Wildfire Witch (The Cursed Coven of Spells Hollow)

12. Nix

NIX

That kiss. Wow barely covered the feeling tingling in my chest. Part of that was Aodhnait, gloating that we’d found a third man with an interest in me. And what a man. His dragon form was dense with the earth element, and I’d sensed the earth in me dancing harmoniously with the motes coming off of him when he was partially shifted. But when we kissed—that dancing magic became a shimmer of energy and potential zinging through every inch of my body.

Like called to like, a common theory for a shifter’s fated mate. In the time of my first life, how the instant and mind-obliterating attraction to another person on sight worked dwelled in the realm of speculation. With Rusty and me, the theory was correct. Our connection was elemental. Even now, I craved more of him.

“We have air, water, and earth. Everything we need to complete a ritual to separate us,” Aodhnait said.

I bit into my bottom lip. If—when—I saw Ceridor again, I’d have to explain why I was bringing another person into our marriage. The stars and prophecy had led him to Seth, but it was pure luck and fate that’d gotten me Rusty.

Too bad he was a fire bro. Yeah, he could say he worked for the government or whatever, but that was a too-convenient excuse. Rusty had to switch sides if he wanted to protect me. At some point he’d believed in something about the fire bros, enough to sit for the tattoo. It was bright against the black designs that sleeved his arms, brand new and healed cleanly.

“I still think he’s telling the truth,” Aodhnait interjected.

I made a soft sound of annoyance, not wanting to debate with her right now. I loved her, but I had not forgiven her for forcing my hand earlier. My thoughts were cut off by a more brutal growl as Rusty turned away from me to bare his teeth at a pair of shifters who were coming down the hall toward us.

One of them pointed angrily at Rusty. “Get away from her!”

The dragon shifter’s eyes narrowed in disbelief. “What are you two doing here?” he asked.

“We’re, uh, here to take Nix to the boss. Just pass her to us and we’ll be on our way,” the other shifter said. My heart dropped in my chest, and I turned to see Rusty’s reaction.

This was the real moment of truth for him. Would he hand me over to Lance and prove he was a true fire bro, or would he betray the gang? He was already in motion, taking on a partial shift to gain the scaly armor and long tail of a half-dragon. His workout clothes tightened with the extra bulk, the seams practically groaning.

Rusty nudged me behind him and took an aggressive stance. “Like fuck you are,” he said in a dragon’s deep boom.

The first shifter sighed and reached behind him, producing what looked like a tree branch pruned of its smaller limbs and leaves. He drew breath to speak, but Rusty took an impossibly long leap and hurtled straight toward him, claws extended to kill.

With the grace of a dancer, that shifter sidestepped and swept his branch downward to hook Rusty’s ankle, attempting to trip him. He stumbled, correcting quickly with the aid of his tail. I didn’t realize what was happening until the shifter spun the branch in an all too familiar way and said something to Rusty a little too quietly for me to hear from here.

The dragon roared, shaking the ground with his furious response. “Your wife , shit stain? Impossible. That’s my mate!” Rusty charged and his opponent dodged again. He slammed his hand into a bar of the nearest cell, rattling it.

While they fought, the other shifter made a mad dash toward me. “Seth?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t wrong.

“Yes, and that’s Ceridor with a death wish. C’mon, we have the car running. This way!” He grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the two fighting men.

“We have to take the earthen dragon with us,” I said.

“We have to?” he echoed with reluctance.

The dusty air was starting to swirl around Ceridor’s glamored form. He faced down Rusty without a hint of fear, even when his blades and razors of sharpened air either slid right off his dragon scales or only left chips in the dark brown armor.

Rage had taken the shifter completely. His mouth was open to display an impressive amount of fangs, his slitted eyes narrowed to furious lines as he aimed every blow to kill.

In a way, they were evenly matched. Bulk and power versus grace and discipline—neither could get a hit in.

“Rusty! Cer! Cut it out,” I called.

The combined noise of rushing wind and dragon roaring was going to catch attention quickly, if it hadn’t already. They fought on, locked into this duel. Seth tugged on my arm, muttering, “They can take care of themselves.”

“I’m sure, but…”

I pulled free of Seth’s grip and checked with Aodhnait. “A little fire? That shower felt like it did wonders for our heat.”

