Witch Untold by Debbie Cassidy

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Drink this.” Leif handed me a hot lemony drink. “It should help your throat.”

My voice was back, thank God, but it was a croaky whisper.

“Does it hurt?” Tor asked.

I shook my head and sipped the warm drink.

I was curled on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket. Tor had built up the fire and Rune sat beside me, his body heat seeping through the blanket and warming me up.

“Can you remember what happened?” Leif asked softly.

I looked at Rune, neck heating. The last thing I remembered was hot and heavy times with dream Rune, but the guys didn’t need to know that.

I should have woken up when you left the bed, Rune said.

“We all should have.” Tor sat on the edge of the coffee table opposite me and gently took my hand. “This is dried blood.”

Shit. He was right. I had dried blood under my nails. “What the heck is happening to me?”

“Could it be something to do with your trip to Tarrifel?” Leif asked.

Shit. “The changes.” My voice was a whisper. “It has to be something to do with what the entity did to me.”

“Then we need those test results back ASAP,” Tor said.

“They’re working on it.” My voice came out stronger now. I touched my throat. “I think I’m okay.”

“What does it want from you?” Leif pondered. “I don’t like this.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t like it either.” We couldn’t control what was happening, not until we got the results back from Ursula. “It’s impossible to combat the unknown, and I don’t want to waste energy trying. We have enough on our plates.”

“Anna has patrols out looking for the original vampire,” Tor said. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

“I know, but I have Sloane and Wren to worry about, and there are humans being fed on at The Order club. I need to get them out.”

“Which you can’t do until Sloane is better,” Leif pointed out.

So, you rest,Rune added. Take some time to recharge.

“I have to speak to Conah. Jasper went missing again.”

Tor frowned. “Missing?”

Shit, they didn’t know about his blank spots. The fact that he got pulled away sometimes. I filled them in quickly.

Leif and Tor exchanged glances. But it was Rune who spoke.

Conah’s gone.He got a call and said he had urgent Dominus business he had to take care of. Something about the Academy? He said he was sorry and he’d be back as soon as he could.

Shit. Why was I so disappointed? Conah didn’t belong here with me. He belonged with Fee and the other reapers, but having him here, working with him, had kept the connection to that life alive.

But that life wasn’t mine any longer. It was time to let go. “I’ll find another way to help Jasper.”

“We’ll find a way,” Tor said.

I met his slate-gray eyes in surprise. “We?”

He hadn’t hidden the fact that he was less than happy with Jasper being a part of our dynamic. Accepted it, but had not been pleased about it.

“Yes, we.” He reached out and tucked an errant tendril of my hair behind my ear. “What’s important to you is important to us.”

“Thank you.”

He sat back and pressed his hands to his thighs. “So while we wait for Jasper to return, we have a surprise for you.”

A surprise? I tipped my head to the side. “I’m not big on surprises, guys. I mean, the only surprises I’ve had have been the ‘bite you in the ass and turn your life upside down’ kinds of surprises.”

Leif scooped me up off the sofa and hugged me to his chest. “Trust me, you’ll like this one. But first we need to get you washed and dressed.”

I arched a brow at him. “I’m perfectly capable of washing and dressing myself, you know.”

Tor moved in so I was sandwiched between the two of them. “But where would the fun be in that?”

* * *

“Okay, almost there.”Leif held his hands over my eyes while Tor held my hands, guiding me along the upper corridor of the main house toward the bedroom.

Yeah, I’d kinda sussed out what their surprise was, but there was no ignoring the butterflies in my stomach because this was a fresh start for us. The beginning of our family unit where we were all on the same page.

My boots sank into plush carpet and Tor let go of my hands.

Are you ready?Rune asked.

“I’m ready.”

Leif dropped his hands from my eyes.

A huge four-poster bed, hung with gauzy drapes and piled with pillows, greeted me. There was an ottoman at the foot of the bed covered in velvety cream fabric, a beautifully chic cream dresser, and a seating area by the window complete with a magazine rack and huge beanbag that screamed Wren.

“Guys, this is…wow. It looks nothing like it did before.”

“That was the plan,” Leif said. “We thought you’d like to put your own stamp on it, so we can go shopping for extras and…” His gaze flicked to Tor.

Tor grinned, and my heart stuttered at how that simple action lit up his harsh, forbidding features.

He took my hand and led me out into the corridor and to the room next door.

The huge space was lined with racks ready for my boots and clothes. Full-length mirrors covered the back wall and my stunned reflection stared back at me.

They’d done this for me. They’d gone to all this trouble just for me. No one had ever done anything like this for me before. The thought, time, and attention, and…

My eyes pricked and grew hot and the tears came, hot and unforgiving, as if another dam inside me had shattered. I covered my face with my hands and sobbed.

It was messy and unexpected, and oh, God, I felt stupid, but I was helpless to fight it.

“Shit, Cora, shit,” Leif said.

She’s happy,Rune said. Can’t you feel it?

Our connection was suddenly a vibrant, living thing, binding us, drawing us together, and their love was a supernova crashing into me.

