“ D o you think something has happened to Charlie? And that’s why I’m human?” I asked Baelen as we headed out toward Elizabeth’s cabin.
My stomach growled, and I hoped she had something we could eat. I needed to regain my energy. I reached out to clasp his hand, and I felt the shot of surprise and joy through our new bond.
Like all my bonds, it had its own unique quality to it. It wasn’t purple and comfortable like Zaide’s, nor as golden and quiet as Charlie’s. My bond with Baelen was a beautiful bronze and thrummed with power.
Baelen squinted down at me. “Such as?”
“Maybe he’s turned human again? Maybe we are linked in that way?”
“Perhaps. But you still cannot feel the bond?”
“No.” I shook my head and sighed. “I hope it’s a sign he’s okay wherever he is. He probably hates being a dragon.”
“Charlie doesn’t strike me as someone who would be afraid of flying.”
I laughed at the memories of us on the sofa together at Halloween. “He can be a real scaredy-cat. You should see him watching a horror film. I’m not sure who jumps higher.”
When my laughter died, I thought about his predicament. “But I know how disorientating turning into a new body can be. I just hope he’s all right and safe. God forbid hunters find him before we do.”
“Gods forbid indeed,” Baelen mumbled.
I peered up at him, and his eyes narrowed into slits. I asked hesitantly, “Does it bother you?”
“Does what bother me?”
“The sun. Aren’t vampires allergic to the sun?” He wasn’t glittering like Edward Cullen, now was he turning to ashes, but it was clear the sun hurt his eyes. I wished I had sunglasses to give him.
“You shouldn’t listen to all you hear.” He squeezed my hand with a smile. “I’m less afflicted by the sun than other akari since my fathers are titan, but akari live in the dark. In realms where the sunlight is bright, both eyes and skin can be affected.”
“So, yes, you are affected, but it gives you a sexy glare instead of a pained squint.” The sun behind him formed a kind of halo to frame his handsome face and cast shadows under his dark, long lashes. Despite the long and vigorous activities of the morning, I bit my lip as a tingle of lust caused me to shiver.
He raised a brow, and I knew some of my emotion seeped through our bond. “I suppose that must be true.”
We were so completely enraptured by each other that when the door to the cabin slammed open, we startled.
Elizabeth stepped out onto the decking, and with a frustrated sigh and hands on her hips, she asked, “Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for hours.” Then she blinked and lowered her shoulders. “Clawdia, you’re human again.”
“I am,” I said blandly. Seeing her only made the anger stirring in the back of my mind louder and more insistent.
She hurt Charlie. Again. Her son. She believes him evil just because he’s a dragon now. She thought it was him who broke the wards. She would have helped Karin kill him, given the opportunity. How dare she stand here and pretend all is well.
When I said nothing more about how I returned to my human form, she raised her brows and nodded once. She knew exactly how I felt. I probably had it written across my face. “I hate you for hurting him” in blood red on my forehead, cheeks, and chin.
But I wouldn’t let the anger out yet. Cats, feline familiars especially, were cattier and more passive with their anger. Elizabeth wouldn’t get away with her treatment of Charlie. I'd make sure of it.
“Apologies for not arriving earlier. We’ve spent the morning resting. As I’m sure you can imagine, healing a natural portal, creating a portal to come here, healing you, and changing shape is taxing work,” Baelen replied in an easy, pleasant tone, but his smile looked brittle, and his eyes were sharp.
It was a perfect rebuttal, and I ducked my head to hide my smirk.
“Of course.” She coughed awkwardly before asking, “Are you hungry? I found some milk and eggs at the main house.”
I opened my mouth to say no, but my stomach interrupted with a loud growl. Betrayed by my belly, I frowned and reluctantly nodded. “Yes. Please.”
We followed her into the cabin, and the leftover aroma of food made me salivate as Baelen pulled out a chair at the table for me to sit down and then joined me on the other side. He picked up my hand and kissed it.
God, this man melts me. He treats me like a princess.
Elizabeth walked straight to the counter but paused in the middle of reaching for the washed bowl and turned back to us before asking Baelen, “Do you eat? Food?”
“No. I’m full, thank you,” he remarked.
Her relief was evident, and I frowned as she turned her back to us and began cracking eggs into a bowl. “Are your bonds back, Clawdia?” she asked. “Can you feel Charlie?”