“Yes, but be conservative. The limit is still dangerously close,” she said.

I waited for my opening and stopped near the clashing men. My palms heated and burst into flames, which I scattered in a bright show of sparks and popping embers when I clapped. “Stop!” I yelled.

Rusty and Ceridor froze. The dragon shifter had a grip on the wind fae’s staff, his other arm cocked back to punch. Ceridor had his shoulders angled to roll and rip his weapon away with the motion. They both turned to stare at me.

I propped my fists on my hips. “We’re all on the same team. Let’s go, and I can explain later,” I said.

“You allowed this mongrel to paw at you?” Ceridor asked, his frosty fae presence coming through in his voice, despite still appearing to be a shifter.

“What in the flying fuck is happening?” Rusty demanded. He shoved Ceridor away by the staff, tail flicking with agitation.

“Okay, really short version—” I began.

“Uh, guys!” Seth called nervously.

I pointed to each of them and spoke in a blur. “Ceridor, wind fae. Seth, water witch. Rusty, earthen dragon shifter. All fated to me, the cursed witch. Okay? Let’s go.”

The lip curled, disgusted expressions Ceridor and Rusty leveled at one another could’ve curdled milk. They probably couldn’t have had a worse first introduction to one another. But they joined me in looking around the corner of the hall, where several armed fire bros were rushing into some semblance of a battle formation.

Rusty, still half-shifted, bared all his fangs. “This’ll be fun. I’ve wanted to smash some of these idiots’ heads in since I got here.”

“Child’s play,” Ceridor said under his breath. He whirled his staff in preparation, drawing a cyclone of dusty air toward him.

They charged ahead of us, while I glanced toward Seth. “I’m supposed to be the driver,” he said. But he held up his hand, solidifying the humidity in the air to droplets of water and then into two wickedly sharp knives made of ice. He handed me one, holding the other point downward and ready to stab someone if necessary.

The knife he’d given me started to melt in my hand immediately. I pressed it to my forehead for some cooling relief before it was completely gone. “I can’t use any more of my magic. Guess we wait for an opening,” I replied.

Rusty’s roar shook the building, sending a shower of dust and plaster down on us. I winced as he grabbed the first shifter he could reach and crushed his skull with a terrible crunch .

The other fire bros reacted a heartbeat later, striking back with a deafening report of gunfire. Ceridor willed the wind to send each shot wildly off course and I ducked back around the corner with Seth so we wouldn’t get caught by a stray bullet. I reached out and took his hand, closing my eyes.

The wet, soothing presence of his magic was there, just beyond my reach. I’d brute forced the melding of our magic back in the apartment, but now I felt we didn’t have the connection to do something like that without catastrophic results for my body. I opened my eyes and smiled up at him. “If I don’t get another moment to say it, thank you for coming to save me. But how are you here?”

Even glamored to look like a stranger, Seth smiled his perfect white grin. “You’re welcome. We tracked your phone until they turned it off or destroyed it.”

I immediately patted my pockets. I’d completely forgotten about my phone in the “excitement” of the last few days. Whatever its fate, it was gone now.

“Once the signal cut off, we drove around lost.” He grimaced. “The Fire Brotherhood hide their presence here well, but we found it. And you.”

There was a grunt and a heavy thud around the corner. A dragon’s snarl followed, before a fire bro sailed through the air past us and crumpled against the cell bars he landed against and slumped over, motionless. Seemed like we were winning, but I didn’t dare peek and get myself killed by accident from a stray bullet. We were way too close to true freedom to risk a stupid mistake.

“Where are we?” I asked, to distract myself from the ongoing fighting.

“Montana,” he answered. “We’re super close to a national park and a mountain range. It’s really pretty. Also, a dead giveaway for where a huge group of shifters would hide. The locals have their own kind of ghost stories about wild wolves and massive shadows flying overhead after dark.”

“Triggering your Moortide senses? Did you erase some memories?” I made the same motion he had when we first met. He did it back with his free hand, flicking out a sprinkling of sparkles. “Neat trick.”

“Thanks. I definitely thought this would be the most impressive thing I could do to win over my anam cara.” He spoke with my kind of sarcasm and elbowed me.

