Wildfire Witch (The Cursed Coven of Spells Hollow)

16. Nix

NIX

I woke in a man’s arms, disoriented. The beam of sunlight crossing my face hadn’t woken me; that was because of a rhythmic noise nearby. And a chill lingered on my skin.

There was no soreness throughout my body from lingering heat, just a numb sensation. I’d take it. I sat up, my groggy mind coming into enough focus to realize someone was pounding on the door.

“Five more minutes!” I called.

Seth was stirring. He was adorably rumpled after everything, and the reason there was a delicious ache between my thighs when I slid onto my feet. Who knew the cute EMT would be so skilled with my body? Though I had to admit, I was quite jealous of the people he practiced with before we’d met.

I shivered. The room had turned frigid overnight. Rushing to my bag, I put on a clean change of clothes and slipped my feet into a pair of sturdy, close-toed shoes to warm the little icicles I called my toes.

I reached for Aodhnait with my mind, to share in the wonder of being cold again. She was curled into a tight ball in my heart. “Too cold,” she mumbled. “Our balance is going the wrong direction.”

Oh, shit. It hadn’t even occurred to me that that was possible. Both air and water were wet elements, while Ceridor’s heritage made his air icy rather than hot, as it was traditionally notated amongst alchemists. A cold and wet environment would extinguish a phoenix.

“It’s not an emergency, but it’s very unpleasant,” she said.

The knocking resumed, and I glanced over at Seth to be sure he was decent before looking in the peephole. It was Rusty…well, Rusty’s broad shoulder in an ill-fitting shirt he’d pop open if he flexed too hard. “Morning, Nix,” he said once I opened the door. “Wind guy…I mean, Ceridor .” He infused the name with nose-lifted haughtiness. I supposed my husband came off that way, especially since they barely knew one another. “He’s awake and asking for you.”

“He’s awake?” Seth and I asked at the same time. Me with hope, him with disbelief.

“I’ll be right behind you guys. I’m just going to grab the medical bag,” Seth said, waving me on.

I followed Rusty into his room, past the tiny couch which had a rumpled sheet and a pillow that’d been forcibly contorted into thirds. Rusty presumably slept there, similarly scrunched up to fit his long limbs, because Ceridor was sitting up in the bed. He wasn’t due to wake until the afternoon, but I saw his sheer stubbornness in action. He was only upright by the grace of a stack of pillows, his shoulders and head leaned back against the wall.

“You’re all right.” His voice was reduced to wisps. With his eyes clouded over and lids resting at half-mast, I was surprised he could even see me.

I crossed to his bedside, stroking his cheek. “And you should go back to sleep. Everything’s okay, but you still need time to recover,” I murmured.

He leaned into my touch with a silly, rather un-fae-like smile. “My wife’s worried about me,” he practically giggled. His words were slurring together at the edges.

“Wow. Seth hit you with the strong stuff,” I remarked. “Do you remember fighting a dragon yesterday?”

He shook his head no, now looking in my general direction with all the love and devotion of a puppy. “You feel colder than usual. Are you catching ill?”

“No, I’m fine,” I promised him. My teeth sank into my bottom lip as I hesitated, grappling with a sudden wave of guilt for what I’d done while he was unconscious in the next room over. “I bonded with Seth. His water cooled me down.”

I braced myself for his reaction, but he didn’t have any kind of outburst. Instead, he continued to smile sweetly as he said, “Oh, good. I approve of Seth. If any other man tried to fuck you, I’d rotisserie his liver and make him eat it.”

There was a draconic snort behind me.

“Oh, um.” Not even pain meds could dull his intensity. Wow. “What about Rusty?” I asked for his benefit.

“I’m not sure about him. Perhaps I’ll find you another earthen dragon with a smaller ego,” Ceridor mused.

“Good luck with that!” Rusty called.

The fae blinked sluggishly. “Have I told you I love you very, very much, Ver?”

“I love you too, Cer.”

I was sitting by his bedside, reassuring him it was also very, very much for the depths of my devotion, when Seth arrived with the medical bag. I got out of the way and hovered in concern, watching Seth check the bite wounds and burns. The green witch blessed burn salve had already done its job, removing any sign that he’d been charred in Benedict’s mouth. But the sealed crescent of fang punctures on either side of his torso promised to leave over a dozen gnarly scars.

For a wind fae who fought with agility and precision, this would slow him down significantly. I wrung my fingers, knowing he would not be so happy-go-lucky when he woke for real and brought up Benedict’s knowledge of Spells Hollow.

