Witch Unbound by Debbie Cassidy

Chapter Eleven

The hum of gentle voices tugged me out of sleep. I was home, tucked up on the sofa in the lounge under my favorite throw.

“She’s awake.” Bramble rushed toward me and then slowed to carefully park her butt by my hip. “Hey, how you feeling?”

“Like I was chased by a twenty-foot carnivorous worm and then hit by a ten-ton spider.” I sat up, wincing at the soreness in my limbs.

The guys gathered closer, Tor taking his habitual spot on the coffee table, Leif crouching on the floor beside me, and Rune hovering behind Bramble.

They looked relieved, concerned, pale with red-rimmed eyes. They’d been crying. I’d done that to them by almost dying. Again. I’d put them through hell.

“I’m sorry.” My eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry for putting you through that.”

“Fuck that,” Leif said. “All we care about is that you’re alive.”

“That you’re safe,” Rune added.

“The rest doesn’t matter,” Tor finished.

It mattered. It mattered a lot, but it was a testament to how much they loved me that they were able to absolve me so easily.

I wiped my eyes with my sleeve. “Jasper didn’t make it back, did he?”

Bramble shook her head. “No, babe, he didn’t.” She frowned. “Wait, did you see him there?”

I nodded. “I did. I couldn’t get to him, though, and then…Well, you saw the state of me.” I looked up at my guys, knowing that my next words were going to cause a ruckus, but I had to say them even if only to get shot down. “I have to go back.”

I expected explosions, curses, resistance, but none of the guys reacted. Instead, they looked at me with compassion, as if they felt sorry for me. Why were they looking at me like that?

“Cora…” Bramble took my hand. “There is no going back.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“While you were in the abyss, Ida explained to us how much energy the spell to open a doorway to that place takes. It’s not something she can do regularly. She said it’ll take her a month or maybe more to recover from it.”

Panic tightened my chest. “A month? You mean I can’t go back for another month?”

Bramble rolled her bottom lip into her mouth. “She also said that if Jasper isn’t back by then, he probably won’t be back at all.”

I stared at her as the implications of what she was saying sank in.

There was no going back via Ida, but that didn’t mean there was no going back at all.

* * *

Conah’sphone went to voicemail again. I stood outside the cabin and took a deep breath, then called Fee. Please go through, please…

She answered on the sixth ring, sounding out of breath. “Cora? Is everything okay?”

Yeah, it was late, an unsociable time for a call, but I needed this. “Jasper’s vanished and I need Conah’s help to get him back.”

I caught the distant rumble of a masculine voice and then the sound of a door closing. I’d interrupted her downtime with one of her guys, but I didn’t care.

This was more important.

“Cora, there are major issues in the underealm right now. Conah and Mal are working with the Academies to resolve them, and Azazel’s making regency visits. I can send a phoenix, though.”

It would have to do. “Please.”

“How long has he been gone, Cor?”

“Too long.”

I filled her in on the abyss trip and circled back to my getaway with the guys, my almost dive off the cliff, and my trip to Tarrifel. I left out the part about my injuries, because I doubted that she’d be so eager to help me go back to the abyss if she knew how dangerous it was. The only reason the guys were on board was because we’d agreed that this time, they’d come with me.

I wrapped up my account. “I seem to be important to this entity somehow.”

“And these…changes…”

“I don’t know.”

“Cora…I’m scared for you.”

She had no idea. Me too. “I’m fine, babe. I got this. I’ll be down for New Year. Christmas is a thing here, so I need to stay for that, but after…”

“Yeah…”

We lapsed into silence.

“Cora…” Fee sighed. “I fucking miss you.”

My eyes pricked. “I miss you too, babe.”

Light spilled onto the porch and kissed my boots.

“Cora?” Rune stood framed in the doorway, his expression etched with compassion.

“I got to go, Fee, but I’ll see you soon.”

“I’ll send the phoenix,” Fee said.

“Love you.” I looked into Rune’s eyes as I said it, the words meant for them both.

“Love you too,” Fee said.

I hung up and walked into Rune’s arms. He hugged me to his broad chest and kissed the top of my head. I didn’t need to tell him the phone call hadn’t yielded the results I’d hoped for. The tears that spilled and soaked into his shirt did that just fine.

* * *

The next daywas spent watching movies and eating way too much food. The guys had patrol in the evening, but Rune opted to stay with me and get his beta to cover the runs.

We watched Avatar, and I must have dropped off because I woke to Wren passed out on my lap, empty bowl of popcorn on the floor, distended belly pointing at the ceiling. He snored softly, a smile on his cute face.

The room was dark, only one lamp and the flames in the hearth to throw light. It looked like Tor and Leif were still out, but where was Rune?

He entered the lounge a moment later carrying a duvet. “Oh, you’re awake.”

“Totally.” I grinned up at him. “No aches or pains.”

“Glad to hear it. You want some hot chocolate?”

“Yum, yes, please.”

He chuckled and headed into the kitchen.

I carefully moved Wren off my lap and laid him on the sofa before joining Rune.

I leaned up against the wall by the counter while he got the milk out of the fridge and popped a pan on the stove.

He poured milk into the pan and set it on the cooker. “Marshmallows and sprinkles?”

My heart swelled with love. “Come here.” I beckoned him.

He bridged the distance between us, his eyes darkening with desire the closer he got, and what was meant to be a hug morphed into my palms sliding up over his pecs and my fingers sinking into his golden locks. It became a tilt of the chin, warm breath mingling and hungry lips meeting. He tasted sweet and salty, and I deepened the kiss, wanting more of his flavor, wanting the lash of his tongue in my mouth as I devoured him.

Mine.

A force surged up inside me, and I spun us so that he was the one pushed against the wall and I was the aggressor. His heart pounded in time with mine as we consumed each other with ravenous gasps between airless kisses.

“What’s that smell?”

Wren’s voice yanked us out of our bubble of passion. We surfaced, panting and dazed.

Rune licked his bottom lip, his attention fixed on my mouth, and it took everything I had not to kiss him again.

“Cora?” Wren sounded annoyed.

And then the smell hit me. Burning.

“Shit!” Rune brushed by me to rescue the milk pan.

Too late.

Milk had boiled over and was sizzling happily against the hot rings.

God, that smelled bad.

Wren came to stand in front of me with his hands on his hips and his brows drawn in a frown. “Bad Cora. You wasted milk.”

I bit back a smile cos, damn, he looked super cute. “I’m sorry, buddy. I got—”

“Stuck on Rune? Yes, Wren knows all about the mating stuff. But not when boiling milk, Cora.” He said it earnestly, as if educating me, and I couldn’t help myself.

I scooped him up and squeezed him.

“Cora!” He kicked his legs for a moment but then relaxed against me and snuggled in. “My Cora.”

“My Wren.”

Rune stuck the burned milk pan in the sink to soak and then turned to us. “That was the last of the milk, though.”

“Shit, I really want hot chocolate. Now.”

He grinned. “And you shall have some. I’ll pop into town and grab a couple of pints.”

“Wren come too!”

“We’ll all go.” I glanced at the clock. It was almost eleven. “Shouldn’t the guys be back by now?”

Rune nodded. “We can swing by and pick them up, then go into town and grab a burger?”

Anything was better than waiting around. I didn’t want to have time to dwell on Jasper and feel impotent.

“Let’s do it.”

* * *