I smiled despite our surroundings. “You just have to be yourself. I haven’t had a man interested in me in…” Far too long. I’d spent lifetimes without attracting the male gaze, most of the times purposefully because of my volatile magic.

But looking back with a new perspective, I missed it. Ceridor had awakened me to the pleasures of being in a man’s arms, and that’d been stolen from me. Another injustice inflicted by the curse.

Seth’s responding smile was gentle. “Well, I’m really interested. Just putting it out there.” He ran his fingers over my cheek and I leaned into his touch.

“Even with two other men around?” I asked.

Somehow, I had three men now, if we could escape this facility intact. If I hadn’t completely forgotten how to please a partner, I was eager to explore the connections between us. For pleasure, certainly, but also to see if I could borrow icy air from Ceridor, cool water from Seth, and moldable earth from Rusty. Attraction met the promise of relief and experimentation in my hopeful headspace.

“Yeah, I learned how to share a long time ago, and I’ve known that I would cross paths with you for most of my life. I know it’s still kind of weird, but I came to accept that you would be mine and I’m going to do everything in my power to make it so. Though I’m getting the feeling I should get some real combat training.”

I nodded slowly in understanding. The sounds of fighting were dying down, now that he mentioned it. I crouched to take a look. Between them, Rusty and Ceridor had left bodies strewn across the corridor and were still going. Some shifters were in the process of retreating, cowering away from the angry dragon. Others threw themselves at Ceridor, sensing an easy target and getting eviscerated by near-invisible blades for the mistake.

“We can probably make a run for it,” I told Seth.

He took a peek too and made a sound of agreement. “Probably smart, before they get reinforcements.”

We stepped into the corridor after a couple of false starts. I waited until the ringing in my ears died down from the last gunshot and stepped carefully over fallen fire bros.

Rusty noticed us first, turning green-brown dragon eyes my way. “Hey, wind guy. We’re moving,” he called.

Ceridor glanced back in a flash of silver before knocking down the remaining fire bros with a low sweep of his staff. Rumbling, Rusty pounced on the downed men and killed them as efficiently as a hunter with his prey. He was covered in blood, soaking through the scraps of clothing still desperately clinging to the thick ripples of his scale-covered muscles. Though he breathed heavily, it didn’t seem like any of that blood was his. Earthen dragon scales were next to impossible to pierce, it seemed.

Falling into step with us, Ceridor kept his staff in motion and limped along from an injury hidden under his full-body glamor. Wind cycled around us, pulling at my hair and clothes. “Are you all right?” I asked with hushed urgency.

“Just a flesh wound, my firefly. What of you?” It was odd to have a stranger look at me with the same unshakeable devotion that Ceridor reserved for me. I missed his true form and its devastating fae beauty.

“Fine. Better than expected,” I answered dryly. There hadn’t been time yet for the needles, pain, and death I associated with the fire bros. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

“I had it handled,” Rusty said over his shoulder, his voice a low grumble. “You two are the reason this has become so bloody.”

Ceridor turned his head to snub him. “I will always come for you. Your enemies are mine and I shall not rest until you’re free of pursuit,” he said to me.

My heart quivered in my chest. “Let’s just settle with free from my curse. I need all three of you for that.”

“Anything you need,” Rusty said.

“Glad to help,” Seth added.

And Ceridor added, with a gleam of obsession in his eyes, “Always.”

After so long on my own, except for Aodhnait, I was so grateful for their support that it bordered on uncomfortable. My ultimate fate rode on their shoulders and twined with their intentions. I felt myself redden as I mumbled an inadequate, “Thanks.”

Rusty hushed us as we entered another corridor, winding toward the promise of freedom and the warm glow of sunlight. We reached a bay of windows and he muttered a curse.

“What is it?” I whispered.

“There’s a group still heading out to back up a mission,” he whispered back. He pointed a claw at a distinctive figure in the middle of the parking lot. Lance Drakkon himself, waving vehicles on while speaking animatedly into a phone on his ear. I ducked out of sight once I realized who he was, and the men joined me. “He’s going to know we killed everyone back there. We have to leave now.”

“My car’s right there on the curb,” Seth said.

“Ever drive down an earthen dragon tunnel?” Rusty asked.