“Just blame me. You know it’s my fault,” Aodhnait whispered.

“Your words, my actions. We are both at fault together,” I said.

Benedict would’ve come for us regardless, but now Lance and the rest of the fire bros would also head to Spells Hollow. I’d put all of us in danger by revealing our destination to my worst enemies. And I hadn’t even mentioned it to the guys yet.

A warm hand landed on my shoulder. “Hey. Want to get breakfast?” Rusty asked. Seth was helping Ceridor to the shower, to clean his wounds again more thoroughly.

“Let’s get it to-go,” I suggested. “There’s, um, something you should know.”

Once Rusty heard the news that the fire bros knew where we were headed, he agreed to a quick in-and-out at the closest house of breakfast foods. He didn’t seem to blame me for the circumstances, at least, which I appreciated. While we stood waiting for our order to be made, he put his arms around me and tucked me to his front, leaning down to sniff my hair.

“What are you doing?” I murmured.

“Sorry. Too much?” Since we were in public, he kept his dragon to a subtle rumble in my ear.

There was a hint of strain on his face. He might’ve been clenching his jaw under the full beard he was growing in. Unlike Seth, who’d trimmed his facial hair before bed, Rusty was letting his go. It grew in evenly, black and thick, and I had to admit, I really liked it.

“Touching this much is a shifter thing?” I asked in a low voice. I didn’t mind it when he was warming the chill off my skin.

He nodded, nuzzling into my crown to get another good smell. “It soothes my animal side. It’s going a little crazy, leaving you unclaimed and sharing you with two other men,” he whispered. “Most shifters mate with other shifters and tumble straight into bed. This much uncertainty is…I mean…I’m not usually like this. I’m a gentleman, I promise.”

“You mean, you will be once we bond?”

He tightened his lips to hold in all but the vibrations of an eager growl. “Exactly, mate.” I barely hid the shiver that coursed down my spine from the promise in those two words.

We returned with breakfast for everyone. Seth picked up on the mood and ate quickly, while Ceridor struggled to chew, but did so through sheer willpower. By the sluggish way he moved, it wouldn’t be too long before he was unconscious again.

He managed the walk to the car and half a glamor. His magically blunted ears were uneven, and his hair more silver than blond, but we got him tucked in the backseat before he slumped back and snoozed. “We’re taking turns driving today,” Rusty said as he got into the front passenger’s seat and held his arms out to me. Seth responded with a noncommittal noise.

There really wasn’t another place for me in the car, with a pile of bags in the back next to Ceridor. I sat in Rusty’s lap and held still while he threaded the seatbelt around us both. Once Seth had the car in motion and followed the navigation’s instructions to get his way overburdened car on a main road, he cast a curious glance over at us. “I’d say where’s the fire, but you’re holding her,” he said, only half-joking.

Rusty rubbed up and down my arms. “Fire’s pretty chilled today,” he replied with the same energy.

“The fire bros know where we’re going,” I blurted. It felt good just to get it out there in the open.

Seth’s eyes widened. “What!”

“I know. Same, bro,” Rusty remarked. “So, my thoughts are, if we want to break Nix’s curse without getting shot at, we have to get there as soon as possible. It’ll take Lance a day or so to regroup once he learns Benedict is dead. But then he’s going to be hot on our ass, because he adored that shit stain.”

The apple of Seth’s throat bobbed. “Right, okay. The navigation says we’ll get there in about twenty-eight hours. Are you suggesting we drive that nonstop?”

“Yeah, I’ll take over for you when you want a break,” Rusty said.

“Then I’ll drive,” I said. They both said “no” at the same time. I raised a sardonic brow. “Why not?”

“I’m not getting cuddly with anyone but you, mate.” Rusty nosed my hair again and released a soft rumble. I felt it vibrate all the way to my core. I tightened my thighs, thinking that if he did that much more, this was going to be an unnaturally long car ride. Twenty-eight hours was already going to be torture.

That settled, we kept quiet out of respect for Ceridor. He stirred again by midday, after we made a quick stop for a restroom break, gas, and an abundance of snacks, which Seth charged to the fae’s credit card.

The air in the car shifted, chilling considerably as Ceridor sat up and looked around. His cool wind fae tones were back as he said, “ Why am I in this death trap? Scoot this chair forward. My knees are killing me.”

