Chapter 32
Max
The Dark Fae announce our campaign is to seek out the Phoka village, the clan of shifters in the mountains. They say it’ll take three days of hard travel, through thick brush and dangerous paths.
It takes almost five.
Once we reach the base of the Man’s Peril, I look up into the snowy tops as the remaining volunteers drop from exhaustion. We’ve barely slept, forced to move at every sound, afraid of anything finding us before we find the army. Everyone is on edge.
Glancing to the side, in the dark leaves, my skin crawls. Something is watching us. My magic has been off, surrounded by the volunteers for so long, so I can’t pinpoint anything out there.
But it’s there. Watching. Waiting. I bite my lip, anxiety pulling down my center like a lead weight.
The heir moves past me and my body tenses, smelling his scent, feeling his warmth. Aching, I turn away, unable to even look at him.
The harsh travel has left us little time to talk and frankly, that suits me just fine.
The sting of rejection still burns my cheeks. He sent me away to teach me a lesson. It’s not my fault we share this intense connection, but he certainly lays the blame on me.
My fingers twitch, my magic feeding off my aggravation.
Tay comes up to my side, clearing his throat. “The village is just through the pass. It’s well hidden and dangerous, but accessible.”
Nodding, I cross my arms, the chill of the forest driving through my leathers. “I heard. Snow bears and rock trolls live in the mountains. Getting pass them will be difficult.”
He shrugs. “It can be done. The Blackwoods Witches trade with the shifters regularly and make the journey.”
“The Coven also says the Gods sit on top of their thrones in the highest parts, looking down at us, passing judgement.”
“That could still be true,” he concedes. He shifts his pack on his back and I raise an eyebrow.
“Planning on leaving?”
He hesitates. “Once we speak to Wulf, and ask for his assistance to finish this raid, and find the Crimson Army, we need to go back to the Coven.”
“I spoke to Nafre the night I healed the heir,” he words are clipped. He still hasn’t forgiven me for forcing him to heal someone he deemed beneath him. “Something is wrong at the Coven. Items missing, strange footsteps. Beasts roaming just outside the wards.”
My heart jumps, unease prickling my neck. “But the wards—?”
“Are you failing, as you’re aware.” He glances around, stepping close. “Nafre doesn’t know how long the Coven has before they’re under attack again. But we need to get back.”
My shirt falls and his eyes glue to my scar. “Your place is in the Coven, Max. Not here.”
“My place,” I echo, searching the campsite. I lock eyes with the heir, a tugging compelling me to be closer to him.
Is it lust or something deeper, pulling me toward him?
“The Coven is your home.”
“It’s yours,” I correct. “You’ve made it abundantly clear, it is not my Coven.”
Tay’s jaw tenses as he glances to the side. “You’d rather stay here, choose—” he cuts off, shaking his head. “We gave you a place to live. We gave you a family.”
“You gave me fear,” I whisper. “But I love you and Nafre and Cully. Because although the Coven hated me, you all loved me.” Tracing my scar, I blink back tears. “Parts of me.”
“And he accepts all of you?” Tay asks, voice hard. “He’s a Dark Fae. As far as we know he’s only gaining your trust to lay between your legs. At worst? He wants your magic.”
I wince as if struck. Every fear, every suspicion, laid out and bare by my only friend. And he uses it like a weapon, digging deep to hurt me.
My shirt falls lower and Tay rears back. “He fed from you?”
I swallow at the disgust in his words.
Tugging my hair, I hide the bite marks on my neck. I never showed my friend, never asked to be healed.
I wanted the marks. I wanted the ownership, the dark deed to be seen. There’s a large part of me that feeds off of it, wants the ownership.
“You let that monster—”
“He is no monster,” I defend, voice sharp. “Say what you want about me, but you’ll not insult him. I gave it to him—willingly.”
Growling, Tay steps closer still, large and intimidating but I don’t cower. I’m not afraid of him.
“After he tried to kill you on the cliffs, after everything their kind does, you would allow him this?” He scoffs. “He’s a beast parading as a Fae.”
Inhaling, I shrug. “Your Coven would say the same about me. A monster parading as a woman. Are they right?”
“That’s not the same thing. Your magic—” he stops. “My mother warned you that your magic would be dangerous if not controlled. Ignoring it, hiding it, it was the only way to keep everyone safe.”
“Everyone, but me.” Holding up my hand, I show him the red staining my tips. He can’t look at it. “You can’t even see the evidence of it. Your mother hid me away. Your elders shun me. Nafre tries to make me assimilate. You ignore it. The heir does none of those things. He sees me.”
