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“Edith, enough. I can take care of myself.”
Edith shakes her head and wrings her fingers. “No, that’s the thing, my dear sweet friend. That you could get this far into the Woods was a miracle in itself. Being Tor’s bonded mate is probably helping. But I can feel it, the power here… it’s a lot.” She sighs and locks her eyes on me.
I can feel her magic prodding at my brain, tapping away at the fears I have locked deep away, into myknowing. As she pokes and prods, seeing my fears, and what I know to be true, a tangled mass of danger and fear, I can feel the anxiety snaking back up my spine, setting fire to my guts and choking my lungs.
“Tor, my darling, I need you to trust your magic. Yourfate. Please. You are far greater than what you know.” Her hands cup my face, and she pulls me forward, away from Caelan, to kiss my forehead. A frisson of electricity fizzles over my scalp. It does not fill me with confidence. But Edith just looks over my face once more and smiles wanly before turning and exiting the cave, leaving Caelan and me with no choice but to follow.
***
It is bone-meltingly exhausting; the air is like tar, thick and hot and strangely pulsing, like it is actively trying to push us away again. Edith leads the charge this morning, while Caelan and I trudge behind her, hand in hand once again, the rage and anger of yesterday long past. It is still only mid-morning but we arenearing the very base of the mountain, with overly large rocks, trees and jutting roots making the path almost impassable.
Caelan’s grip on my hand is sure and steady, but through our bond I can feel his apprehension growing. In his free hand he has his knife palmed, ready for action. There is a niggling thought, the type that I had learnt long ago to listen to, telling me that I need to talk to him, and tell him how I feel before we get to our final destination.
It seems strange that we were magically bound together for eternity, but we’d never said the words. Especially since I had known I had loved him for so long, but I am terrified to tell him. Which is ridiculous really because of that same whole magical bond thing.
Ugh, I keep talking myself around in circles until I psych myself out, even on this absolutely sure thing. Through our bond I can feel Caelan’s confused jumble of emotions, over and above all the anxiety about what we’re up against. It’s comforting, in a weird and not at all appropriate way, but it’s enough to bolster my confidence and take the plunge. I take a deep steadying breath and watch Edith scale a particularly large boulder.
“Caelan, I need—” My words are cut off as he pulls sharply on our joined hands, to bring us face to face, my chest to his.
“Tor,I love you. I’minlove with you.” Well, shit. Caelan’s voice is pained. Like he is asking for a root canal or a kick to the balls rather than declaring his love for me, but still, my stomach drops like I am at the top of a rollercoaster, and a thousand stupid butterflies go off inside me.
My poor mate’s face is filled with worry, his beautiful green eyes fraught, his brow pinched tight. He bites his lip, chewing on it slightly, and I cup his face with my free hand, brushing my thumb over his soft but overgrown beard. He presses his face against my hand, like he wants to nuzzle it, but is unsure. I know there is an insipid smile on my face, but it can’t be helped. Poor Caelan refuses to meet my eyes, instead eyeing my ugly blue sweater like it is the most interesting thing on the planet. I use my hand to angle his face and bob my head to catch his eyes.
“Hey.” My hand on his jaw keeps his eyes locked on mine, my thumb stroking over his bottom lip, tracing the place that had spoken the words I’d longed for. “You stole my line.” The worry on his face turns to hope and then joy so quickly that my heart skips a beat for this gorgeous, sensitive man. He really does not understand his own worth. “I think I have loved you for the longest time. I just… I love you. I wanted to say it. Just in case.” Aaand now we’re back to worrying. Shit.
Caelan drops his forehead to mine. “We are going to befine,Tor. Everything will be ok.”
I don’t have his confidence. In fact, my faeknowingis pretty convinced that something very, very bad is about to occur, and I won’t be able to stop it. But rather than argue, I capture his mouth with mine, savouring his lips. The kiss is languid and soft. Comforting. I try desperately not to cry, but I can feel my eyes burning.
“I love you, Caelan, no matter what.” I squeeze his hand as tight as I can, knowing in that moment I would do anything to protect him, even face death itself. As he squeezes my hand and whispers his own words of love back, I know he has made himself the same vow. We are definitely fucked.
We reach the final leg and things get decidedlyworsein the Woods, which was pretty unimaginable as far as I was concerned. The air is so thick and soupy it is almost unbreathable, each step taking the effort of ten, with the pressure bearing down on us like a raging riptide.
And then, on top of everything else, the wind starts. Caelan told me about the wind warning him when I had been attacked by that mermaid. Shit, was that really only days ago? But this unruly force is something else entirely.
Edith has joined our hands, the screeching winds whipping at us so violently they knock her down to the ground repeatedly, until we hold her tight. And they are definitely screeching. Tearing around us, screaming at us toget out. Trees, as old as time itself, bow and sway in our path, threatening death and destruction if they tumble. Fear grips us as we power on through our exhaustion, clambering over rocks and roots. I don’t know how much longer we can go on like this. Ican feel Caelan fading. His ankle is still sore from yesterday and he had stumbled against some loose rock when we scaled a particularly formidable boulder.
From between us, I feel Edith tugging on the arm I’m using to shield myself from the debris flying towards my face. “Tor, remember how I told you that you need to trust yourself? Well, now would be a fantastic time to do so.” She yells over the top of the howling winds. Her look is so earnest, but I have no idea what she expectsmeto do.
My brain scrambles to think of what she might be hinting at because I don’t particularly think a glamour or compulsion trick is going to be of much help in the middle of the tornado bearing down on us. Except… warding might work? No. Not warding.Protection. I have never in my life tried anything this serious before, but maybe I can raise a shield around us? Edith tugs on my hand again and gives me one of her big toothy smiles that look kind of deranged but loving at the same time.
Without losing hold of either of their hands, because I don’t want them to get blown away, I pull them to a halt. Planting my feet wide, I breathe in, focusing on that space in my chest where I can feel my magic grow. I breathe deep again and again, pushing the power down into the ground, and pulling it back up again, channelling the magic of the earth.
Under my skin, I can feel the vibration of it, thepotential, and so I keep breathing, ignoring the wind whipping us furiously, the debris slashing at our faces and the confusion I can feel pouring from Caelan. I just keep channelling that energy until Iknowit is enough and, with one final breath, direct it outward.
And then, there is quiet. Not blessed silence. The storm is still raging, but it can’t reach us in the bubble I’ve created around us. It glows a translucent blue colour, the curved edges warping the view of the Woods, like looking at it through a fun mirror.I did it!I turn to high-five Edith, who ignores my raised hand to jump onto me in a hug, forcing me to catch her when she wraps her legs around me.
“I knew you had it in you. Kinda wish you hadn’t taken so long, though.” She laughs and jumps down just as Caelan pulls me around into a hug, kissing the side of my head.
“Did you do this?” I can feel the blush on my cheeks as he glows with pride.
“Yeah, apparently it’s a thing that I can do? Not sure how long it can hold for because it’s kind of exhausting, so, uh, maybe we can keep moving and not test it?”
Caelan keeps one arm around me, kissing the side of my head again. “Anything for you, love, let’s go!”
Walking is considerably easier in our little bubble, without the force of the magic working so intensely against us, but it is still slow going. The bubble is only so big, keeping us contained and safe, but it means we have to stay close together at all times, making it difficult when we have to climb over obstacles or pass through dense brush. But we make it work. Our map shows our figures, two little golden dots accompanied by a single violet dot, nearing the edge of the Woods. The sunlight breaking through the trees feels like a blessing from the Gods, lighting our way through this bullshit.
And suddenly it stops.
