Three Moons Later
Idipped the soiled bandage in the pot of sterilizing alcohol and then tossed it on the fire. Wiping my hands on my apron, I returned to the woman on my treatment table. “Let me know if it keeps ailing you, Kelcy. Say hello to Amber for me, and maybe get her help next time you decide to climb down a giant beanstalk.”
The woman gave a spirited laugh. “I’m a klutz no matter how much help she gives me. Thanks for fixing me up. Again.”
My smile lingered while I cleaned up after my last patient of the day. Being able to help people was making me happier than I’d ever been. That, and the incredibly sexy man who’d helped me set up this little clinic beside the cottage. I hummed softly as I worked until a shadow darkened my door.
“Got time for one more, witchling?” Wolf limped in the door.
“Wolf. You’re hurt!”
He hobbled to my table while I hurried over. “Only the pain of missing you all day, kitten.” He winked, but he was a lying liar because his teeth clenched in a grimace as he sat down and held his leg out.
Wolf and I had moved into the cottage once we tore ourselves away from the enclave and all the memories there. We’d spent the past three moons ripping everything of Grandma Ruby’s out of the place and rebuilding it. I didn’t mind the long hours or hard work. I loved life with Wolf.
“What happened?”
“I stepped in a hole while I was checking my traps. I just need my love to kiss it better.”
I did kiss him, but on the lips instead of his swollen ankle, then I bent to take care of that too.
As soon as my magic had fully returned, we’d gone to visit the nearby village where several of the others had settled. I’d finally been able to heal Bob the rest of the way and mended Hawk’s broken arm. He was excited to try shifting again now that he wouldn’t have a broken wing. Most of them were finding their feet there, though a few more had decided to set out to see if they could find their old lives. Robin and Bear were still there, though. She wore the green hood with pride to greet me when I’d walked up in the red one that now felt like mine.
“I was right about it being good camouflage,” Robin had told me on our last visit. When I’d asked what she meant, she got shifty and would only say, “I’m helping people who need it, that’s all.”
I’d decided it was better not to know the details, sort of like I was happier to ignore the criminal side of Locke’s smuggling when it resulted in me having enough emeralds to leave healing gem casts with our friends when we left. The lands near Aglonbriar Forest were still a dangerous place, and I liked knowing they could at least heal small wounds without having to come to me.
Not that I minded visitors. After the first few sought me out, more and more had started to come as word spread of the Emerald Witch and her healing powers. The cottage became a place for people to get help.
I healed all sorts. There were wounds inflicted by the beasts that were still being hunted down—the ones too far gone to ever be human again—and all sorts of construction and farming injuries as people worked to rebuild communities that had withered under the curse. I treated illnesses and the effects of malnutrition from all the annums when Anterrans had struggled to grow enough food under the shroud of the Mist. One by one, I undid damage done by my family.
Even Jade came to me, begging me to “heal” her. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing wrong with her appearances except that her magic no longer worked to make her look as pretty as she wanted. The initial warts had worn off, but she had flawed skin, her hair wasn’t as full and bouncy as it had been, and her cheeks were no longer full enough to hide the darkness under her eyes. In short, she was normal.
“Sorry, sister, I’ve helped all I can. When you learn to consider others, you’ll have full access to your magic again. It’s all up to you. There’s nothing I can do. Would you like some treacle tarts to take back to Father?”
Oh, the look of horror on her face…! Wolf had laughed himself silly after she left.
“There, all better,” I said, patting his leg.
He hopped down from the table and took me in his arms. “How will I ever thank you? I don’t think I can pay, but I’m sure I can think of something.” His filthy wink and growly voice shot pure heat through me, and I didn’t need any convincing to lock up the clinic for the night and drag my sexy wolf back to the cottage for some proper attention.
I only wished I could heal everything as easily as a sprained ankle. As far as I could tell, the only limit to my healing was matters of the heart and the head. I couldn’t restore memories or cure the lingering sadness that plagued many people after so long living under the oppressive Mist. Only time could do that. And love.
