Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
Seth’s innate magic crackled against my skin when he walked into the kitchen.
I’d lived among shifters for a while now, and while I’d never been afraid of them, I stayed wary.
After everything, and the time I’d spent among Rowan’s people, I realized shifters were like me, like the fae, and occasionally like the humans walking among us.
Most of us were just doing our best to get by.
Things had changed for me in ways I would not have been able to comprehend a few years ago. I’d always been considered a hybrid, though I kept what I knew of my heritage mostly under wraps, but now I had one more thing living under my skin.
Living being the key word. Fee’s presence lay in my heart now. Those still standing that fateful day watched her sacrifice to save Evie’s mate and the other Lord, but Fee had chosen to give her last gift of magic to me—an act I still struggled with.
Why had a phoenix found me worthy? What could I possibly do to show Fee her gift was not in vain?
She wasn’t quite dead. Her conscience or whatever was left in her lived inside me, The feeling was…odd. Fee didn’t speak to me, but her purpose—to heal and to grant immortality—lived on inside me.
I knew I could heal. Ethan had found that out when I was on Keep property, though he assumed it was a quirk of my mixed magic.
Shifters had always pegged an oddness about my scent.
Whether I could grant immortality was still up in the air.
If I could, I’d need to be extremely careful to keep the information to a trusted and select few.
Fee had urged me a few times, steering me toward select people, but I’d managed to resist so far.
My magic was a mixed bag. I had a deft hand with potions and charmed teas, could pull objects and fae through the realms, sort of similar to Evie’s bridge powers, but with a whole lot more of a dramatic entrance, and now I could heal.
And maybe grant immortality.
Talk about a conversation starter. Yeesh.
Seth snagged a seat at the kitchen island and watched me shove snacks into the cold bag. We shouldn’t be gone for too long, but you never knew. Witches were tricky even on a good day, and these sounded worse than usual.
“We gonna be gone for a week?” Seth asked, amusement simmering in his dark eyes.
“I’m expecting something to go wrong,” I answered honestly. “I’d rather be safe than sorry, and you two eat like starving lions.”
Seth grunted. “Don’t let Soren hear you compare us to cats.”
I rolled my eyes and stuffed another loaf of bread in the bag. “Is he almost done out there? We should get going soon.”
Seth’s lips twitched. “Should be. He had to take a phone call.”
I turned to hide my grimace. I’d bet my left big toe he was on the phone with Ethan. He texted me as soon as I walked inside asking for a status update. When I told him what the real deal was with the witches, I could almost hear his fury snapping via the cell towers.
“Hope everything is okay,” I said lightly.
Seth let out a hoot of laughter. “You know exactly who he’s speaking to.”
“I shall neither confirm nor deny.”
The front door slammed open a few seconds later. Soren stomped in, stopped in the kitchen, saw me and Seth, and looked at the bag. His expression was drawn and there was a tension to the set of his jaw.
“Moira’s packing for an Everest excursion,” Seth said cheerfully.
Soren’s brows drew together. He flicked open the bag and snorted. “Expecting trouble, Moira dear?”
“With you involved? Absolutely.”
Seth laughed out loud. Soren reached over and tweaked my nose. “I have an extra heavy jacket on the hook by the back door. Grab it before we leave.”
“I don’t need your jacket.”
Soren shrugged. “Don’t take it then. Seth and I both see you trying not to shiver even when you’re indoors.”
I shot him an annoyed glare before turning to see the heavy down jacket right where he said it would be.
Dammit. That looked extremely warm. My intolerance to the cold was becoming an issue.
I was part-vampire. I should be rolling around in the snow naked laughing with glee about how the weather never affected me.
Instead, I’d taken to wearing fingerless gloves and pretending I was a rich heiress who absolutely must wear cashmere all the time.
Ethan kept me in merino wool and cashmere all the time when I was there and had gone so far as to carelessly leave cardigans slung over the backs of chairs and his couches when I inevitably forgot to wear one.
I squashed thoughts of him down. Remembering how caring he was only made it hurt more when I left.
I had to remember to take the man as he was, not how I wanted him to be.
If he wanted to keep me in expensive warm clothing all the time, I wouldn’t begrudge him.
Male shifters were biologically inclined to care for the females in their lives.
While I wasn’t one of his, we were linked through Evie and Rowan, and through our own experience with each other. For better or worse, Ethan chose to care for me in his own way, and I wouldn’t reject those gestures just because I had a crush on him I couldn’t shake.
