Wildfire Witch (The Cursed Coven of Spells Hollow)

3. Nix

NIX

Ceridor dropped me off at my apartment and left with his firefighter gear. I spent the rest of the day in my room, packing my things and scrolling the local news for what they were reporting about the café.

I still needed to leave. The Fire Brotherhood would notice this morning’s random act of arson. Even though my name and likeness weren’t a part of the news, there was still a high likelihood the fire bros would still come sniffing around, trying to find me.

It didn’t take too long to split everything I owned between a backpack and a duffel bag. I hadn’t gotten any extra stuff since settling in Seattle and scraping by with my barista job, which was good. I was at my limits for how much I could grab in an emergency, and I hated leaving things behind.

The most expensive thing I owned, besides my antique phone, was an emergency fire protection kit, complete with an extinguisher, fire blanket, fire resistant gloves, and packets of burn gel. The kit came with its own over-the-shoulder bag.

Everything else was also there for practical use. There was little sense in bothering with jewelry when I could burn or even melt it if the curse tried to take me. The same went for my clothes, which were thrift shop finds. I had multiples of anything I had to wear, just in case I ruined an entire outfit.

I rounded the backpack with as many bottles of water and trail bars as would fit. Finally, I counted out my cash and wadded up half of it to slide into the backpack’s inner pocket. The other half of my money, I left on the bed beside a handwritten letter to my roommate, telling her I was leaving and apologizing for the short notice.

With that done, I would watch the moon tonight and leave in the morning. No fire bros would catch me.

“But where will we go?” Aodhnait whispered.

I bit my lip. I’d spent lifetimes trying to get to Seattle. There was no other destination I felt compelled to go to.

Sighing, I ran my hands through my hair. “We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

“I’m tired of running. We found Ceridor. He can help us.”

She sounded like a broken record at this point. Meanwhile, the claws of doubt had sunk into my mind again. “Ceridor wants his wife back. That’s the only reason he’s doing anything for us.”

It was a fantasy to assume any kind of celestial event would bring back who I used to be. When he’d suggested it was possible, I’d let myself get swept up in his hope. But now that I was alone…I knew it wouldn’t work. How many super blood moons had come and gone in the years I’d been cursed?

“Magic is unpredictable on its own. Remember…variables affect results,” Aodhnait murmured.

“Our curse isn’t some science experiment,” I huffed.

“Magic is science.”

I didn’t know why, but I immediately agreed. It had the familiarity of a saying I used to live by. Well, we had different variables tonight. Ceridor and Seth would be there to make sure I didn’t burn to death, depending on what happened when the moon shaded red.

“Just put your distrust aside for a few hours. Name the worst-case scenario,” she invited.

“We get captured and experimented on by fire bros.” That was only my first thought. “Or we burn to death. Or…”

I hesitated, and she picked up on it. “Yes?” she coaxed.

“Nothing changes.” Somehow, that was the worst thing I could think of. If nothing changed, we were no closer to figuring out this curse. Heading to Seattle was the only lead we had, and to run from it…

“We’ll figure it out,” Aodhnait said meaningfully, echoing my wisdom back to me. “We always do.”

I nodded and gathered my things, leaving the apartment without a glance backward. There was no sense in yearning for stability when I could burn it to the ground in an instant. I just had to keep going. Expect the worst, hope for the best.

The sun was setting and the breeze chilly as it stroked through the red tones of my hair. I didn’t shiver, nor was I wearing a jacket despite the cool fall day. Aodhnait provided all the heat I needed.

As I headed down the sidewalk, resigned to a several hour walk to the address Ceridor had given to his and Seth’s apartment, there was movement in the parking lot. I whipped my head in that direction and lowered my duffel to the ground, making a fist and preparing to super-heat a fireball within it for self-defense.

It was Ceridor, still glamored, poking his head out of the driver’s side window of a car. “Where are you going with all that?” he asked in a panic.

I stared back at him, noting the placement of his car. “Were you watching my apartment?” I countered.

“Tell me you’re not fleeing.” He cut his car’s engine and rushed out to stand in front of me.

I put the emergency kit down too and propped my fists on my hips. “ Fleeing , Ceridor? It’s the twenty-first century. Also, you didn’t answer my question.”

He stared down at me, unamused. “As you have not answered mine,” he rumbled.

Heat pooled low in my belly. He could growl like that at me any time he liked. But there was more than just anger in his expression. By the way he looked at me and the stuff I’d packed for a long trip, he was clearly putting two and two together and showing a hint of…vulnerability. Fear, maybe.

But I wasn’t running away from him yet. He still had information I needed and magic that could calm my own. I put my palms up. “I know what it looks like, but I was just starting the walk to your apartment,” I said.

“Walk,” he repeated.

“I don’t have a car.”

His long lashes fell in a disbelieving blink. Then he bent and took my kit and duffel. “My wife will not be walking,” he muttered.

