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“Thanks, it’s all good, though. I just… Hopefully Edith can fix this and we can go back to life. I am so tired.” I scrub a hand over my face. My hands are restless. That feeling is back. To distract myself, I begin to pick at the loose threads on the arm of the chair. “And feel so shit. There are so many things missing and I just feel like there is something so big wrong. There is a part of me missing.”
Emotions too big to name well within me, and out of nowhere a spark erupts from my hand, a flame singeing the ugly green fabric of the couch. Horrified, I quickly slap the flame out with my bare hand. It doesn’t hurt in the slightest, but there is an ugly black scorch mark on the couch.
“What in the actual fuck was that?”
Wide-eyed, I flick between the burn mark and Seff’s shocked face. He takes a few moments, eyebrows twisting together in thought. Seff frowns at me. His eyes narrow as he looks me over, head to toe.
“You don’t think… I mean, you’ve forgotten him so you couldn’t. But still.”
“I swear to god, Seff, finish a fucking sentence or I’ll punch you. I’ve had enough mysteries to last a lifetime. You don’t thinkwhat?”
“It’s stupid. I mean, you couldn’t have. Except you guys were so hot together, and you were in the Woods at full moon… Could you have mated? Could that be what you feel?”
I can’t help but snort at the suggestion. “First, I’mbarelya shifter. And second, If I were mated to somebody, surely I would remember them?”
Seff shrugs, far too accepting of the situation, and starts throwing the cushion I’d chucked at him up in the air repeatedly. “Who knows, Cae, but something big is off with everything, but most especially you. I can smell it. And last I heard, part wolf shifters can’t shoot flames from their fingertips when they’re stressed.”
I blink at the burn mark a couple of times, before covering it with a doily. Maybe if I don’t look at it, we can all pretend it didn’t happen and it won’t happen again. Satisfied with my plan, and that Seff iswrong,I sink back further into the overstuffed couch I’m sprawled on. Everything is fine. There is no way that I have beenmated. It is ridiculous. Edith will do her thing and we’ll find out what’s been going on and everything will go back to normal.
***
I must’ve dozed off because when Edith bursts into the room yelling her success holding two steaming mugs of tea, I snap upright into a dark room, lit only by a handful of candles in what could only be described as a major burning hazard. Seff is asleep on the couch across from me, head thrown back, mouth open. His hat has slipped half off his head, and his feet are propped on the coffee table in front of me. I kick it with my foot to wake him.
“W’as that?” he mumbles, sitting upright, taking a big breath in as he stretches and immediately regretting it as the pungent smell of the tea smacks him in the face. “Damn, Edie, that shit smells rank.”
“Shut up, mutt, this brew’ll fix Caelan and me right up.” She passes me mine and I blink at the thick, vaguely green liquid in the old chipped mug, trying not to dry-retch at the smell. “Okay, so we drink this up, have a sleep and in the morning we should remember.”
I swirl the disgusting sludge in the cup. It’s soviscous. “Are you sure this will work?”
Her pointed boot toe to my ankle is the only confirmation she’s willing to give me before she throws her head back and swallows the vile liquid in one go.
“Drink up, buttercup.”
I flip him off, but Seff’s smile is positively ridiculous as I try not to gag on the disgusting-tasting liquid. I manage to keep it down without hurling and resettle myself onto the couch.
“Well, here’s hoping that we wake up to some answers.” There must’ve been something a little extra in that “tea” because I am out before my head hits the cushions.
Caelan
“Thatbitch!” Edith slams her bedroom door open, stalking her way into the living room, the air shimmering around her with unrestrained magic and rage. In her hand is a gleaming silver sword, deadly sharp and far too large and lethal for the small and hot-headed witch. I blink awake, trying to figure out what is going on and where in ether Tor is.
Shit.
Tor.
Like a crumbling concrete wall smashing down over me, Iremember.Him showing up in Whisper Wells, our trek through the Woods, being bonded mates, and finally our confrontation with the glowing woman thing at the cottage. Shit. We’d found Theo too. Theo was definitely there before everything had happened and the pain and…
Seff thrusts a big metal bowl underneath me just as I roll off the couch, unleashing the contents of my stomach. He rubs my back again, making soft comforting sounds as I heave up everything inside me. The return of my memories sends my head into a tailspin. Eventually my stomach is empty and I kneel back up, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
“I remember. I remembereverything.” A shudder of terror grips my spine. “We need to go back, we need to find them. She has Tor. Theo. Shehas them.” Seff hugs my shoulder tighter and it takes everything in me to not throw him off me. He just wants to help, and so I let him comfort me as the return of my memoriesassaults me.
Edith bobs down in front of me, pressing her forehead to mine. “We are going to get that fae bitch. I swear it on my powers and the Woods themselves. She willpay.”
I sniffle back tears I didn’t know were there, nodding somberly. But if I am one hundred percent honest with myself, the idea of going back and facing whatever the fuck that was makes me want to run back to my farm and never tread foot into the Woods again. But Tor needs me.Tor.Guilt atforgettingmakes me feel nauseous all over again.
“Do you know what happened? How did we forget? How did we get here?” With their help I unsteadily rise to my feet. “Gods, Edith, she was so powerful. How can we defeat her?”
An unsettling smile cracks Edith’s serious expression, and once again I am glad to be on her team.
