Wildfire Witch (The Cursed Coven of Spells Hollow)

2. Nix

NIX

In all my lives, I doubted I’d been dumb stricken quite as thoroughly as the moments after Ceridor’s surprise statement. My husband ? And the way he was looking at me…his silvery eyes soft with affection. I could believe he knew me, and had lingering feelings for the past version of me he’d married.

When my mind caught up, my gaze darted to Seth, who seemed entirely unsurprised by what was going on. He might’ve been excited, actually, but his expression shifted to a touch of jealousy with a tightened jaw and a flash of his perfect teeth.

What the hell? Where were the hidden cameras and why weren’t they shouting that this was just a prank?

I decided to laugh it off and see if this fae man could produce any more evidence that he knew me. After all, he could be a member of the Fire Brotherhood and engaging in a new tactic to get me to let my guard down, so he could kidnap me and earn the bounty on my head. In that case, Seth was definitely his partner in crime.

With a forced chuckle I barely strangled out of my lungs, I said, “I think you have me mistaken for someone else. My name is Nix. If I had a husband?—”

“Nix,” Ceridor interrupted. “Short for phoenix, I presume?”

He could still be a fire bro. All of them know about my phoenix.

“How is Aodhnait doing?” he asked, sounding like he cared.

She hummed loudly in approval. The sound filled the truck’s enclosed space and provided the only answer she could give on her own. “Ours,” she stated. What had gotten into her?

“Pretty great,” I answered dryly. I eyed the exit, blocked by their bulk, and that made me feel vulnerable. “Well gents, this has been…interesting, but I smell like spilled coffee and burned electronics, so if you’ll excuse me. A cold shower is calling my name.”

“No, don’t run away from him,” Aodhnait practically whined.

Arching a blue and white brow, Ceridor said, “I shall accompany you to your home.”

“I’ll clean up here,” Seth volunteered. They exchanged a glance and the fae nodded his approval.

It was unusual for my phoenix and me to have such an opposite reaction to a situation or person. She was thrilled that Ceridor had offered to come with us. He placed his glamor back on and stepped out of the truck first. I was just glad to get some air and a moment away from his expectant stare to think.

Aodhnait wanted to trust him. But in this world? I trusted no one. I had too many half-remembered deaths performed by the hands of those I’d confided in. Aodhnait was too valuable a prize —even so-called “friends” had tried to pry her from my chest, only for us all to die consumed by fire in the attempt.

Shaking my head, I turned and looked up at Ceridor. He’d blunted his fae beauty by sanding the sharpness of his features and shading them into human colors, so he had tanned skin, dirty blond curls, and a twinkling pair of sky-blue eyes.

Even with the modifications, he looked like a male model wearing firefighter gear. He was so handsome that it was unfair. I wanted to run my fingertips over his cheekbone and leave a smudge of ash, to mark some of that skin that was too pristine for someone who’d just put out a raging fire.

No, Nix. Focus.

“Your firefighter buddies will be expecting you,” I suggested.

He lifted a hand dismissively. “My wife’s needs take priority in all things.”

My heart gave a little flutter and this time, I couldn’t tell if it was Aodhnait or me reacting.

He dropped his voice, leaning in and resting his hand on my shoulder. “Verity, I have chased rumors and loose ends for an age, yearning to see your face again. What can I do to prove that I am being genuine?”

If I thought his human glamor would make his gaze less intense, I was wrong. I reasoned with myself in that moment as he waited for my response. If he’s a stranger, he’s either completely unhinged or a fire bro. If he’s telling the truth, then I need him to share everything he knows. He may be the key to me breaking my curse.

“Tell me one fact about myself that no one but my husband would know,” I challenged.

His smile was immediate and edged in wickedness. I cursed internally, thinking he’d just make something up about our potentially fictional sex life. “Fae cannot lie, remember?” Aodhnait said.

I hadn’t gotten a traditional supernatural education in this life…so I didn’t know that for sure. But if it was accurate, he’d already outright stated that my name had once been Verity and that he’d once been my husband.

“True and true,” she whispered.

“We met in your first life, when you were Verity Carmine. I was serving as a guard for a Wind Court delegation that’d flown to Spells Hollow to strengthen diplomatic ties with your coven. It was the first assignment that I had to leave my home court for. I was young, untried, and irritable about the length of the flight. A gathering of witches greeted us when we arrived. I looked into the crowd for any dangers to the wind lord, as was my job, and ended up meeting your gaze.”

He cupped my face. I’d slap any other man for such a bold move, but…his story and the tenderness of his touch spellbound me. I wanted to lean into it. He gazed at me with devotion, and it didn’t seem faked or forced.

“Time itself slowed as the magic in me recognized the one I am meant to complete. In that moment, I knew you were my fated. You were the one that I would make my mate…in human terms, my wife,” he said.

He dropped his hand back to his side, leaving my cheek tingling.

“Then what happened?” I winced at the smoky rasp still lingering in my voice.

“Oh, you wish to hear the rest?” He tilted his head, a playful challenge tugging at his lips. “Perhaps you should shower, and then I will tell you more over lunch.”

