Chapter 27 #2
"She thinks it is her coven key, but it isn't.” She stepped closer, and instinctively I braced. “Do you know what it is made of?”
I shook my head.
“A piece of the heavens.” Her tone dropped to reverence. “It keeps Philip from attaching to her. But it also will grant access to Kilryn.”
A chill crawled up my spine.
“How do you know all of this?” I asked.
Farris turned to Ezra, guilt tightening her jaw.
“This is the key you thought I had?” he asked, voice rough. “I heard that woman speaking to you about finding a key, and then you fucking robbed me.”
“It was supposed to go to you,” she answered. “But fate put it in Elowyn’s hands. Maybe it knew she’d be mated to a vyrak, and it would protect her. Especially since she has so much magic.”
I looked to Ezra, searching his expression for understanding, but his gaze was shadowed, unreadable. Farris knew too much. Either she was tangled deep in something dark, or she was far more dangerous than either of us realized.
“Philip and Loma know its capabilities, and they want it.” She looked back at me, her expression grave.
Who the fuck was Farris, and how did she know all this?
“What else does it do?” I asked.
Farris smiled faintly. “That is a conversation for another day, Abram. We need to go to Elowyn. Take us to the city of Falgon, close to where you found me.”
I hesitated, glancing between her and Ezra. He stepped closer, jaw set, and gave a single nod.
My star mist uncoiled, wrapping around us in a cool rush. A heartbeat later, the world shifted, and we were standing where Farris had been.
“Follow me.” She slipped her hood up and started toward the woods.
My heart pounded so hard it hurt. Excitement and dread warred inside me. I was about to see Elowyn again… but what if I was too late? What if her mating bond had already taken root?
My throat tightened at the thought. I couldn’t lose her. Not again.
The woods opened before us, quiet, almost sacred. I smiled faintly despite myself. The place reminded me of home. A small white cottage came into view, flowers blooming wild around the porch. My chest constricted. She was here. She had to be.
My boots pounded against the stone path as I ran past Farris and Ezra, desperate. When I reached the door, I stopped. My hands trembled as I ran them through my hair, trying to steady my racing heart.
I missed my wife.
Farris came up beside me and shoved the door open. The scent hit me first—Elowyn. Sweet, soft, unmistakable. My breath caught as I stepped inside. Every inch of the space screamed her.
It was small but warm, every detail thoughtful. Two rocking chairs faced the fire. I stared at them, aching at the thought that she might have sat there waiting for me.
“El?” Farris called out.
Her tone made me turn. She looked pale. Ezra’s body tensed beside me, his eyes scanning the space.
“What’s wrong?” Ezra asked Farris. “I can hear it in your voice.”
Guilt washed over her face before she exhaled shakily.
“She’s not here.”
My stomach dropped. “Okay, so she went to town to get something.” I said too quickly, trying to convince myself.
Farris shook her head. “No, she wouldn’t have left.
I went to town because we needed things, and I knew Philip was looking for her.
I didn’t want him to find her. But…” She looked around the space and grabbed something.
A note. “We’ve been getting odd notes, and she said someone was trying to hex her. She had a ward around the house.”
I snatched the note from her hand, scanning the words. My pulse roared in my ears.
“Who is leaving the notes?” I asked.
“Loma.” Farris looked at me. “Your mate.”
“I know who the hell Loma is. How do you know it’s her?”
Farris stepped closer, pointing at the slant in the handwriting.
“Loma writes like this. Trust me, I’ve seen enough of her writing to know. She had a hand injury a few years ago, and it made her letter slant.”
I stared at the note, bile rising in my throat.
“Why is Loma going after Elowyn? She knows Elowyn left me.”
“She knows you love Elowyn, for one. She also doesn’t really want a mate, and she doesn’t want Philip to have one either.
She thinks it will hinder their plan, especially since Philip is infatuated with Elowyn.
I think Loma can see that he is falling for El, and in some way, she’s jealous that he might fuck up their plans for her. ”
My heart twisted painfully. I shouldn’t ask, but the question burned through me anyway.
“And is Elowyn falling for Philip?” I looked up at Farris, barely breathing.
Farris’ gaze moved over me before a small smile tugged at her lips.
“She can’t. Her curse only lets her fall in love once, and she already fell for you.
Besides, she only went out with him because she thought maybe it would help her forget about you, but it hasn’t.
And her little wraith friend, Nyxthra, absolutely hates Philip.
Elowyn said she trusts her judgement and has been staying away. ”
Relief filled me at this news, warm and dizzying. My lungs finally remembered how to work. The idea of Elowyn trying to forget me burned, but the fact that she couldn’t made my chest ache with a bittersweet pulse of hope.
“So Loma took her then?” Ezra asked.
Farris shook her head. “No, Loma is not attached to anyone. She was going to take you or Abram to use as a host, but Abram is avoiding her, and she can’t get to you.” Farris looked at Ezra.
“Can’t get to me?” he asked.
She swallowed hard. Her hands fidgeted at her sides, like she was trying to hide the truth in her palms.
“My magic has a ward around you. Philip and Loma can’t get close to you without it hurting.”