The other thing I still couldn”t heal was myself. Not even the blisters on my hands from digging the new garden Amber came to help me grow. If all magic came at a price, this was one I would gladly pay. I didn”t need magic for myself when I already had all that I could want in the man who dragged me through the door and then pinned me against it. Wolf claimed my mouth with hot breath and a forceful slide of his tongue, and I gave him all of me, loving every second of his hard body against me and his woodsy scent surrounding me.
He’d given me so much. He’d built the clinic so I could help more people and still have space for us to be alone. He made me feel powerful and useful every day, and he kissed me like he wanted me every time we saw each other. No matter what he was doing, when Wolf saw me, he would drop his work and stride over. He’d kiss me once, hard and claiming, no matter who else was around, and then again, softer, reminding me that there was more to him than the protective wolf. He was kind and good. And he was mine.
Which was why I knew something was missing.
It wasn’t us. I had everything I needed in him, and he loved me with all his big heart in return.
But in spite of our idyllic life, I could tell Wolf wasn”t settled. Whether it was the cottage, Grandma Ruby”s grave and memories, or a larger lingering imprint of the Mist and all he’d lost and survived, it was too much for that big heart to fully heal.
My magic couldn’t make him forget any more than I could make him remember. Wolf assured me he was perfectly happy, so it was only when I caught him staring into the shadows that I worried.
“You have that determined look about you, witchling,” he teased before nipping at my throat. “Is it just about getting me into bed, or something more? Because you should know by now, I”m a sure thing.”
I laughed and hooked my arms around his waist. “I do want that. But I want to talk to you first.”
“Sounds ominous.”
“No, nothing like that. It”s just, I know you”re not comfortable here. Don”t deny it. I know you, Wolf.”
He sighed into my shoulder. “I suppose you do. But never think I”m not happy. I love you, Emi.”
“It’s because I love you too that I can tell you need more than this. We may never know who you were before the curse, but I want to find out everything you can do now. We should see what more is out there.”
Wolf looked around at the walls of the small cottage. “Where would we go?”
”Anywhere. The world is ours. Right now, I particularly want to visit the bedroom, but maybe after that, we can think beyond these walls.”
“Mmm. That sounds very good to me.” Wolf scooped me up like I weighed nothing, as if nothing could hold him down now that a weight had lifted off him. We smiled at each other giddily all the way to the bed, and for a long time after. No matter where we went, we’d be happy together.
At the sound of Emi’s shriek, I dropped the shovel and raced to the front of the cottage. I rounded the corner in time to see the woman who set my heart racing fling herself at another figure. Protective instincts burned through me until I realized the shouts were of delight. Red and blonde hair met in an exuberant mess of arms and Emi’s elated cry.
“Jules! What are you doing here? You’re in Anterra!” Emi held the blonde woman.
There was a man too, muscular with dark skin and hair and a confident stance that told me he could handle himself. He hung back, though, not an immediate threat. My instincts assessed quickly, but I strode the rest of the way more relaxed when there didn’t seem to be anything wrong.
The blonde woman was no shrinking violet either. So this was Juliet. The woman who’d taught my feisty tigress to wield a blade so proficiently. I wouldn”t underestimate her or her companion.
“I heard the Mist was gone. I wasn’t sure whether to believe it,” Juliet said.
“Believe it.” I joined them, taking Emi’s hand in mine. I lifted it and pressed a kiss to the centre of her palm. “All thanks to this one.”
Juliet measured me with sharp blue eyes. “I’m guessing this is Wolf.”
“The man, the monster, the legend.” I winked at her and caught the big man’s muscles tense. Oho! It was like that, was it?
Juliet was a beautiful woman, but he had nothing to worry about. I was a one-witch man.
That witch smiled at me and answered her friend by introducing us properly, then she asked again, “Why are you here, Jules?”
“It’s time for me to fix what I ran from. But I need your help. It’s time Crestborn fief got out from under my wicked stepfather’s control.”
