Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
T he icy brush of Elijah’s wards swept over Kade as he followed Liam into the room where they’d been storing the trapped spirits. Dozens of wooden boxes were stacked along the walls. The room itself was heavily warded, so if something were to happen and the spirits got out of those boxes, they couldn’t escape into the pack house.
It was impressive to see all the spirits they’d captured, all the work they’d done. Most of the boxes were the ones that fit on the palm of a hand, but a few were larger, and the two chests were there as well—one freshly made and one Kade remembered from his childhood. He swore the latter radiated a malice that squeezed his lungs. He inhaled deeply, getting a good hit of Liam’s scent, then turned away and scanned the labels on the boxes.
The spirits from Victor’s territory had specific labels, while those from Grant’s contained a lot of question marks. For the stronger spirits, there were guesses as to what they might have been, otherwise, they had descriptions of what they looked like and how they acted.
Liam placed his hands on his hips and stared at the boxes. “What should we try first?”
They’d been experimenting with destroying various binding contracts over the last few days, Liam’s skill and confidence growing until he was ready to move on to a spirit.
“It should be small,” he said. “In these boxes, they’ve been cut off from their source of energy, but the larger ones might somehow maintain the strength they had, which would likely make them harder to destroy.”
Kade nodded.
“Ideally,” Liam continued, “we should pick something that won’t cause too much damage if it does get free and escapes the workroom.”
That made sense. The last thing they needed was a spirit escaping while they were attempting to destroy it, especially if it was roaming free so close to the pack.
“Would it be better to do this outside?” Kade asked.
“That would be safer. I’d rather have it escape into the forest than the house, but also, it’s getting cold. I could cast a heating spell in the area to warm it up while I work, but those take a fair amount of magic to maintain for any extended period, and I’ll need most of my magic for this.”
“Should we do it here instead of in the workroom? Inside Elijah’s wards?”
Liam considered that, then grimaced. “No. When a spell backfires, unpredictable things can happen, and I don’t want to take any chances in here.”
“So the workroom it is, but we find the most innocuous spirit we’ve captured so far.”
“Exactly.”
“At least we aren’t lacking options.”
It was a hard decision to make. There was no way in hell they were touching the lust spirit, that was certain, but everything they’d trapped was nasty in its own right. Though, Kade supposed, it was probably too much to ask for a spirit of happiness to be mixed in with the shit they’d captured.
In the end, they settled on annoyance and took the box to the workroom.
Kade helped Liam scrub the floor clean, then watched him draw a new circle similar to the last, with a smaller circle in the middle where the box would be placed.
“The outer circle will hopefully help keep the spirit contained if it does escape,” Liam explained. “It’s not remotely close to what Elijah could do, but it should slow it down.”
He finished his preparations with many of the objects he’d been using while breaking the binding contracts, then added more, explaining their symbolism to Kade. Black tourmaline to expel negative energy, wormwood for exorcism and protection, and hyssop for purification. The sachets of oak, ash, cedar, and elder—each selected for its ability to protect from, ward off, or banish evil spirits—had Kade biting his cheek to keep from asking Liam if he’d enjoyed handling all that wood. Liam eyed him suspiciously as he placed the little bags around the circle, like he knew exactly what Kade wasn’t saying.
They sat facing each other, the box between them. Liam drew intricate sigils on it with charcoal, starting on its top and then sweeping down the sides until the design flowed onto the floor. Each sigil was beautiful and unique, a tiny piece of art meticulously copied from his notes.
Liam held his hands out, palms up, and Kade placed his over them. He nearly sighed at being able to touch Liam again. It had only been a few hours since he’d woken up wrapped around Liam, but it had still been too long. It was always too long.
Magic fluttered against his skin, an electric hum Kade wanted more of. He wanted that feeling against his entire body as they moved together. The tattoos on his chest kindled to a pleasant, warm tingling, but he shook himself and tried to focus.
He sensed Liam opening himself up completely to Kade, and energy surged out of him and into Liam, like it belonged to Liam as much as it belonged to him, like it wanted to fulfill Liam’s every request and desire. But as soon as it filled Liam, it flowed back, now woven with Liam’s magic, making Kade impossibly stronger because of it, then it swirled into Liam again.
Liam let out a shaky exhale. He’d been keeping his use of Kade’s energy to just what he needed, but Kade would willingly give him everything. Liam never took this much. Only with the nightmare spirit had he used more, and they’d been too distracted by the horrors around them to feel the full effects.