Hard silver eyes glare at me, lips curling. “He doesn’t see you, Max. He sees a vulnerable woman with a power he can exploit. You’ll never be anything more to him.”
My body shakes as I try not to let my magic attack. It’s incensed by the insult and my heart breaks as my best friend annihilates it.
“Back away from her,” the heir snarls, coming close. I didn’t hear him approach, but now at my back, my body leans as if to absorb his strength.
Tay’s hand falls to his sword. “This conversation doesn’t include you, heir.”
“It does when you seem incapable of saying kind things to the blood summoner.” His amber eyes cut to me, scanning my face, lifting my chin to peer close. “Are you alright?”
Swallowing, I push away the pain and sigh. “I’m fine.”
His lips twitch. “Liar.”
“Keep your voice down,” Tay threatens. “If the volunteers hear what she is—”
“They’ll what, Witch?” He mocks, dropping my chin, warm hand finding the small of my back. “I have all the faith she’ll end them before they take one step toward her. And if not?” His fangs grow the slightest bit, a warning to everyone around. “They’ll deal with me.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Tay grumbles under his breath, “The point is not to let her magic do that.”
“What? Be vicious?” He shakes his head, smirking. “Her magic is magnificent. It’s your kind who thinks it’s evil. Far from it. It should be revered, not feared.”
“I assume that’s why you’re here.” My friend glances at his hand on my body. “Why you fed from her. You want her magic. You see Max as some weak girl who will fall for the slightest bit of romance.”
My heart twists. Is that what Tay thinks of me?
“Say one more thing,” Kaden vows, “that insults her and your sister will find your head pinned to a tree outside your Coven.” His eyes narrow. “I can guarantee it.”
Tay stops as Kaden’s threat hangs between them.
Gently, I place my hand on Tay’s shoulder. “Go to Nafre. I’ll stay here.”
“And do what?” He snaps. “You’ve no skill that would help the volunteers. And you don’t represent the Blackwoods Coven. Being here would only be a waste of time for you and put you in serious danger.”
He’s angry, lashing out, but his eyes plead with me. Under all the fights, the unkind words, he still worries about me.
“We know what the men think of you.”
“She’ll stay with me,” Kaden says, shrugging.
Tay scoffs. “Why? To use her as a personal feeding source?”
The heir grins, but it’s filled with malice. “A good faith gesture. The raid will conclude and I’ll honor our bargain to help you rebuild. As long as the blood summoner stays with me until the end.”
Tay quiets, mind spinning. He can return home and still get the partnership he wanted from the summit.
He just has to leave me behind.
I don’t have the strength to see what he’ll choose. I already know the Coven comes before our friendship. What is left of it.
“Go,” I insist. “I’ll be here.”
“And at the end?” He looks to the heir. “Where will you go when it’s done?”
My mind flashes to the Blackwoods Coven, to my hut and small collection of books. My trunks left at the palace that were supposed to be sent back to Nafre. Everything I own is there.
But my heart rebels. I don’t belong there.
“I’ll figure it out when that happens,” I whisper.
“If you stay,” Tay murmurs, “you’re vulnerable. Your magic is uncontrollable.”
“Are you saying this because you care, Witch, or because you’re afraid?”
My friend glares at him. “I’m not afraid.”
But I see the way he keeps his distance, how his eyes flicker to the puncture wounds at my neck. He’s afraid but also, disgusted with me.
My chest caves in and I can’t breathe past the pain.
“Of all the beings, I expected her friend to be the one to understand her.” Kaden pulls me back, arm snug to my waist. It feels good there, right. “She has earned my respect and deference in such the short amount of time I’ve known her. Why has she not earned it from you?”
Tay ignores his taunt, tugging my hair over my neck. “I don’t trust this connection you have to him. But I would be careful, if I were you.”
He grabs another sack from the ground, and gestures to his guards to follow him.
He isn’t even going to say goodbye.
“Oh, and Witch?” Kaden calls back, amber eyes turning black. “I don’t need to work to get between her thighs. I’ve already experienced that delight.”
Tay glowers, swinging on to his large horse, mouth pressed into a tight frown.
With another twitch, he dashes through the opposite side of the forest, heading toward the Coven. He should be home by the time the moon rises.
My stomach rolls with trepidation. Am I making the right choice? I’m not sure, but my feet don’t push me to chase after Taylay. They stay rooted, demanding I stay with the heir.
“Follow me,” Kaden says, leading me back to his party. “I’ll have my guards set up your tent. You’ll stay with me and my siblings while we finish this.”
Glancing once more over my shoulder, I watch Tay’s form disappear into the shadows without another look back.
It cuts deeper than any blade.