“Hey,” I protested, following when he carried my stuff to the trunk of his car and deposited them.

“He’s very helpful,” Aodhnait commented.

Ceridor lifted my backpack’s straps, and I moved my arms so he could take that, too. He shut the trunk and gestured for me to get in the car. If he wanted to drive me, by all means.

“So?” I said once I was buckled in and we were rolling away from the apartment complex. The sun’s angle lent a glare to the surrounding vehicles.

The glance he gave me was more silver than blue, a glimpse of his fae power lifting the little hairs on my arms. “Is everything you own now in the trunk?” he asked. He sounded unhappy.

“Are you still not going to tell me why you were watching my apartment?” I countered.

Lips pinching, he said, “I was following my responsibility to keep you safe. It displeases you to know I was guarding you?”

He was completely serious. I stared, considering what I wanted to say next carefully. He was obsessed. We’d only just met…but, no, that was just my perception of things. “I know our situation is, um, unique?—”

His hands tightened on the steering wheel and he interrupted quickly. “I have only just found you, Verity. I can’t risk losing you. Not again. These centuries without you, they have been…unbearable.” He cleared his throat as my brows bunched into a scowl. “Sorry. It’s Nix now. For all you know, I’m a stranger.”

“Yeah.” But wow, my heart hurt when his expression shaded with pain. Half of that was Aodhnait, but I still felt bad for this intense man and the situation my curse had put us in. “That doesn’t mean we can’t start over, I guess.” By his flinch, that was not the right thing to say. I lowered my voice. “I’m not trying to hurt you. But you are coming on really strong.”

He took a long inhale, and the static feeling of his magic disappeared from the space between us. By the time he was done, his glamor was perfectly in place, as was a stony face he’d probably perfected as a guard long ago. “My apologies, Nix,” he said.

I nodded, letting us lapse into silence. That didn’t mean I had peace, though. “Tell him about the Fire Brotherhood,” Aodhnait urged.

“I just got him to back off,” I argued.

“Maybe when we run from this place, he will know where to go next! Or he can come along and protect us.”

I studied the roadway to avoid side-eyeing Ceridor.

“We’ll bring the water witch too,” she added.

“No. They’re strangers.”

“Now you’re just being stubborn because I’m right. They have a car we can use.”

“They could still be fire bros.”

“They’re no more fire bros than I’m a fire sis.”

I snorted, my response light-hearted. “We’ve been over this—there are no fire sisters. It’s the Fire Brotherhood, so there are only fire bros.”

Aodhnait crackled, her equivalent of mirth or approval. I ended up smiling a bit too and even considered her side of the argument when Ceridor slowed before the gates leading to a set of fancy new apartments. As the gate trundled open, he glanced over at me. “My house in the Wind Court is far grander than a block of these apartments.”

“If it wasn’t, I’d be shocked. You’re what, a thousand years old?” I asked dryly.

His laugh was short and rusty. “I have yet to see my four hundredth year.”

I eyed him speculatively, not like I saw anything but a twenty-something human in the driver’s seat. “So, you’re three hundred and ninety-nine years old, then?”

He smirked as he eased the car into the apartment complex. “Something like that.”

“Three hundred and seventy-five,” I guessed.

“Closer.” He parked and popped the trunk. He was out the door and gathering up my stuff before I formed another guess. I got out of the car and reached for my backpack, and he brushed my hand aside to sling one strap up on his shoulder instead.

He carried the life I’d built myself to the nearest building. There was a winding sidewalk through patches of recently cut grass and a single tree along the way, its bronze leaves swaying in the breeze that passed it when Ceridor walked under its branches. We took the stairs to the third floor, where he let us into a corner apartment.

I walked through a veil of delicious smells and inhaled deeply. The kitchen was straight ahead and Seth stood in front of a sizzling pan. He turned and lit up when he saw me, smiling a brilliant white grin. “Oh, hey! Cer didn’t tell me he was bringing you this early.”

“Surprise,” I said awkwardly. The fae went to their living room to drop my stuff beside their couch.

I drifted over to see what Seth was making that smelled so good. He was in the process of sautéing a colorful pan of veggies and was wearing an oil-flecked apron that read “Kiss the Cook” with a red lipstick print.

Oh, no . I liked this as much as his EMT uniform. He made for a cute chef.

“If I do as instructed, will you make me some too?” I asked. Then immediately regretted it when he glanced down and a hint of pink lit his cheeks. That was a too-bold offer by my standards.

“I mean, I will, you don’t have to…” He glanced past me and I turned. Ceridor had dropped his glamor and was gathering plates and cutlery to set out at their little kitchen table. The fae dropped a fork on the counter with a little too much force as he listened to us.