Seth blinked. “Uh, no.”

The shifter rubbed his temples. “At least tell me you backed into the space.”

“Oh, yeah, definitely. We expected to be tearing out of here.”

“You still will be. Listen up, here’s the plan.” Rusty spoke with the clipped efficiency of a military instructor. “I’m going to go out there and take my full second form. A pureblooded great wyrm like myself is huge, so everyone will take notice. You all will get into the car as fast as possible. I’m going to dig into the asphalt and make an opening to start a tunnel. It’ll be just big enough for the car and I’ll close the opening right behind it. We’ll emerge in a field, or something, several miles away. They’d never be able to track us.”

Ceridor scowled and shook his head. “Seth shall do this with you. I will fly away with Nix while the Fire Brotherhood is busy trying to chase you.”

“What?” I asked, surprised.

“She’d be safer underground with me,” Rusty said, a line appearing between his brows.

“This tunnel will have the structural integrity not to collapse on top of my car?” Seth asked nervously.

“ Earthen dragon.” Rusty stabbed a claw toward his chest. “Manipulating rock and soil is kind of my thing. The tunnel will stay open for as long as I will it and the ground will go completely back to normal behind us.”

I glanced over at Ceridor, who lifted his brows in invitation. “I like the idea of flying away. The car’s important and all, don’t get me wrong…” But it sounded harrowing. I didn’t do well with darkness and tight spaces, no matter how foolproof his plan sounded.

“You’re my mate. I need you to stay with me,” Rusty said, a note of worry entering his rumbling voice.

“We will determine a rendezvous location later. I’ll call you, Seth,” Ceridor said breezily.

“Nix.” Rusty hissed my name, his dragon’s influence obvious.

I reached over, taking his bloodied hand between both of mine. Aodhnait took the opportunity to vent more of our heat against his impervious scales. “I’m not leaving you permanently. Ceridor knows I need you and Seth and wouldn’t whisk me away from you.” I turned toward the fae. “Take your glamor off so he knows you’re really a fae and telling the truth. Then tell him he’ll see me again.”

The disguises melted off of both Ceridor and Seth. Rusty took a moment to inspect their faces, nodding slowly to himself. “You two didn’t smell right,” he muttered.

I raised a brow at my fae husband, who sighed. “You will see her again soon. I know what it’s like to go far too long without Nix, and wouldn’t impose it on anyone else. Not even…a rival mate.”

“Rival? Why be competitors? You had good moves back there. I should’ve realized quicker that you guys were wearing a glamor. The shifters you resembled could never fight like that.” Rusty cracked a smile full of sharp teeth. “Besides, you don’t want to compete with me. You’d lose.”

Ceridor, who looked like he was considering opening up to the shifter, closed off again and fixed his usual cool expression in place. “It is foolish to think a competition with a fae would be a simple endeavor won by brawn,” he sniffed. “Let us be off before it’s too late.”

I nodded in agreement and joined them in rushing outside. Ceridor wrapped his arms around me, the wind whipping my hair in all directions as he gathered his magic.

Nearby, a mighty roar shattered the air as Rusty transformed fully into a dragon. His clothes fell off in shreds as he grew and grew, becoming a behemoth of a creature at least ten feet high, with an elongated body and tough ridges of scales on his head, chest, and underside rather than sporting horns and wings like a traditional fire dragon.

“Eyes on me,” Ceridor whispered. Our feet left the ground and my stomach lurched.

It’d taken him a long time to get me used to flying, in my first life, with no motion sickness or screaming involved. Looking into his eyes calmed me…it still did. His pools of darkened silver were calm while the world around us descended into a chaos of roaring, yelling, and revving engines. I heard the earth shatter from Rusty’s magic, but didn’t feel a thing.

We were light as feathers, Ceridor and I. Spinning on a breeze, though I could sense the amount of air motes clinging to our bodies. Nothing about the liftoff was effortless, though he made it seem that way as he constructed a bubble of still air around us and a cone of spinning wind over our heads to cleave through the sky. We propelled skyward from there with the rapid ascent of a rocket.

I looked down only once, seeing the fire bro’s cars scattering in disarray and the bulky tail of an earthen dragon disappearing into a massive hole in the parking lot.