22 BAEL
THE WAYWOODS, INBETWIXT
My heart pounded too fast as I kept my gaze fixed on the serpent.
The moment Scion had offered his blood to the snake and not struggled as it began to wind around him, I’d known what he was planning. I so rarely got to use the strongest of my magical abilities, because instant death wasn’t all that useful except on a battlefield, and I’d never been allowed to set foot on one.
From an early age, I’d been capable of destroying multiple lives with one wave of the hand. The problem was, and always had been, that I enjoyed doing it.
It didn’t seem to matter to my family that I was far from the only one with that particular character flaw. They didn’t acknowledge or care that both my uncles had been far more blood thirsty than I ever was, or that Scion crippled anyone who mildly annoyed him. They didn’t want to think that perhaps I’d inherited a love of violence from their side of the family, and it had nothing to do with my father. No, the family line had always been that I was broken, dangerous, and too Unseelie to be trusted.
The family had worried for years that my control would waver, and I’d destroy far more than their intended target. I didn’t have to summon power as others did. No, my issue was keeping it under control, and not letting it leak out. Destruction always lingered just below my skin and I myself wasn’t entirely sure how precise my aim was. There was no time like a life-or-death situation to find out.
As the snake lowered its jaws over Scion’s head, I raised a hand, and in a blink the creature was gone. Surrounded by a mound of ash and crumbling scales, Scion sat on the ground, his face completely drained of color.
My hands were trembling, and I could feel the magic coursing through my body as I approached to offer him a hand up. “Are you alright?”
Breathing heavily, my cousin looked up at me. He scrutinized my trembling palm with apprehension, before hesitantly grasping it and allowing me to help him up.
“I’m fucking fine…obviously,”
he said roughly. “More importantly, are you alright?”
I wanted to laugh, but I was too exhausted to even manage a chuckle. He had just been moments away from being devoured in front of me, yet he seemed more worried about the energy it took for me to kill the creature attacking him.
What did that say about my family’s faith in my control? Nothing I wasn’t already well aware of, I supposed.
“I’ll be fine,”
I told Scion. “I just need to rest for a bit.”
A bit, or several days—but I didn’t want to alarm him.
“Are you close to draining?”
Scion asked.
I shook my head, because I wasn’t sure I could deny it out loud. Even if I was close to using too much magic, I wasn’t sure I could die from drain, as others could. I’d shift before reaching that point…though, that was almost as dangerous.
“What about Lonnie?”
Scion demanded.
I pressed a hand to my throbbing temple. “What about her?”
“Did you use her power as well?”
I shook my head. “Our bond isn’t sealed, and I haven’t shared power with her in weeks.”
“But, the last time you used that power?—”
“I know,”
I cut him off, thinking darkly of the afflicted attack in Inbetwixt where I’d nearly drained not only myself, but Lonnie as well. “But I’m telling you she’s fine.”
Mates could share power back and forth, giving bonded groups a nearly unlimited supply of magical life force. Nearly unlimited, being the operative phrase. It was a useful side effect of mating that each partner would become more powerful, however the danger was that once one mate drained, they’d start feeding off the power of the other. It was possible, therefore, for one mate to kill the other by mistake.
I’d nearly drained Lonnie on the day after the second hunt while escaping from the afflicted, and sent her into a coma for several days. Now, though, that was unlikely to reoccur. At least, not unless I could mimic Scion, and find some way around the curse that prevented us from sealing our bond.
I glanced at my cousin, who looked relieved now, that at least Lonnie was not in danger. That his wife was not in danger.
We would have to talk about that eventually—that, and everything else the snake had said, but first all I wanted was to sleep.
Scion and I stared unseeing at each other over a small fire, the only sounds that of the forest, the crackling flames, and our heavy breathing.
Sleep had so far evaded me. Nevertheless, several hours of silence had done almost as well at replenishing my energy. The same could not be said for Scion.
I looked up at him across the fire. His color had returned, but that was about the only normal thing about him. His expression was dark, almost defeated rather than his usual mask of anger. I itched to ask what he was thinking, but wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“So, she’s in Underneath,”
I said to break the tension.
“Not yet,”
he corrected dully. “On her way there.”
“Whom do you suppose is traveling with her?”
He made a strangled sound, somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. “Who the fuck do you think is?”
There was no need for me to respond; we both understood the situation perfectly: It was clear that Lonnie had joined the rebels. The only question remained if she had done so willingly or if Ambrose had forced her.
“At least they’re not going to Nevermore,”
I said without enthusiasm. “Our theory is wrong, then. He isn’t trying to kill her during a hunt.”