Seth cleared his throat and went back to sautéing, shooing me out of the kitchen to sit and wait for him to finish cooking, I sat across from Ceridor, trying not to stare at the distraction of his wind-kissed fae beauty and the fact that he’d gone back to admiring me with his chin resting in the cradle of his hand.

“I will let you guess my age again, for a kiss,” he said in an undertone.

I breathed in the minty taste of the fae deal hidden in his cool voice. In my limited research on the supernatural side of the internet, I’d come across people talking about how bitter most fae deals tasted. Until now, I hadn’t realized that was literal.

“I wasn’t really going to kiss Seth,” I murmured.

“Once you eat his food, you might.”

I arched a brow. “Jealous?”

His silver eyes darkened. “Incredibly. I desire the first taste of your lips.”

Right back to intense, I see. “Okay. The next time I want to guess your age, I’ll kiss you first,” I said.

Mint tingled on my lips and tongue for a couple minutes as we waited. Ceridor seemed a little smug, even though I didn’t guess his age and may never, depending on how tonight went. Seth served us dinner, a steaming-hot stir fry, and I did my best not to devour it too fast.

“They have a car and one of them is a chef. We have to take them with us,” Aodhnait teased.

She might not be wrong. “Where’d you learn to cook like this?” I asked.

Seth shrugged. “I took some classes in high school. They actually set me up pretty well for culinary school and I kept the skills.”

“Cool,” I said. I hadn’t attended high school in my current incarnation, so I had nothing to say about the experience.

“Are you looking forward to the super blood moon tonight?” he asked.

“Maybe. It depends on what happens.” I circled my fork vaguely.

“Well, we’ve taken plenty of precautions,” Seth said. The two men exchanged a quick glance and murmured too low for me to hear. Ceridor shook his head and shrugged at him. “I’ll show you after dinner, since someone was distracted.”

“You cannot fault me for that,” Ceridor said, voice edged with frosty power.

Seth rolled his eyes. I did too, feeling like that was the correct response.

While Ceridor cleaned up, Seth took me to their balcony. Any furniture they’d had was removed, leaving a stone platform and a heavy black metal railing. A soft wind tossed around my hair the moment I stepped outside. It was magic—an arc of glowing fae runes spread around the square space.

A dome of water surrounded the balcony. “I cast this with oil from a special fae fish. It makes us invisible from the outside, so you don’t have to worry about your fire being spotted,” Seth explained.

“I didn’t know that was possible,” I said.

“Not been around other witches much, huh?” He looked me up and down, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was full of some kind of nervous anticipation. He had his hands clasped to keep them still.

“What does all this do?” I pointed out the fae runes, so I wouldn’t have to answer his question.

“Cer called it a breath trap. If he has to activate it, it’ll suck all the oxygen out from under the dome of my water bubble. It should stop your fire magic like.” He snapped his fingers.

If I had an episode, the breath trap would also stop Aodhnait from incinerating us both. This is why you came here tonight. They really were going to get me through the blood moon safely. We’d soon see whether it would work a miracle and restore anything of my past lives.

Seth may have noticed the pull of worry at my lips, as he said, “And Cer is going to be out here with you. You’re in very capable hands.”

I put on a smile for him. “Of course. I really appreciate you two doing all this for me. I have no idea how I’ll repay you.”

Those kind eyes of his creased from a spontaneous smile. “How about that kiss, for starters?”

I considered for a moment. Though I didn’t want to start drama with Ceridor…I wanted to kiss the cute EMT too much to let this moment pass. Hooking a hand around his neck, so he’d bend down a bit, I pressed my lips to his. It was a quick brush, yet when it was over, I felt the need to go back for more.

Aodhnait hummed, vibrating my ribs with her approval. Seth tilted his head, brows drawing over his glasses with concern. “Oh, um, don’t mind that,” I said quickly, poking the skin over my heart to coax the phoenix to stop. “That’s just…”

As soon as she stated, “I like him,” the humming stopped.

“I liked that,” I echoed her with a shy laugh. “But I think I’m going to meditate out here, to get ready. You know…guide the flow of magic and whatnot.”

He scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, okay. I mean, me too.” We sounded like two awkward peas in a pod right about now. “Take all the time you need.”

“Okay. Thank you,” I said. As soon as I had my phone tucked on the other side of the glass sliding doors that led to their balcony, to keep it away from any potential fire, I sat cross-legged in the middle of the space and closed my eyes.

Meditation was a habit I’d once practiced with zeal in a previous life. I retreated to it when I sought peace and harmony. It didn’t always work for me, not like it probably used to, but I could measure my breaths and clear my mind without difficulty and slip into a trance for hours.

I would need balance within, just in case the erratic magic around the super blood moon triggered a change in me. I sought that peace within myself and didn’t open my eyes until there was a shift in magic next to me and a soft noise.

Assuming it was Ceridor coming outside for the big event, I cracked open my eyes to find the glowing outline of a ghostly man sitting next to me.