“Thank you,” I grumbled.
Soren’s slight smile pissed me off, but the man had offered me a jacket, and I wasn’t fool enough to say no.
Seth rose and stretched, his shirt riding up just enough to expose a sliver of well-muscled abdomen. He caught me looking and grinned.
I laughed. “Not blind, Seth. Just not interested.”
“The day is still young.”
Soren yanked his jacket from the hook and tossed the heavier one to me. “Let’s go. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can resolve this.”
“Good with me.” I shrugged the jacket on.
Once we were outside, Soren took the bag of food from me and slung it over his shoulder. Seth had a smaller backpack filled with extra clothing in case of a necessary shift.
“Should we wager a little something?” I asked, staring at the stunning display of color peeking through the mountains. “If I make it there first, next time you’re in Rowan’s area, you’ll buy me a nice dinner and a pretty pair of diamond earrings.”
Soren slid me the side-eye. “You think you’re going to win?”
I lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Fifty-fifty.”
Actually, the odds were much higher than that. I was fast as hell now. Genetics, training with Garrett and Ethan, and my odd magic had lent me insane speed. But these shifters didn’t need to know what I could do yet.
“And if we win?” Seth asked, dark eyes glittering as he studied me.
“What do you want?”
When his grin edged toward the wicked side, I held a hand up. “Keep it strictly PG.”
Seth sighed. “Every party has a pooper.”
Soren studied me, a thoughtful look on his face. “A date.”
All the amusement fled from my body.
“Soren,” Seth warned quietly.
“You’d benefit from this, too,” he growled.
Seth shook his head. “Moira, you don’t have to—”
A slow, savage smile tipped my lips up. Seth and Soren both blinked. “Done, with a caveat. If I win, I want a pair of Tiffany diamond earrings, at least half a carat, in platinum, and dinner. Alone.”
Seth’s brows inched up toward his hairline.
Soren leaned forward, his teeth bared. “I’ll make it even better. I’ll get you whatever you like from Tiffany. No budget.”
I blinked. Vampires, like other immortals, had to be good with money. We lived too long to squander our cash. I’d saved enough to never have to work again if I didn’t want to, but I wasn’t whatever I wanted to buy at Tiffany’s. My eyes narrowed. “What’s the catch?”
“If I win, we go for a weekend away.”
My heart lurched. If we went away for an entire weekend, the thing might end in bloodshed. Huh. Maybe not a bad thing.
Seth cleared his throat. “Uh. What about me?”
I snorted. “You get one, too, Sethy boy.”
“Hoo,” Seth murmured. “Sold. Though I do not have Tiffany’s money, Soren. I’ll buy her dinner. You gotta take the earring debt on.”
But Soren wasn’t paying attention to Seth. “Do we have a deal?”
“I don’t know where we’re going,” I said.
“Seth has a map. He’ll direct you, but you’ll know when we get close. You’ll smell them.”
That did not sound good. Was he talking about their blood or their magic?
“There’s a huge oak about a hundred yards from their wards. You can’t miss it. First to touch wins.” Soren’s eyes glimmered with the thrill of the hunt. “I ask again, do we have a deal?”
I could win. I knew I could. Seth had turned to gaze in the direction we were going, his eyes narrowed as if he were calculating the odds, too.
“I pick the place.”
Soren nodded. “No budget.”
“No touching.”
Soren’s eyes narrowed. “Touching is allowed if you ask me.”
I wouldn’t. “Okay.”
Seth dug the map out of his pocket.
“No shifting to wolf form,” I added.
“Alright.” He was staring at me so intently I felt like squirming.
Seth held the map out and pointed to a spot. I carefully examined the route, taking careful note of topography and potentially impassable points, most of which I knew wouldn’t be visible on a map.
This would be a challenge. On one hand, I’d love the chance to show Soren up. On the other…spending a weekend with him would be torture. No matter what Soren said or did, we couldn’t go back to where we were. Especially not after knowing some of the things he’d done.
Part of me empathized with the witches. We weren’t sure he was the reason they were here, but I didn’t believe in coincidences. Not like this.
I turned the wording of the deal over in my mind. Short, to the point, with concrete goals. “You got a deal.”
Soren’s smile made my stomach lurch. “Go.”
He took off like a rocket. Seth swore and crumpled the map, shoving it into his pocket as he also took off.
I stood there like an asshole for a few seconds before letting out a growling screech and following behind.
“Cheaters!” I shouted as I took off after them.
Soren’s crack of wild laughter made me snort.