Ezra’s eyes widened in shock, a flicker of disbelief breaking through his anger, but Farris looked back at me. She was protecting Ezra and had been for some time. The thought of her silently guarding him twisted something deep in my chest. Ezra was staring at her, utterly confused.
“Philip must have gotten to her.”
“But there’s a ward,” I said.
She nodded slowly, eyes glossy. “But he is attached to my magic. He can break the ward with it, so he must have been waiting for me to leave. Or maybe he didn’t even know I was here. I was careful to cover my tracks. All I wanted to do was protect Elowyn from him.”
I tilted my head to the side and watched Farris for a moment. My gaze locked on her, assessing, maybe even dissecting, the woman who seemed to know too much, care too much. My attention made her freeze before she shrank back into herself like she wished she could vanish into the floorboards.
“I want to know why you care about Elowyn when you hardly know her.”
Farris began pacing around like my question was a wound she didn’t want reopened. Her fingers twisted at her sleeves, her steps uneven. But I didn’t look away. I waited.
“She is important to you. You are important to Ezra. Which makes you important to me. Besides, I was told the woman with death and fate clinging to her would be important to me.”
“Important in which way?” I asked.
She swallowed hard, the sound catching like a stone in her throat. She looked around like she was looking for an excuse. But I saw the defeat in her eyes when she couldn’t come up with one.
“You are Ezra’s best friend and Elowyn’s your wife.” I could see she was struggling with something as tears formed in her eyes. “And I’m Ezra’s mate. Elowyn is supposed to be my best friend.”
The air in the cottage shrank, pulled taut like the world itself had forgotten how to breathe. The walls trembled, faintly shaking from the storm of energy outside, the pulse of Ezra’s power leaking through.
Ezra wasn’t moving. He didn’t even look like he was breathing. His eyes swirled crimson as he stared at Farris. She wasn’t looking at him, as if terrified to see what her confession had turned him into.
My heart broke for my best friend. He thought she didn’t know, he thought all this time he’d been reaching for something just out of his grasp. Farris finally lifted her gaze to me before slowly turning to face him.
His eyes glistened as he watched her.
“How long have you known?” he asked, his voice dangerously quiet.
“Since before you did.” Her admission made him jerk backward as if she’d struck him. “That's why I came to your island. That is why I followed you in Crimson."
Ezra shook his head, disbelief cracking through the fury in his voice.
“And you still left me.” His face tightened. “You knew… that’s why you didn’t take my star when I gave it to you. You were rejecting me.”
“No.” She stepped toward him, shaking her head as tears trembled on her lashes. “I wasn’t rejecting you, but yes, I knew the significance of the star, and I couldn’t accept it at that time.”
“Well now you’ll never fucking get it,” he sneered, the words sharp, breaking. He stepped forward, eyes narrowing on her. “Use your truth magic on me and you’ll feel that I mean that with every fiber of my godsdamn soul.”
Farris hesitated, then shrank back from him. “You’re telling the truth.”
She started crying. All the emotions she’d been holding in erupted at once. Her shoulders shook violently, sobs tearing through the air until it felt like even the walls flinched. Ezra just stood there, completely shattered.
“Please, I know how this seems. But you don’t understand!” she yelled.
Gods, the power rolling off her cracked through the air, making the lamps flicker and the floorboards groan. Her grief, or maybe her anger, whatever storm she was conjuring, made me realize how powerful she truly was.
“The gods are not the only ones who have a fucking duty. Some of us don’t get a choice.
You think I wanted to leave you? I was told to stay away from you, not to get attached, and I didn’t listen.
Because I was selfish. Because I had followed you for weeks before you found me on the island, Ezra.
Because I fell in love with you before you ever said a word to me.
“I was told to stay back because it would hurt both of us. Because I had things I had to do and that would mean I had to leave you. So I’m sorry that I couldn’t listen to the warning.
But I do not regret it. Even having you for a short time was better than listening to my mother and staying the fuck away from you! ”
Her voice cracked into rawness, and she was choking on her sobs by the end. Ezra just stared at her—silent, broken, unreachable.
“I’ve done all of this because I love you,” she whispered. “I couldn’t stay away, and now I understand that I probably should’ve because all I’ve done is hurt you with every decision I have to make.”
Ezra stared at her, and I didn’t recognize him anymore. There was a blankness in his eyes, a hollow disbelief like something inside him had gone dark. She turned away when she realized he wasn’t going to answer, that maybe he couldn’t.
Farris stilled before moving toward the kitchen and picking up a bloodied knife. Fuck, whose blood was that?
“He must have her at the house.” She told me. “But if he does, she didn’t go willingly.”
Gods, that thought pissed me off. Rage burned like acid under my ribs. Without a word, I used my magic to take us to Philip’s home.
Ezra stood off to the side, still distant, his gaze unfocused, his body moving on instinct alone.
I frowned, wanting to reach him but knowing I couldn’t right now.
My attention shifted toward the looming house ahead.
I could feel Elowyn inside. Her magic pulsed wild and uncontrolled, like a scream without sound.
Then a shadowy figure appeared in front of me. I jerked back when it lifted its hand and brushed my face with an icy touch.
“Nyxthra,” I whispered.
And I swore I felt her smile.