Ire flared in his eyes as I struck his face.
My fisted hands pummeled his torso and head, splitting more cuts across his face, bruises puffing around his cheek. Loud cries shredded from my throat, going from rage to a whimper.
Warwick clasped my wrists together. Twisting me around, he locked his arms around me, pressing his body into mine.
“Let me go…” I only halfheartedly tried to fight him before I felt my energy break, crumbling into sand. He pulled me to him tighter, my legs caving under me, my back bowing forward, as the grief overwhelmed me. He held me as my sobs broke out in crashing waves. He embraced me tightly, like he was wringing the pain out of me. And I let him, falling into him. Using his steady frame, his warm arms. His love.
Slowly the cries quieted until the crickets and drops of water filled the silence.
Lifting my head, I turned to him, my eyes finding his. More grief covered my face as I took in the damage I did. Reaching up, I touched the cuts, rubbing my thumb over the bruises.
“I’m so—”
“Don’t even, Kovacs.” He cut me off, his hand covering the one on his face. “I’ll heal. Plus…” his arms went around me, touching our foreheads together. “This is fucking foreplay for us. Just wait for what I’ll do to you later.”
I tried to smile, but it was empty, and I leaned my head into his.
“You okay?” His mouth brushed my hairline.
“Yeah.” I felt the lie burn on my tongue.
Tucking loose strands behind my ear, he didn’t respond, not buying it either.
Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! High-pitched squeaks came from the backpack I still had on.
“You? I feel like blended brownie batter!” Opie came stomping back up to my shoulder, this time Bitzy on his back, her eyes glaring, her middle fingers sticking up high. “Next time, can we watch from the sidelines, not be part of your mating ritual?”
“Oh, shit.” A laugh, I wasn’t expecting, burst out of me, my hand slapping over my mouth. I had completely forgotten they were still in my backpack.
“Yeah, we did that too.” Opie folded his arms in a huff. “Though you might mistake it for brownie batter, I guarantee it’s not.”
Chirpchirpchirpchirp!
“She really doesn’t like you right now,” Warwick smirked.
My eyes widened, another crazed laugh fizzing up my throat as Bitzy chewed me out, but it grounded me, brought me back to what was in front of me. The things I could control. I was far from being okay about the situation with my mother, but once again, I didn’t have the luxury of time to work through it. It was for another day. We had too much to do. All our friends were still in Věrhăza. And a war none of us were ready for was on our doorstep.
One day, all of it would come back for me, and something deep inside was terrified of that time, but today was not it.
Warwick let go of me, his gaze on me, his fingers winding through the ends of my hair.
“You ready?” He tilted his head to the cabin.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded.
“You go first.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m fucking hard as a rock and really don’t want my nephew to see that the only thing I want to do is fuck you against the wall,” he growled at me.
“Oh.” Heat coursed through me, wanting to do the same. Memories of the night before were still fresh in my mind.
“Might have to take a walk later. I already know the walls are too thin for what I have in mind.” His hand went to my back, putting me slightly in front of him.
“Well, we might be competing with another pair later anyway,” I smirked, winking back at him. I didn’t know for sure what was going on between Eliza and Zander, but the chemistry was thick between them.
“Wait. What?” Warwick stopped, unblinking at me. “Who?”
I smiled coyly, strolling for the door.
“Kovacs?” he strained.
Peering back at him, something caught my eye in the forest. I couldn’t see her, but I could feel my mother’s gaze on me, an innate awareness of her.
Gritting my teeth together, I grabbed the handle of the door, about to step in when I swore I heard a whisper across the back of my neck.
“I love you too, daughter.”
Killian’s top-shelf whiskey slid down my throat, the smooth burn warming my belly and numbing the pain I was trying to lock back in a box. It also ebbed the call to the nectar, and the possessive need to run back outside and snatch it up, to take what was mine.
“Obviously, you all escaped High Castle after we left,” I prompted Tad. He sat in his chair across from me, pillows stuffed behind his back, keeping him propped up.
“Yes.” He smiled warmly up at Eliza when she set a cup of tea down on the table next to him.
She returned to the sofa, where Simon had cuddled up to his uncle, not wanting him out of his sight. The little boy tried so hard to stay awake. Zander, as usual, stayed out of the way, but I noticed he was always near Eliza, helping her with the tea or watching her anytime she moved.
“I remember little as you well know; I was not really coherent when you departed.”
Tad had been shot by HDF several times, bleeding out. I had been sure he’d die on that hill.
“When I woke up, all the soldiers either escaped or were dead, and my wounds were already starting to heal.” He took a sip of tea, his hand trembling slightly with old age. “Eabha and Morgan healed me enough. And I was able to do the rest.” He lifted his cup to me. “Which I feel is all thanks to you.”
I wanted to believe my mother wouldn’t have left Tad to die, but even if she only helped him because of me, I was grateful, whatever the reason.
“When did they start to change back?” I rolled my glass between my hands, my knee bouncing with energy, though I felt so drained and exhausted.
“Ahh… you are testing my recollection.” Tad took another swallow before setting it on the table. “I find it easier to recall something over two hundred years ago than a few weeks ago.” He closed his lids as if he was filing through his memories. “Now I think about it, it was right after the night at High Castle when I noticed a slight shift in them.”
“Is it my fault they are turning back?” I barely heard my voice leave my mouth, guilt weighing down on me, feeling in some way I was to blame.
“As you know, magic and nature are a balance. They used a lot of magic barricading us against the attack that night. Then saving me.” My mind recalled the blood-red aura I saw streaming from the clan as they murmured a spell, putting up the protective shield to save us. “You certainly have a link to your mother through the nectar since it is a part of her as well—why she will always protect it. So, there might be some truth to your fear, but their magic as witches wasn’t infinite. There is always a cost for using so much magic.”
“The cost for protecting us… me… was their human lives?”
Tad didn’t respond, his blue eyes telling me all I needed to know.
My head bowed, the burden of everything growing heavier. Another thing I had to shove away when other things were more critical. Things I could change. Taking a deep breath, I focused on another topic.
“Warwick and I just came from Istvan’s labs. We know what he is doing.” I glanced over at the Legend. His arms stretched over the back of the sofa, one ankle crossed his knee, Simon snuggled into his side, sound asleep. Warwick appeared relaxed, not a care in the world, but I could feel his energy, the intensity with which he peered back at me. If anyone walked through the door, he would be up, already slicing into their throat before we even registered movement.