Chapter 10 #2
“I guess we should get to work,” she said, her gaze sliding away. “I’ll wrap and secure Brigid, if you could gather her books and papers?”
I watched her take a blanket from her bottomless bag and walk back to the other witch’s remains to wrap her.
It was hard to tear my gaze away. I had no idea why the fates had rewarded me with a female like Tempest, but I wasn’t going to question it.
I’d just be fucking thankful they had. I could wait for her.
Now that I knew she was mine, I’d wait as long as it took.
I’d be right here, waiting until she realized I was hers as well.
Tempest
We made it back by morning after traveling through the night.
Fender had offered to carry me on his back in his beast form again, as he’d called it, and I’d agreed, since I needed to get home to feed Glinda and Manny as well as make it to my shift at the clinic.
He was huge and terrifying as a hound, but for some reason the beast didn’t scare me.
He really was beautiful, but the main reason I’d agreed was that as a hound his leg wouldn’t hurt him as much.
I took him in, now back in his human form.
I’d really liked threading my fingers through his soft fur, and his auburn hair, that hung around his shoulders, now looked just as soft.
“You ready?” he said as he reached back and quickly tied his hair into a low, messy bun.
“Yep.” Coven Stonebridge stuck to themselves. Not that I knew much about the covens here in Roxburgh, but I’d learned things at the clinic, heard people talking. They were also the coven Brigid and her sisters had belonged to and they’d had a large coven that would be happy to see her returned.
The matriarch, Aradina Stonebridge, lived in the large house with her aging father and one of her brothers. The coven’s cemetery was here on the sprawling grounds.
The house was right in the city, and the size of it made it a rare find. As the city had grown, it had swallowed up the available land around them, but somehow, they’d retained their large property surrounded by several hectares of land.
Gravel crunched under my feet as I walked up to the front door.
Fender followed, carrying Brigid’s wrapped remains in his huge arms. A buzz of magic slid over me, more a lick of curiosity and thankfully not an alarm and hasty expulsion, like some wards.
I was sure it was a different story during the night.
I glanced back at Fender, and he nodded encouragingly. I wasn’t nervous. I was more worried about scaring Aradina when she laid eyes on the intimidatingly tall and muscled hound standing forebodingly behind me.
But it was too late to worry about that now. Plastering a smile on my face, I knocked. A moment later, footsteps came from the other side of the door, a lock disengaged, and the door was pulled wide.
A plump female with graying hair and shrewd brown eyes took us in.
She looked to be in her late sixties, if I had to guess, and her smile was guarded as she greeted us.
“How may I help you?” She looked at Fender, and the smile slipped a little, then dipped to what he held in his arms, and the smile vanished completely.
“I am here to see Aradina Stonebridge. I have something for her. Something I think she’ll want.”
The older woman’s eyes widened. “I’ll ah…need to check she’s in.”
“That would be most appreciated,” I said.
She shut the door and left us standing on the doorstep. I glanced back at Fender. He raised a brow. I shrugged.
The door opened again, and I spun back. A tall, stunningly beautiful female with thick sandy-colored hair streaked with blond stood in front of me.
Her wide hazel eyes slid down my body and back, and she pursed her full lips before planting a hand, fingers covered in gold rings, on her hip.
“I don’t know you,” she said to me, then lifted her gaze to Fender, and her eyes flared.
She straightened, and a smile instantly curved her lips. “But I do know you.”
I forced myself to smile as well. “I’m Tempest and…you obviously know Fender?” Was she a friend of Willow’s? That would make the most sense.
“I know several hellhounds, very well.”
Fender grunted.
Aradina tilted her head to the side. “It’s good to see you again.”
He grunted again, and this time it was more of a growl.
She laughed, high-pitched and without real humor, and I hated to say it, but it was kind of annoying.
She was studying him, and he was staring back with a stony expression.
I looked between them, confused. I had no idea what was going on, but I was here for a reason and I needed to get to it.
I had a shift at the clinic later today, and I wanted to get home and feed my babies.
I also desperately needed a shower and a power nap before work.
I cleared my throat because I’d been completely forgotten. Aradina only had eyes for Fender.
“Miss Stonebridge?”
She continued to ignore me.
“Aradina?” I said too loudly and inwardly winced. “We’re here to give you—”
“What?” she said, finally looking down at me. “What did you say?”
“We’re here to give you something, well, someone who belongs to your coven.”
“What are you talking about?”
I motioned to Brigid’s carefully wrapped body. “This may be painful, but I hope it will also give you some peace,” I said. “We found Brigid’s body deep in the blue cliffs. She wanted me to bring her home to her coven, to rest with her sisters.”
Aradina’s gaze snapped from me, back to what Fender carried, and her eyes widened. “You found her?” she said and clapped her hands together with another shrill laugh. “Bring her in, oh yes, bring her in.”
She stepped back and we followed.
“This way.” She strode across a grand entrance and through doors at the back of the house while she tapped rapidly on her phone. She led us to a large greenhouse, filled with plants and bathed in warm sunlight. There was a potting table in the center, and she waved a hand at it. “Put her there.”
“Do you have something we could put down first?” The table was covered in dirt and compost and the gods only knew what else.
“What? Why?”
“It’s a little dirty.”
She shrugged an elegant shoulder. “It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. Brigid should be treated with the utmost ceremony and reverence.
One of coven Stonebridge’s elders, a priestess, was coming home after being lost for so long.
This wasn’t right. I rushed forward and swiped the dirt off with my sleeve.
It wasn’t my place to tell Aradina that she was being disrespectful, but I really, really wanted to.
Her gaze sharpened as she watched me. I should feel bad for shaming her this way, but I didn’t.
Brigid had longed to be returned here, to be with her coven and her sisters again, and Aradina was not behaving in a solemn manner like the occasion dictated.
No, she was on her phone texting and eyeing Fender like a juicy steak meal.