For a moment there was nothing but the sound of my sobs and then the guys surrounded me—Rune sat in front of me, head pressed to my abdomen, and the guys’ arms wrapped around me.

We stayed like that for long seconds until my sobs subsided, leaving me light, as if a weight had been hauled off me.

I sniffed and wiped at my face with my sleeves. “Well, that was embarrassing.”

Tor kissed my temple. “No, Cora. That was the most beautiful thank you.”

My lip trembled as fear lanced through me, fear at the possibility of losing them, of losing this. Fear for what tomorrow may bring.

“No.” Leif pinched my chin and turned my head to face him. “Don’t. We’re together and nothing will change that. Ever.”

The voice of doubt wanted to speak up, to remind me that they still had to procreate, that I could never have their children, that this would be over in a century. It wanted to pull me back, to put the walls back up, but I shut it down, pushing it into the furthest recesses of my mind. I wouldn’t let it ruin this for me. I needed this, wanted it. Heck, I deserved it, and nothing was going to take it away from me.

* * *

“Wow!”Bramble did a circuit of my bedroom. “Nice.”

“Yeah, the guys really went all out.”

“And that bed…” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Easily big enough for four.”

I bit back a smile. “Yes, Bramble, I will be co-sleeping with my mates.”

She plucked at the purple drapes. “I’m glad to see you’ve accepted the dynamic. I was worried after what happened with Charlotte…” She trailed off and rolled her lips into her mouth. “Fuck. Every time I think about her, say her fecking name, I get so pissed.”

“Let’s sit.” I parked my ass in one of the seats by the window, a cushy single-seater perfect for reading, if I read.

Bramble parked her butt in the other seat. “I know we need to talk. I fucked up. I ran. I promised to be there for you, and I left.”

“You did what you needed to do. I get it. You needed time to process what happened.”

“She said she loved me and then she used me.” Bramble shook her head, looking out the window. “I was so fucking mad. She betrayed me. But I’ve realized that the issue wasn’t that she didn’t love me, it was that she loved Arne, Sten, and Toke more. She chose them over me and the coven.” Bramble met my gaze. “She made a choice,and it was the wrong choice.”

Yeah, because if she’d trusted in her mates, then maybe things would have been different. “Sten may have found his mate in Tor’s aunt, but he still loves Charlotte. I saw it in his eyes. I’m sure Toke feels the same, and Arne…I can’t imagine he’d have felt any less. Maybe if she hadn’t done what she did they’d have been able to find a way to stay together.”

Bramble’s mouth turned down. “She should have waited. Just fucking trusted in what they had.”

“Yeah. I won’t make the same mistake, no matter how hard it might be. I believe in what the guys and I have.”

“Good,” Bramble said. “And if you have doubts, you come to me. I’m here now. Not going anywhere.” She looked suddenly nervous. “That is, if you still wanna be friends?”

I shrugged and sat back in my seat. “Nah, I’ll pass.”

Her eyes widened and then she guffawed. “Bitch.”

I grinned and sat forward, forearms braced on my thighs. “Serious talk, though. If we’re friends, then we have each other’s backs. Which means no secrets and no running off.”

She nodded solemnly. “I feel like we need to pinky swear on that.”

I held up my pinky. “Agreed.”

She hooked her pinky with mine. “Friends.”

We shook on it and sat back in our seats.

“Have you heard from Elijah?”

She nodded. “Anna has him on the hunt for Razor Smile.”

“It won’t be long before Vlad and his brothers come back to hunt.”

“Yeah, but they won’t have a portal this time,” Bramble pointed out.

“I get the impression they have other modes of transport.”

“Mist and bats?”

“Yeah, creepy.”

I’d hoped to ask Elijah about Jasper’s problem, but now that he was gone…

“What’s bothering you?” Bramble asked.

“Jasper.”

“And that’s new?” She grinned.

“Ha, no. He’s been disappearing, and not of his own volition. He doesn’t know what’s happening or where he goes, and he has no control over it. I was going to ask Conah to help figure out what was happening, but he left to deal with urgent reaper stuff, and Elijah is working on tracking Razor Smile so…Yeah, I’m not sure what to do.”

Bramble gnawed on her bottom lip. “Jasper was held captive by an independent witch, right? A blood witch?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Well, I’m thinking that maybe the best person to ask about malevolent spirits might be another blood witch. I mean, Jasper might be unique to us, but maybe he’s not unique to blood witches?”

“You think they all have malevolent spirits?”

She shrugged. “Even if Jasper is unique, the blood witch might have some insight as to how this other blood witch got hold of him, where he might have come from, and where he goes.”

“I’m sure Jasper would have looked into his origins.”

“Yeah?” Her brows flicked up. “Do you think he’d put himself in the vicinity of someone who might be able to capture him?”

He had done that once that I knew of, but then there could have been other variables at play I had no knowledge of. “I don’t know.”

“We should follow this line of investigation.” She grinned. “I mean, what else have we got to do, right?”

“I assume you know a blood witch.”

“Nope. But I know someone who might.”