Something phoenix-shaped within me screamed to accept his offer. I’d be a fool to turn away someone who truly remembered me as I was, before my curse took root. As I pushed aside my skepticism and nodded in agreement, I wondered…was Ceridor the reason I felt driven to return to Seattle in each of my lives?

I felt like a completely new woman after a shower and change of clothes. Ceridor waited outside of my apartment, standing guard like a sentinel. I could see where it’d been his job in another life, before he became a firefighter for some reason.

“To find us,” Aodhnait said.

It seemed so. If that was the extent of his plan, though, what a terrible one. A different set of firefighters could’ve been called to the café, or I could’ve had an episode in some halfway house on the way to Seattle and completely missed him.

“Stop assuming things. Besides, he’s here, and he’s ours. That’s all that matters,” my phoenix stated.

“Aren’t you protective?” I asked, lifting my brow.

Ceridor had been talking while I’d tuned out of reality to speak to Aodhnait. He was mid-question, and I probably looked like I was judging him.

“Or I could leave it on your doorstep,” he was saying.

I blinked back into awareness. “Hmm?”

“My gear,” he said. “I’m still decent under all this, I promise you.”

I was still confused until he gestured toward my apartment door. Oh . He wanted to store all that fireproof gear he wore inside. Something I should’ve offered, else we’d be turning heads for however long this lunch date lasted. I let him in so he could take off that heavy-looking layer and focused on my phoenix again.

“I’m protective because he’s ours, and he can help us,” she said.

“You keep repeating ‘ours’,” I said.

“Yes.” She paused. The heartburn sensation that gripped my chest was unmistakably her thinking hard. “He can help us,” she repeated.

“How?”

“I don’t remember. He just will!” she snapped.

Ceridor emerged from my apartment in a black shirt and pants. The tight material clung to his lean form, hinting at the outline of muscles in all the right places. I forced my gaze back up to his, so I wasn’t ogling him.

He watched my scowling expression turn into that quick perusal and lifted a suggestive eyebrow. “That was an internal argument face,” he commented. “Hopefully about lunch. Have a favorite place within walking distance?”

“Sure,” I said, a complete lie. I could barely afford the apartment I shared with a near-stranger, who was always away working one of two retail jobs. I ate what I could sneak away from the café or the cheapest offerings at the supermarket, not anything from the bougie strip malls nearby.

He checked his phone while I led him in that direction. “I will pay, of course,” he said. With a soft ‘huh’ he returned the device to his pocket.

“Thank you,” I said.

An awkward silence stretched between us during the walk and the time it took me to pick a noodle shop for lunch. I had so many questions for my surprise-husband, but I didn’t want to talk in a busy crowd, and, well. Now that the shock had worn off, the intrusive thoughts were crowding my headspace. He saw something in me ? Really?

My curse was the most interesting thing about me, after the memory loss that came with my deaths and subsequent resurrections. He’d probably find me as interesting as an overcooked piece of toast once we sat down for a serious chat.

No, don’t think that way. You clean up well. You’re like a seven in a dress and heels.

But what if he remembers a much different Nix?

I was likely much different than the woman he’d once loved. This man who could be my savior was about to have his rose tinted glasses removed and then we would see if I lived up to the “Verity” in his mind.

We were shown to a table and, once we ordered, I no longer had the barrier of a menu to hide behind. Ceridor had a dreamy look of nostalgia as he took me in, chin propped on his fist.

“I can hardly believe I finally found you,” he said in a fond whisper.

“Relax,” Aodhnait finally huffed.

“I shouldn’t have agreed to this. It’s too intimate,” I answered. He was looking at me like I’d hung the stars, and I hadn’t done a single thing to deserve that.

At Ceridor’s request, we’d been seated in a quiet corner booth. Our conversation would have some privacy. I also didn’t have to worry about sitting in a chair next to the windows with views out to the sidewalk and parking lot. No need to keep an eye out for any sign of fire bros.

I hadn’t been so preoccupied with Ceridor that I’d forgotten to note the entrances and exits. Like always, I’d picked a seat with my back to a wall. I was ready to flee if I spotted an uncommonly large man or woman with a hint of an animal side to them and I never took chances or waited to see if a shifter had the iconic flame tattoo before fleeing. It was the only choice if the fire bros found me again…run like hell.

“You are uncomfortable.” A hint of Ceridor’s fae magic slipped into his voice, cool and soothing. He gestured to my hand, which was still bandaged. “This hurts you?”

I jumped on the easy lifeline he’d offered, nodding and humming in agreement.

“I’m not so dense as to avoid acknowledging that I must be part of your discomfort as well.” He hesitated, searching my face and sighing at what he saw, or didn’t see. He must be looking for any spark of his old flame, a woman who was long turned to ash. “What do you remember of your past, Verity?”

“Nix,” I corrected again.

He ignored that and started asking rapid-fire questions, “Do you remember Spells Hollow?”

I shook my head no.

“What of Royce?”

“Who’s that?” I replied. It was another old-fashioned name, and I had the niggling feeling that I should know it.

Ceridor’s lips pressed into a grim line. “Do you remember Melisande?”