Liam’s breathing accelerated, his heartbeat pounding loud enough for Kade to hear, but he had control. Kade sensed that too, sensed how confident Liam was becoming that he could handle Kade’s energy, that he could work with it and not be carried away by it, not lose himself in it. Even as arousing as it was, as pleasurable as the rush between them felt.
How someone channeling his energy could feel better than most of the sex he’d had, Kade couldn’t begin to fathom, but it was bliss like he’d never experienced before. Once more, his mind wandered to what it would be like to have Liam using his energy as he moved in Liam, knotted Liam, or as Liam fucked him.
“It’s difficult to concentrate when you’re thinking whatever it is you’re thinking,” Liam said. “And I really need to concentrate to do this.”
Whoops .
“Sorry. Can’t help it, but I will attempt to keep my thoughts semi-PG.”
“Appreciated.” Liam shifted how he was sitting, and Kade carefully didn’t think about how turned-on he smelled. That wouldn’t be PG in the slightest.
Liam gathered himself, then began.
Kade watched in fascination as the sigils and circle sparked to life; a subtle illumination that increased in intensity as Liam fed more magic into the spell. The box itself started to glow—a red-hot ember in a fire.
Magic was thick in the air, to the point Kade felt like he wasn’t breathing oxygen anymore. Every breath was nothing but magic and energy, their entwined essence filling his lungs.
Liam kept working, sweat beading on his brow. He poured energy into the box, and it grew brighter and brighter, blindingly so. It seemed as if no more magic or energy could be contained in such a small object, that it had to be destroyed under the weight of it all.
For one moment, the world narrowed down to that box.
Then, it exploded.
It struck Kade like a blow to the chest, the force of it knocking him back, his hands slipping out of Liam’s. The air was punched from their lungs as the box shattered, sending shock waves through the room. He was tossed to the edge of the outer circle, blinded and disoriented, his ears ringing. He blinked, trying to regain his sight. His awareness of his surroundings returned one sense at a time.
The iron tang of blood, both Liam’s and his own, hit him first. Splinters of wood had left stinging cuts on their skin. Their harsh gasps echoed loudly off the walls, and the afterimage of the explosion faded enough to allow him to see Liam. He’d been flung to the other side of the circle. His sweater was torn and ripped. Blood dripped from a gash on his cheek.
When Liam’s eyes focused again, his attention wasn’t on Kade; it was on the space between them.
Kade wrenched his gaze away from Liam, and when he did, he cursed. A ball of light hovered in the circle. It pulsed, turning from a pale yellow to a harsh orange with each throbbing beat.
His movements sluggish and slow, Liam dragged himself from where he’d been sprawled and grabbed a spare box. After he activated the seal inside, the spirit was trapped easily. He slammed the lid shut and latched it, then collapsed to the floor, panting. He rolled his head over to look at Kade.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Fine,” Liam said, though his voice was reedy. He huffed. “Well, that clearly didn’t work. We need to figure something else out, but I don’t have enough magic right now to try anything on this level again.”
Kade had no doubt about that. Liam had used quite a bit of his energy. If he did another spell like that, it would leave Kade’s reserves lower than was advisable. Kade didn’t love the idea of letting himself get that drained unless it was absolutely necessary.
“I’ve never had a spell backfire that spectacularly before.” Liam pushed himself up to sit, looking shaken.
“What went wrong? I mean, apart from the exploding.”
Liam’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know, but if I had to guess, it would be that the connection between the box and the spirit was too weak to bind the spirit while the box was being destroyed.”
“Can you bind it more securely?”
Liam paused, considering that, then said, “I’ll have to. The main difference between the binding contracts we were experimenting with and this is that the contracts use a signature of blood to bind the oath into the contract itself. It seals it into the paper. However, with the boxes, the seal binds the spirit to them like a suction cup. To the box, not into the wood. So when the box is destroyed, the spirit is able to escape.”
“Can you seal the spirits into the box?”
“Not with how they’re currently in there. Maybe…” Liam squinted at the box like it would give him answers.
Kade sensed him moving pieces around in his head, slotting them together, until there was a flickering spark. Not quite a light-bulb moment, but the start of one.
Liam reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “I’m sending Aran a message. He recently did this thing with infusing his magic into water. I wonder if…” He paused, typing furiously, and Kade was left hanging, waiting for the second half of that sentence.
Finally, Liam glanced up. “Oh, sorry. We think it might be possible, if we know what the spirits are, to infuse them in blood, then use that blood to sign a contract in the name of that spirit and destroy it. It’ll be a pain in the ass and too many steps, and it wouldn’t help with the spirits we never identified. Plus it’ll take a ridiculous amount of energy, so we’ll have to do them individually, but maybe that will work.” He didn’t sound convinced.