“No. It still feels fragmented, and Zaide is muted somehow. It’s as though the bonds are … blocked somehow.” The frustration of being unable to feel them was obvious in my tight voice. It turned desperate as I asked, “Can they be blocked? By materials? Or magic?”
Elizabeth considered my question as she poured milk into the bowl. “Hunters don’t have magic, and I’ve never heard of materials disrupting a soul bond. Especially not one like a soul pair bond. But with soul pair bonds being unheard of, everything is theoretical.”
“How is it possible? How do we fix it? Surely if there’s no known way to disrupt our bond, then it must be an accident on my side?” My voice faded into a pained whisper.
“Don’t place that blame or pressure on yourself,” Elizabeth replied sternly as she placed two slices of bread into a toaster before looking back at me. “If it is a problem on your side of the connection, perhaps a delayed response from the stress you were just under, then I’m sure everything will revert to normal in due time. Just as your ability to shift did.”
She didn’t understand. I couldn’t do nothing. I’m supposed to heal what’s broken, for goodness’ sake. If I couldn’t even heal the broken bonds within me … what kind of healer did that make me?
I tried to explain in a hurried whisper, “Baelen and I bonded, and it could give Zaide a boost or some kind of reassurance if he can feel it. He needs to feel it to … get through everything. It’s hope.”
Elizabeth sighed and turned around to pour the mixture into the pan. “Just because you can’t feel him doesn’t mean he can’t feel you. You’d like the reassurance of knowing he’s safe, which is understandable, but don’t confuse the situation with assumptions. The bonds may be out of balance, just as your familiar bond with Charlie was, and he may feel too much from you. How do you think that will affect him in captivity?”
My blood boiled, and my teeth cracked as I clenched them. I hated her. But I couldn’t argue with her. Because she might be right. And knowing Zaide might feel all my anger, I suddenly doused it, for now, because I didn’t want him to worry about me when he was in danger.
“So we wait and hope the bonds return. What are we going to do in the meantime? I’m sure this morning gave you lots of time to plan our next move regarding rescuing Zaide, finding Charlie, and discovering Fafnir’s plans,” Baelen remarked as he caressed my hand with his thumb.
Testing our new bond, I pushed my thoughts to him. “You’re so good at that. Subtle put-downs. Is it strange that it makes you even more attractive?”
He winked and replied, “I’ve had lots of practice dealing with parents who think they know best.”
The toaster popped, bringing our attention back to the witch as she collected and buttered the toast as she spoke, “I have thought about what our next move should be, and I think we need to find my family. The defected side. Charlie already found the address, but the council didn’t confirm whether the task team found them.”
I was shaking my head before she even finished speaking. Not that she was looking. She was adding the scrambled eggs to the top of the toast. It was hard to argue with someone who was making you food. She probably knew that, but I would not let that stop me.
I spluttered my protest, “I know Fafnir is important, but we have to find Zaide and Charlie. They are my priority right now.”
“That’s understandable. But Fafnir is the biggest threat.”
“But—” I stopped. Despite wanting to argue, I knew how selfish it was to want to save my bonds before attempting to deal with Fafnir. Fafnir was a threat to the realm and beyond. But my world wouldn’t be right without my men.
Baelen squeezed my hand before letting go as Elizabeth came over to us holding the plate of breakfast she’d made me and a glass of water, which she placed on the table in front of me before sitting.
It smelled amazing, and my stomach growled, very much anticipating the meal, but I felt sick. Guilt warred with desperation and turned my stomach sour.
“You and I can look for Charlie and Zaide,” Baelen said to me, his eyes and expression solemn, the falseness gone. He knew how difficult I was finding this, and I hoped he could also feel how appreciative I was to have him. Then he looked at Elizabeth. “While you investigate your family.”
Elizabeth scoffed. “How am I going to do that alone?”
“Why do you think you need us? You’re a strong, independent, powerful witch,” I muttered as I cut a square of toast and eggs and took a bite.
She gave me a bored look, the kind you give a child arguing about wearing a coat outside in bad weather. “I am powerful, but I cannot create portals.”
“You can drive a car, though, yes?”
She ignored me and added, “I am recognizable to them. Someone else would be better to sleuth.”
“Sleuth? Do the dirty work, you mean?” I shook my head. “We’ll be able to deal with Fafnir and your family when we have Zaide and Charlie back. And when we find Zaide, we find the other witches and the council, too.”