I should’ve known that one too. The more I said no, the more concerned he seemed to be.

“What is your earliest memory?” he finally asked.

A sterile white room.

Restraints. Needles. Burns. Pain.

Shifters in white lab coats.

My throat clicked, and I shook my head. He didn’t need to know about any of that. I’d escaped the fire bros lifetimes ago and evaded them since; generations of shifters had tried to take me back to that room to get their claws on Aodhnait. No matter what else I forgot…the memory of their experiments and their covetous boss never seemed to fade.

I needed to get my mind out of that dark place. “You were going to tell me the rest of your story,” I prompted him.

He breathed a humorless laugh. “I was so desperate for you to remember me that I overlooked a much bigger issue. How are you to know me if you don’t know yourself?”

A flare of fiery temper rose in my chest. “How am I going to know anything if we keep dancing around the subject?”

After considering me for a few heartbeats, he inclined his head. “We met eyes while I was doing my duty, but we spoke for the first time when the covens threw a celebration that evening. You were young, younger than you are now. Twenty-two, at most.” His features relaxed slowly while he must’ve pictured that distant past. “The wind lord was too paranoid to let any of his guards off for the night, so I spent the evening up against a wall, hoping for another glimpse of you.

“You came to me with a carafe of wine and two glasses. ‘I cannot partake right now,’ I said. And you scoffed.”

He circled the rim of his ice water with one of his fingers. The memory had brought a carefree smile to his face, a glimpse of the happiness I’d brought this stunning man once upon a time. I liked the sight.

“You said the second glass was for your familiar, but I could hold it for her if I liked. Aodhnait picked that moment to fly through an open window and alight on your shoulder. She was a vision of fire and crimson feathers. To see you together was…breathtaking.”

“Familiar,” I repeated under my breath.

“A vision,” Aodhnait echoed similarly.

I cleared my throat. “This was before the curse, obviously.”

“Indeed. You had not pursued the full extent of your power yet. With Aodhnait as your familiar, you were trying to master the wielding of the four elements. No witch had accomplished such a thing before.”

“Or ever,” I muttered. “When I wield magic now, it comes from her, not me.”

He nodded like this was not news to him. Before he could continue his story, our pho arrived. I inhaled from the cloud of steam rising from the bowl, my belly rumbling hollowly. This was going to be the best lunch I’d had in a long-ass time.

Ceridor watched me add chili oil to my meal, brow raised skeptically. I took a test sip and nodded. It was spicy enough to set the average person on fire, which made it perfect.

He waited for me to take my first bite before picking up where he’d left off. “You were from a family of green witches, but you combined your family’s knowledge of the natural world and alchemy with your experiments trying to control the elements, especially fire. Your research had led you to something called the symmetry of magic. Does that ring any bells?”

I shook my head no slowly, a line of frustration etching between my brows. It sounded like something I should know, but I’d forgotten it. Another set of memories turned to ashes, recounted back to me like a page out of a stranger’s life.

Ceridor didn’t do the best job of hiding his disappointment. He stirred his meal with his chopsticks and watched the noodles swirl in the broth. “It is an outdated view of magic, anyway.” He sighed, long and troubled. “Your attempts were admirable, but ultimately, all of your research was lost and no one has managed to replicate what you were capable of. Witches in this age have turned to perfecting the spells and rituals for the reliable magic sources.”

“Wish I’d chosen something more reliable,” I muttered.

“We’ll see if you still believe that once your memories return.” He sounded so confident that it would happen that I had to scoff. Putting his palms up, he said, “There is a rare celestial event happening late this evening, a super blood moon. Witch magic will behave in erratic ways and strange occurrences will be commonplace for the time the moon turns red.”

I raised a dubious brow. “Sounds like a great opportunity to burn to death.” My curse made Aodhnait’s fire unpredictable already. Any more erratic and this would be the night I died again, unless I took precautions.

“It may be one of the few times you can commune with a past life and restore your memories,” he pointed out. “If you like, you can view tonight’s moon with Seth and me. Our apartment’s balcony would be perfect for it.” He watched my reaction with obvious hope.

It was phrased as an innocent enough invitation, but going over to their place to sit under the stars…I felt a little flush. I poised my lips to say no thanks.

“And”—he leaned in and my breath caught at the intensity flaring in his gaze—“We would be on hand to douse any fire of yours with wind and water. You will be safe, I swear it.”

My knee-jerk answer dried up on my tongue. It wasn’t like me to agree to watch the moon with two men, but I believed him. I would be safer during a celestial phenomenon with a pair of supernaturals who could counter my flames.

“Okay.” I surprised even myself at my easy agreement. “It’ll just be looking at the moon. If it works, then maybe…”

Maybe I’ll remember Ceridor and those other things he’d mentioned. Spells Hollow, alchemy, the symmetry of magic, my family. Even the people, Royce and Melisande.

“And me, as I used to be. A breathtaking vision of fire and feathers,” Aodhnait whispered.

“Or I will remember how to break this curse so I can see you again with my own eyes,” I answered.

She hummed in my chest at the thought.