Scion’s face twisted into a bitter scowl. “I have no doubt that he still intends to kill her, just not in Nevermore.”
I didn’t disagree with him. All I wanted was to chase after her immediately, but I felt stuck in place with no clue where to begin. Worse, going to Underneath wasn’t an option for me. My only consolation was that it would take days to reach Underneath by boat, so she was hopefully not in any immediate danger. More importantly, if she were hurt, I’d know.
“Who the hell is the last heir of Elsewhere?”
I asked, remembering the last thing the snake had said.
Scion shrugged. “I don’t know…could it be your father?”
I shook my head, even as I said: “Perhaps? But I don’t think I’ve ever heard Gancanagh called that before.”
Scion flinched when I mentioned my father’s name, like he was afraid the monster himself would appear in the forest with us. I rolled my eyes. King Gancanagh was powerful, but not that powerful. Otherwise, I was sure we’d have met by now.
“Whoever the heir is, it doesn’t matter,”
Scion said. “That sounds like something Ambrose would care about. All I care about is finding Lonnie before he does something to her.”
I nodded, pleased he was at least admitting out loud that he was worried for our mate, regardless of what he chose to view their relationship as. “It would be fastest for you to travel to the Hedge, and try to head them off, rather than searching for a ship we have no good way of finding.”
Scion looked up at me sharply, his eyes narrowing. “What do you mean, ‘fastest for me to travel to the Hedge.’”
“What, do you not agree? It wouldn’t take you more than a day to reach the Hedge, and then you could wait for the ship to arrive.”
I cocked my head, thinking. “I suppose it might be difficult to cross the border, but I have no doubt you?—”
“Shut up for a moment,”
Scion snapped. “Why do you keep saying ‘you?’”
I scowled darkly. “Do not try to tell me you’re going to fuck off again and not go after her. I’m getting really tired of playing this game with you, Sci. Don’t call her your mate, fine, but now you can’t deny that she’s at least your damn wife.”
He visibly flinched at the word “wife”
but didn’t correct me. “Only technically, and I’m sorry?—”
“I wish you would stop apologizing. It’s quite disconcerting, you know,”
I smiled, trying and failing to make a joke. “I don’t think I’ve heard you apologize once in the last thirty years, and now it’s all you can do.”
“I don’t understand why this doesn’t bother you,”
he said sharply. “If you would just react, then?—”
“Then what? You could confirm to yourself what a bad person you are?”
“Perhaps!”
he said a bit too loudly. Overhead, a flock of birds startled and took off into the air. “If it were me in your position…”
I ran a hand through my hair, so exasperated it was hard to form a coherent sentence. “You are in my position, you stubborn fucking bastard. I don’t have any more right to her than you do.”
His mouth became a thin line. “I’m not going to debate this with you. Just tell me why you’re talking as if you’re not going to come with me to Underneath?”
I raised a surprised eyebrow. “You cannot be serious, Sci, you know why I can’t go.”
To my surprise, Scion waved me off as if there were no issues. “It’s another week until the full moon. I’m sure you can handle yourself, you just killed an old one.”
I gaped at him.
It wasn’t even that I disagreed entirely, it was that Scion had never once been so blasé about anything. “To be perfectly clear, you’re saying that even though I wasn’t allowed to join the army in case I got a taste for it; when I spent a week every month caged in the castle, and when I was hardly allowed to leave the grounds for the first twenty years of my life, now you want me to step into Underneath.”
He didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed. “Yes. Don’t you want to?”
I bit back a growl. Did I want to make sure my mate was safe? Of course, but I was all too aware that my presence might be more dangerous to her than anything else in that cursed city. If I hadn’t been completely sure that Scion would destroy anything in his path to find Lonnie, it would’ve been different, but as it was, I’d only make things worse for both of them. “What happens if someone recognizes me?”
He cocked his head, looking at my face as if he’d never seen it before. He closed one eye, and frowned. “You look more Seelie than Unseelie…and who knows, perhaps there are a lot of yellow eyes in Underneath.”
I snorted a genuine laugh. “You’ve become quite adept at lying to yourself in these last weeks.”
He scowled, looking far more like himself. “It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
He glanced away. “I just know from experience that you won’t be able to stay away for long, anyway. I’d rather stay together.”
I closed my mouth, merely nodding. It was the closest he’d ever come to admitting that we might share the same feelings when it came to our little monster, and that he too was compelled to follow her into the underworld.
I only wished that sentiment wasn’t so literal.
“Fine. We’ll both go.”
I let out a short burst of laughter. “With the both of us, your brother and my father, it will be like a fucking family reunion.”