“Do we have any other options?”
“I’ll keep trying to think of something, but for now, this is all we’ve got.” Liam was a snarl of frustration in Kade’s mind.
“You okay?” Kade asked.
Liam gave him a tight smile. “I’m fine.”
Right. Of course he was fine. He was always fine.
Kade pushed himself to his feet with a groan. “Well, I’m exhausted, and if there’s nothing else we can do here, I could use a change of scenery.”
“A change of scenery?”
“Yeah. Grab a book. I want to go for a drive.”
Liam looked ready to protest, but Kade cut him off.
“Can you do any more magic today? Whether working on this or capturing spirits?”
“No.” Liam sighed. “If I’m going to try something like this tomorrow, I shouldn’t.”
“Perfect. Then let’s go.”
Liam felt vaguely unsure about the whole thing, but after they got cleaned up, he picked out two books and settled into the passenger seat as Kade pulled away from the house. In minutes, he was engrossed in whatever grimoire he’d gotten from the attic, the sharp edge of perceived failure softening into a gentle contentment.
Kade drove aimlessly along rural highways, managing to double the journey to Lost Creek and timing it so he was pulling into a little parking lot as Liam finished his book.
Liam blinked like he’d forgotten where he was, then leaned forward and read the wooden sign on the building in front of them.
“Lost Creek Library?”
Kade shrugged. “In case you’re feeling homesick.”
“Contrary to what some people might say, I do not actually live at the library. I have an apartment.”
“Which are you at more? The library?”
“Define more.”
“I’m taking that as a yes.”
Liam side-eyed him, but didn’t argue.
Inside the library, it didn’t take them long to wind through the handful of shelves.
“You were only exaggerating slightly when you said this place was a single half-full bookshelf of farmer’s almanacs, weren’t you?” Liam kept his voice to a library-appropriate whisper.
“I submitted an anonymous suggestion that they needed a gay paranormal romance section, but for some reason, it hasn’t materialized yet. My fingers are still crossed it’ll show up.”
“One shelf of almanacs, one of children’s books, one of local history, and one exclusively for gay manchests?”
“It’s important to have balance in the world, and they certainly wouldn’t be the first books in here about plowing.”
Liam snorted. “I’m sure they’d contain many tips on how to plant your seed.” He winced. “I didn’t just say that.”
“Of course not. I heard nothing about emptying a big sack full of seed and spreading it all over. You’d never say anything of the sort.”
Liam was fighting back a smile, their bond shimmering with amusement.
They exited the tiny building, and Liam took a deep breath. “Thanks. I didn’t realize how stressed I was getting. It’s been so frustrating that I haven’t found anything directly related to how to destroy these spirits.”
“We’ll figure it out. Even if it means me reading hundreds of boring books with zero spice in them, we’ll figure it out.”
Liam’s determination seemed to solidify. “We will, and I’ll do my best to save you from the horrors of spiceless books.”
Kade grinned at him. “And if you decide you’d like something spicier than your usual—”
“I’m still good, thanks.”
“And it’s still your loss.”
The drive home was peaceful. Liam read the second book he’d brought, and Kade took the time to mull over their situation.
Liam was kind of amazing. He was intelligent and good-looking and smelled so achingly perfect, but Kade didn’t have a clue how to make a move on him.
This differed from anything he’d done before. This mattered. He couldn’t use any of the moves he usually did—he didn’t want Liam to think it was just about sex. Realistically, he knew they needed to talk. He’d had the urge to strangle more than a few characters who refused to confess to their love interest for so long it became painful. Miscommunication was high on his list of the worst tropes ever. But he’d also hate to make Liam uncomfortable.
What if he laid his heart out, and Liam wasn’t interested, regardless of what their scents said? It wasn’t like mages cared about scents. And then they’d have to stay bonded for another month or more, while Kade continued to fall pathetically, helplessly in love with Liam, and Liam had no desire to stay in a relationship with him. Plus, Liam was so focused on destroying the spirits, and Kade shouldn’t distract him from that.
He realized he was making excuses and catastrophizing, but that didn’t mean he knew what he should do. He dwelled on it the entire drive and still had no answers by the time he pulled up to the pack house.
After dinner, instead of their new nightly ritual of reading in bed, Liam disappeared with his friends to hash out the details of their next step.
Although they were in separate rooms, Kade felt Liam lighting up in a way he’d come to associate with Liam creating things, the brightness of him working on a theory.
Kade couldn’t imagine how dull his own head would be without that spot of light inside him.