44. Daire
Daire
Wedding present.
Were we getting married? My face was hot when I glanced at Viktor. We’d only just said the “L” word, and the fact that I was calling it that . . . okay, yeah, I’d probably been locked away in my proverbial tower for way too long and shouldn’t rush into something so serious.
But it was, wasn’t it? Viktor was serious, and I was determined, and—and I wasn’t going to let the coven kill or keep me, not least because it’d mean leaving him behind.
For a week or a day or an hour, it’d be too long.
Maybe when I helped the pack and everything was settled, we could talk about getting married.
Or . . . well, I hoped that one day, I wouldn’t worry that I had to make everything perfect first. But so far, Viktor and I had been on the run, all flip-flopped around inside, and we hadn’t had much chance to figure out what we wanted, much less talk about it.
I’d always imagined getting married, a husband who smiled to see me standing across from him.
Would Viktor smile in front of that many people?
Honestly, maybe not, but weirdly enough, warmth bubbled in my chest anyway.
I didn’t mind that Viktor was stoic, because it gave those glimpses of him I got when he let his mask down even sweeter.
I set the empty bowl on the truck’s floor and settled back to slip my fingers between his. Mother never would’ve approved of this, but Ingeborg didn’t bat an eye.
Mother said Aunt Ingeborg’s mind had gone when I was still a child. I hadn’t been able to visit her until I could drive on my own, and the few times I’d gone had made me impossibly sad.
She’d never recognized me, barely spoken. Once, the nurse had asked if I’d be willing to help her eat lunch. It . . . hadn’t gone well, and I’d felt like a failure.
Ingeborg had always taken care of me, and I hadn’t been able to do the same for her.
Standing outside the care facility like she’d known we were coming, she looked different than the last few times I’d seen her, dazed and in pastel sweatpants and a floral T-shirt that most of the people at the nursing home wore.
I suspected they were easy to wash and that was why everyone had them.
And sure, she was still wearing them under a coat that had a belt at the waist that she’d left untied, but this was the first time in years that they’d looked wrong on her.
Her hair was neatly plaited and hanging down her back, more black than gray. Her green eyes were alert, taking in everything, completely unbothered to be in a truck full of werewolves.
I clutched the back of the front seat and leaned in. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize she’d—”
“Cursed me?” Ingeborg said, her smirk a sharp little line on her face. “Darling, did you know?”
I shook my head. “But I should’ve figured it out.”
Ingeborg pursed her lips. “No ‘should’ve.’ You wish you had, but you didn’t, and if you had confronted her about it, you’d have ended up beside me or worse. Your mother’s choices aren’t a burden for you to carry.” She reached back and squeezed my hand. “And you figured it out in the end.”
Had I? Mostly, I’d just hoped that there was someone more qualified than me to untangle the mess I was in. That I’d been right was almost more horrific because it meant Mother had—
I shivered, and Viktor’s arm tightened around me.
Beside us, Drew wiggled forward in his seat. “I remember you,” he announced. “Before you left, you were the one who put out food. You showed Daire. You’re the good witch.”
Ingeborg smiled at him. “I don’t know about that, but certainly better than some.” Her eyes narrowed for a moment as she looked at something beyond the boy who sat before her. “The little raccoon,” she said warmly. “You are a clever one, aren’t you?”
Drew beamed. “Thank you. For helping me.”
Something crossed her features, dark and sad, and she shook her head. “No thanks necessary. I’m glad you’re all right.”
Drew’s head bobbed, and I reached over to squeeze his knee. Without him, we wouldn’t have escaped. It was Ingeborg’s kindness that’d saved Viktor and me both, and I hoped that—that Drew stayed happy and with the pack. Obviously, Leo would prefer that.
Me too.
I liked that, with the Wildwood wolves, I wasn’t the only outsider. There were Drew and Altair, at the very least. But more than that, I didn’t mind a little coven of just Viktor and me. We could just figure ourselves out together.
In no way, shape, or form did I want any part of taking over for Mother in the coven, especially if half the witches I’d lead wanted to kill me.
My muscles stiffened every mile we got closer to the coven house. Obviously, I hadn’t been back since we’d fled the place, but it wasn’t like home anymore.
Home was the curve of the arm belonging to the man at my side. Nowhere else mattered.
No, not even hot showers.
We were going to fix that.
In a cab full of shifters, it came as no surprise that they could tell my energy was off. Viktor’s fingers swept up and down my side, and Drew frowned at me.
“You okay?”
I laughed, sounding harried even to myself. “Yeah. Definitely. I can, ah, pick up some of my stuff maybe? That’ll be good, and—”
Ingeborg snorted. “I’ll handle the rest. You just get me up to speed on what’s happened since I’ve been gone.”
It probably helped to tell her, so she knew what she was walking into, but I had the acute sense that she was giving me a distraction.
Still, I told her—Mother putting Viktor’s wolf in me to make the witchwolf, having to flee the sacrificial ritual, awakening my magic only for it to be in someone else.
I told her how good Viktor had been at magic, how now that it moved through both of us, we were going to learn together.
The way her smile softened at that made my heart skip.
She was happy for me. I hadn’t even realized I was waiting for someone I cared about to be happy for me until all my fears unwound like yarn off a spindle. I looked up at Viktor and found him looking down at me.
I took a deep breath and went on. “I hope one day, things won’t .
. . won’t be so bad, between the witches and the wolves, but the coven has done a lot of wrong, especially since you’ve been away.
Mother was—was fixated on the witchwolf story, and—” I shook my head. She didn’t need to know all of it.
Aleks sighed through his nose and shrugged. “A good first step will be getting someone in charge who isn’t a monster.”
Nervously, I swallowed. While I doubted the wolves and witches would ever be close, or that the coven could make up for the wrong it’d done, if we could find some peaceful coexistence, that’d be enough.
I wanted the pack safe and unmolested. I wanted the chance to figure out what came next, with Viktor, without having to worry about being attacked or hunted down.
The coven wasn’t going to get a witchwolf, but me? I’d get the best balance of all things.