“Hey! I did it. I’m not going to die!” I flexed an arm, feeling rather fabulous.
“Well, your own magic won’t kill you, but there are about five other ways you could go down during this adventure you have us on.” Hekla patted my back despite her negative words.
Lucus brushed my knuckles with a thumb, reminding me of how that thumb had dusted across my nipple not long ago. My cheeks flushed as he bent down to kiss me briefly. “You’re certain you managed it, then?”
“I am.”
“She would know.” The Binder glared at Lucus.
Lucus whirled on him, eyes blazing, his glamour falling away. “If you wish to fight me, perhaps we should get that part of our afternoon out of the way.”
The smile the Binder gave him was the first blow. “I thought you’d never ask.”
“Wait!” I put myself between the two guys. “Binder, you look like shit. Sorry, but you do. Lucus, you don’t want to lay the smackdown on this man.” I stared into Lucus’s furious eyes. He was hot when he was angry, all seething and short of breath, but my gaze said what I didn’t want to say. The Binder was suffering here and not acting like he probably would have been if the fae didn’t have his son and he didn’t have to keep killing off his own kind in the horrible sacrifices.
Lucus took a deep breath through flaring nostrils, and a hint of his lure washed over me before he reined it back in. His horns and wings faded, and he stepped back. “Thank you, Coren. You’re right.”
We searched the trees for Aurelio and Baccio, Nora alerting us when we neared the boundary.
“See there?” She pointed toward a spot in the canopy where the oak leaves appeared larger and the branches wider, like that one area sat under a magnifying glass. “You’ll only glimpse pieces of the boundary. Know it will extend in a slope downward and upward from the disturbance. If you touch the magic…” She shook her head, past horrors washing over her features.
A chill set its teeth in the back of my neck. For once, I had no snarky retorts. The woman looked scared as hell, and I was right there with her.
Of course, the Binder refused to help us look. He remained in the clearing combining herbs he’d brought along and drawing runes in the dirt, readying the area for me to work some spells.
“Coren!” The Binder’s voice struck the frosty air, and I jumped.
Hekla rubbed my back and gave me a nice smile. “Hey, you can do this. Want me to keep looking for the crazy tree guys with your new boyfriend or to come back to do witchcraft with you?” She laughed at her own question. “I know things are dire, but I feel giddy. I am totally losing my brain, Coren. It’s your fault.”
I gripped her shoulder. “This I know. If I hadn’t seen that damn castle, we’d be up to our elbows in fondant right now.”
Realization swept over Hekla’s face. “Oh. That kid’s birthday cake.”
“The kraken.”
“Yep.” Every time I wrote up an order for an elaborate cake, we did a practice one before the event because we’d only started doing fondant in the last year. “Why don’t you come with me? I don’t love the idea of you being out here in this forest. Not that I can do much to take care of you.”
“But you’re the badass mage who freaked out the pool of creepy-ass water.”
“Indeed, but I remain painfully ignorant of how to use my awesomeness.”
She threw an arm around my shoulders. Kaippa was right. She did smell like wheat. Why was I thinking about Kaippa? He wasn’t a friend. Sure, I didn’t want him to die horribly at the hands of evil supernaturals, but…
I pushed the internal conflict aside and focused on what Hekla was saying.
“…and don’t worry, Coren. We’ll figure it out.”
I turned to see Lucus placing a palm against the smooth trunk of a beech tree. His eyes shuttered, and his fingers bent like he wanted to claw the tree open to search for his brothers. God, I was a shit for not giving him more love right now. Even though I was still confused about us and how much I could really and truly trust him to continue ignoring the fact that I was a mage and his enemy, he was in a strange land and his last two family members were missing. He hadn’t even asked for anything. He’d been completely focused on me and helping me rein in my power.
“Give me a second, okay?” I asked Hekla.
Her dimples appeared as she grinned kindly at me, then glanced at Lucus. “I’ll head back and tell the Binder guy you’re almost ready.”
I joined Lucus at the beech tree and put a hand on his lower back, his soft cloak gathering under my palm. “I’m going to practice some of this crazy casting business. You okay?”
“They must be here. The boundary would hold them.” He spun to face me. “I think Arleigh has them just as she has Kaippa.”
I swallowed. If she did, there was a good chance they weren’t getting a big fae hug. “What do you think she would want with them? I mean, I know now what she wants with me, but with more fae?”
“Entertainment, if I had to guess.” And the look on his face said he knew Arleigh wasn’t entertained by nice pastimes like poetry and dancing.
“If she has them, she’ll show off her control tomorrow at the feast.”
His hands fisted, emerald light sparkling over his knuckles. But the light wasn’t as bright as it usually was. At least he wasn’t passing out or anything. “Go,” he said quietly, encouraging me. “The more capable you are with your magic, the better chances we all have of escaping Arleigh’s designs.”
A question burned through my thoughts. I knew I shouldn’t