“Clawdia, Fafnir is not waiting for you to find your men!” she shouted and waved her hand. “Right now, he is working on a goal he planned centuries ago, and we need to stop him before it’s too late. And while you have no leads on Charlie's or Zaide’s whereabouts, shouldn’t you concentrate on something productive rather than go on a wild goose chase?”
My lips twisted, and I tried not to flinch at her shouting while the small bites of my meal threatened to come back as my stomach rolled. She’s really not going to help us find them, but she expects us to help her?
For someone who had lived her life hidden from the rest of witch society, she was suddenly so desperate to stop this threat when she’d had to be talked into it in the first place. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was more about her than about defeating Fafnir.
“That’s not to say you couldn’t do a tracking spell to find Charlie for us,” Baelen said, glaring at Elizabeth.
“I could,” she conceded. “But his situation may not be time sensitive, whereas my family being here is. They could move at any point before we have found them and evidence about their plan. We need that.”
“If we had Charlie, he could locate them again if needed,” I muttered, but I was mostly defeated. Without my bonds, I couldn’t find them myself, and if I wanted Charlie back quickly, Elizabeth was the only way we could track him. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my men, my love for them so stupendous, even if it meant leaving them in danger until I had a way to get them back.
At an impasse, we stayed silent, stewing and glaring at each other.
Baelen interrupted. “There’s a way for us all to get what we want. I will find Charlie while you both go in search of your defected family. Clawdia can slip into her feline form to avoid detection and portal you back here. So do the tracking spell, and let’s not waste any more time.”
While I was glad Baelen would find Charlie, I couldn’t help but huff out a frustrated breath that I couldn’t go with him. Instead, I’d be doing the hard work of finding Elizabeth and Mary’s evil family to discover why they were working with Fafnir and what he wanted.
Elizabeth gritted her teeth but eventually sighed and nodded once. “Fine.” She retrieved a knife from the drawer and sliced it across her palm without any preamble. I gasped as blood pooled—didn’t she know how many nerves were in the palm? She muttered a few words, and a red line drew up, pointing the direction to Charlie.
Baelen moved slowly toward her in a way that looked predatory, and fear flashed in her eyes as he dipped his finger in the blood. She swallowed. “Can you use this?”
He nodded and a small blue glow appeared and started growing. My chair scratched against the wooden floor as I stood and gazed longingly at the portal. Baelen took my hand, and I gave him a trembling smile.
“I hate that we have to separate,” I whispered. “I can’t bear to lose another one of you. Please look after yourself.”
“I will bring your witch back to himself and back to you.” His red eyes bore into mine. “Trust me.”
“I do trust you.” My lips twisted as I held back tears. “Tell Charlie I love him and I can’t wait to see him in dragon form. Don’t get singed.”
“All will be well, my sunlight. I have met many drakorians before, and I will be quite safe.” He kissed me soundly, full of the confidence his voice held, and I leaned into him, lost again, before a cough interrupted us.
“Your portal is ready,” Elizabeth said with her fingers knitted and her expression blank.
“I will be back before you know it,” Baelen told me quietly, “but keep yourself safe. Charlie lived without his mother before and will do so again if necessary.”
I nodded and squeezed his hands before letting him go. He walked backward into the portal, which swallowed him up in a flash of blue, and our bond stretched further than it was prepared to do when being so new. My heart ached with the distance between us, but I breathed through the pain and gritted my teeth until it eased.
Elizabeth didn’t offer me time to deal with my separation from my soul mate. “Pack a bag and meet me at the port in half an hour. We’ll get the ferry back to the mainland and drive the rest of the way.”
I frowned. “How is a ferry coming here?” Only witches could get to the island, and they were gone.
She huffed. “I called one. Told them we are stranded on an island and gave them the coordinates. Now that the wards are broken, it will be visible to all, and many humans will be confused about an island that appeared out of nowhere but has buildings, electricity, and running water—all which isn’t paid for.”
My face fell as the implications sank in. “So what do we do? Can’t we re-hide it? This was a family’s home and the home of lots of witch archives. We can’t just abandon it.”
She shrugged. “We can’t do anything except deal with the fallout when this is all over.”
I shook my head as indignation rose inside me. “I can’t accept that. Maybe there’s power left in the wards that you could use to disguise the buildings? At least temporarily. Otherwise, the whole supernatural community will be in even more danger of being discovered and you won’t be able to deal with the fallout at all.” I tried to read her face, but she gave nothing away as she stared out the window. “Please, Elizabeth, we have to try something, or more supernaturals will die because of witches.”