Juliet was the rightful heir to Crestborn manor. Emi had told me as much.
“But I can’t stay,” Juliet finished. She glanced to her companion and when she spoke again, there was a tender note. “I’ll be returning to Zocere.”
“What do you need, Jules? You know I’ll help any way I can.” Emi led with kindness as always, and my heart swelled with love for her.
“I was hoping you’d say that. I keep tabs on Anterra. Locke brings me news and I have other sources, and when I heard about the curse breaking I knew it was you. I need someone I can trust to rebuild Crestborn fief and my family name. When you left, you felt similarly about the Brightbane name, and from what I’ve been hearing, you’re making great strides in restoring it. I hoped you’d help me do the same.”
Emi’s brows knitted together. “What are you asking?”
“The people need help, exactly the kind you could offer,” Juliet declared. “Be my Lady in Trust of Crestborn fief, Emi. With your helping magic and knowledge of the curse, you”re the perfect person to set to right all the trouble it caused. Plus, I trust you.”
Emi’s mouth dropped open. She looked to me, but I controlled my reaction, thinking of our conversation the other night. If we were to leave this place, it had to be her decision. I wouldn”t let her see how the thought of a fresh start somewhere excited me. Not just anywhere either. There would be farms to revive now that crops could grow once more, abandoned places to rebuild so families could live there again, and people who needed assistance. I could be useful.
It was everything I wished I could have done for my family here, though I only ever managed a shadow of it with the enclave. I practically craved the way my muscles would ache after a good day”s work.
“We need to talk about it,” she told Juliet. The other woman nodded and took the arm of the man. He still hadn’t said a word.
Emi sent them into the cottage with instructions to help themselves to the tea she’d been setting out for us.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Emi stepped into the circle of my arms. She was smiling. “This could be it.”
“Is it something you’d want?”
“The people I”ve been helping are coming from farther and farther away now. I”ve done what I needed to here, and don”t think I missed how your eyes lit up. I wasn”t sure where we would go or what we were waiting for, but this sounds perfect, don”t you think?”
“I think you’d be amazing at it.”
“We could help even more people there.” Emi already had that look of fierce determination.
“I love you.”
“I know. Because I”m great,” she said with an infectious enthusiasm that brought out my laugh.
We’d both come far. I couldn”t imagine a future without Emi. I wanted to be hers forever.
Excitement thrummed through me at the thought of this new adventure with Emi at my side. I hadn’t been ready before, but my witchling had healed my heart more than I realized. I was ready to start a lifetime with her.
She caught me smiling later that night as I was packing some of our things. Coming up behind me, she wrapped her arms around my waist. “It makes me happy to see you excited about something again.”
I turned in her arms so I could cup her face in my hands and give her a gentle kiss. “There are a lot of people out there who will need help, and it feels good to know we”ll get to do something about it from a position where we can make real change.”
“You know, I think you”d make rather a dashing Lord.”
“Oh? Is that your way of asking to marry me, my Lady?” I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed her knuckles. “Because I rather planned to ask you when the time is right.”
“You can ask, but you should know…” Emi winked at me. “I’m a sure thing.”
“Oh, I’m aware,” I said with the dirtiest grin I could muster.
The woman I was going to marry someday blushed the prettiest shade of pink, but she didn’t pull away. “Then when that time comes, we’ll host a celebration, get to know the residents of Crestborn fief better and give them some joy back in their lives.” She tucked tighter up against me. “And we’ll send word to all your family and Amber, too, and gather everyone we love together for a wedding.”
“That sounds perfect,” I told her and kissed her softly again, blinking back the sting in my eyes at the beautiful image she conjured.
She cocked her head at me. “You know…When we met, you were rather convinced that you were this big, bad wolf, undeserving of love or forgiveness, but you always surprise me with what a big heart you have.”
Smiling down at the woman I loved more than life, who impossibly loved me in return, there was only one thing I could say.
“All the better to love you with, my dear.”
~