She gave a hateful scoff. And I understood it completely. It was terrible when someone was right and you didn’t want them to be.
With only ten minutes before the expected arrival of the ferry, we kneeled at the wreckage of the ward shed as Elizabeth tried to draw on its power. With her palms out and hovering over the broken wood, she hummed and hawed and muttered something under her breath until something responded. Magic.
But it didn’t feel like before, when Karin asked me to pour magic into the wards. That felt sinister and unnatural. This was a buzz of energy, which bounced gently around us like a rabbit jumping through the woods. It kind of hummed low, like a sigh, and tickled my skin like the caress of a soft breeze. It was lovely.
“Can you feel this, Clawdia?” Elizabeth asked excitedly. “There is magic here. It’s not completely gone. The wards were here so long that the magic didn’t dissipate. It stayed in the earth.”
“Can you take it? Use it to perform another protection spell?” I asked. While I knew some spells from my time as Winnie’s familiar, I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to suggest something more helpful. I felt useless.
“I cannot and will not take it into myself, as Karin did. That is dark magic,” Elizabeth remarked sharply. “But I can hopefully use it to hide the homes and give anyone uninvited to the island a sense of impending doom and dread. They hopefully won’t stay long enough to discover our secrets.”
“That’s great!” I replied.
“But your help would be appreciated, too.”
“You want me to pour magic here?”
She raised an eyebrow, not understanding my hesitancy, but I pulled up my big-girl bloomers and put fear aside. This magic felt kind.
I’m sure it won’t hurt me. Please don’t hurt me.
On a slow release of breath, I visualized pushing out magic through my pores and directing it into the ground. In my mind’s eye, I saw it welcomed like the water of a creek meeting a river, like old friends embracing, and smiled as I realized there was no force which would grab and pull at my magic now. There was only joy.
I’d never understood the happiness Winnie got from being a witch and performing spells. For me, the spells we cast were draining, and the magic coming from me felt pulled. But giving it freely … Well, if performing magic felt like that, I could understand how addictive it could become.
“Perfect, Clawdia. You can stop now. This won’t take a moment.”
I opened my eyes to watch Elizabeth mumble. The surrounding sky suddenly darkened as gray and thunderous clouds rolled in from out of nowhere, and a sudden chill made me shiver.
Elizabeth’s chest heaved, and her voice rose as she poured her energy and directed the ward magic into the spell. But I couldn’t make out the words. Whatever she was saying, it seemed to work. The main house and the cabins at the bottom of the hill seemed to blink and fade in and out of the landscape like a holographic card.
When her eyes opened and rain splattered hard against my skin, she grinned. Her chest heaved from the exertion. “It should be safe for now. Let’s go.”
We raced down the hill to the harbor in time to see the ferry heading toward us, and by the time it reached the dock, we were both soaked through and the lake was swept into roaring waves by the wind. Shivering, we quickly boarded the boat, and the two men on the crew smiled sympathetically while handing us blankets. I snatched one like a pick-pocketing street urchin and wrapped myself in it while I resisted the urge to shift into my familiar form to get warm faster.
“How did you two end up out here?” The blue-eyed, blond-haired man asked in thickly accented English as he stared at us, suspicion clear on his face.
“We fell out of our boat and made it to this island. Thankfully, my phone didn’t get wet, and I was able to call for help. We’re so grateful to you for helping us. We wouldn’t have lasted long there with this storm,” Elizabeth simpered.
The blond man opened his mouth to say something, but a sharp look from his brown-haired colleague stopped him. The man offered us a kind smile and replied, “We’re just glad to have found you before something worse happened.”
“This storm seemed to appear just as suddenly as this island did.” The blond man raised his brow. “I’ve been driving ferries in this lake for many years, and I’ve never seen that island before.”
“It’s just not possible, Erik,” hissed the brunet, then he turned to us. “Ignore him.”
Erik looked across the water, his eyes squinting against the rain. “If sirens drown us, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
We weren’t drowned by sirens, since the storm and the island appearing were our doing, and we made it back to the mainland safely. The gentlemen let us go without any more interrogating, and although the day felt never-ending, Elizabeth collected a rental car, and we headed toward the last known address of her evil family.