“Hey, wind guy, welcome back. We saved your life. You’re welcome,” Rusty said over his shoulder.

I wiggled in Rusty’s hold to peer around the seat at Ceridor. He was pulling at the collar of his shirt, peering at the bandages wrapped around his torso. Clear silver eyes lifted to meet mine, softening with fondness. “I believe much credit is due to my wife, who must’ve caught me.”

“I did. Barely,” I said, feeling my smile soften too. He was going to be okay.

He sobered as he asked, “What of the dragon?”

“By the way he crash landed, super dead.”

“Hmm. We also crash landed and survived.” Lips twisting, he glanced out the window and ducked his head toward the sky. “East. We venture to Spells Hollow?”

“A nonstop trip in this death trap,” Seth said. “You might want to fly ahead.”

Ceridor winced. “I would agree, except someone drained most of my magic for me.”

I flushed, mortified. Rusty’s arms tightened around me. “At least that means you won’t be stealing my… our mate away again,” the dragon shifter said.

The fae’s eyes narrowed. “Do not think I’ve forgotten you wear the brand of Nix’s enemies. I will dismember you limb from limb if you seek to doublecross us.”

“I know, I know,” Rusty sighed. “After you rotisserie my liver and feed it to me.”

Ceridor recoiled, his icy features contorting. “What?”

I muffled a laugh in my sleeve. “Well, maybe it’s time you told us your story, Rusty,” Seth put in.

“Maybe, huh? Feel like learning about why I’m not a fire bro, mate?” Rusty asked, tugging me back to look up at him.

“Sure,” I said, glad we were finally having this conversation.

“I shall be listening closely for any falsehoods,” Ceridor added in his iciest tone. He really would pick a fight with Rusty if he needed to. I wanted it not to come to that, for the dragon to actually be some kind of spy who’d done what he had to to infiltrate a dangerous gang.

Rusty simply rolled his eyes. “All right, then. Let’s start from the beginning. I have Arax blood. That’s in my name, by the way. Ruston Arax. The Arax clan is old wyrm blood, tracing its way back to Europe, though they moved to Brazil for the climate and the feel of the soil down there. It’s…” He trailed off, glancing down at me. “It’s an earthen dragon thing. We hate the cold. It slows us down and makes the ground resistant to our magic.”

So, his element was different, too. Warm earth, like Ceridor’s cold air. They balanced each other out while also being naturally opposed to one another.

“My mom broke clan rules and became pregnant with me without fulfilling her arranged mating. She fled to America, raised me to love hamburgers and freedom, and we lived peacefully until the clan sent a representative to visit when I was fifteen.” He loosed a low growl at the memory, his lip curling. “He forced his way into our apartment and threatened to take her back to Brazil if we didn’t hear him out. So, we did. Turns out, the clan knew where we were all along, and a councilwoman was waiting eagerly for me to come of age, so I could give her beautiful great wyrm babies. I was to report to my arranged mating the day I turned eighteen. Now, I was a scrawny kid. I would’ve lost the dominance match with a full-grown adult female and forced to make her my mate.”

“That’s so wrong. I’m sorry,” I said, shuddering at the injustice.

He shrugged, shifting us both with the motion. “I know, but don’t be. My mom took the word with a bowed head and kept me from attacking the representative for how he spoke to her, which saved my hide. We left in the dead of night and my mom paid an agency to help obscure our tracks. I joined the army and volunteered at every opportunity to go overseas. From there, I got strong.” He flexed one of his beefy arms and I playfully squeezed his bicep. Hard as a boulder.

“And from there , well, one of the brass noticed my squad surviving some pretty dicey situations. They took me to an interrogation room with a team dedicated to sussing out supernaturals, and they pegged me as a shifter immediately,” he said.

“It is obvious if you know what to look for,” Seth said.

“Yeah, man. And you know what they did from there?” he asked.

“Freak out?” I suggested dryly.

“No.” He gave me another squeeze. “They offered me a job. I work for a bureau in the human government, an alphabet agency they keep hush-hush. I’ve been all over, quashing supernatural threats both foreign and domestic. I was tapped to infiltrate the Fire Brotherhood with my partner, Coda, since we’re a pair of big shifter sonofabitches. Some things came with the territory.”

Rusty touched his arm, where the fire bro tattoo peeked out of his sleeve. “I plan to get it covered up as soon as possible,” he told me.

I nodded, hearing his sincerity. “Sounds like you had a cool job,” I said.

“ Have , probably. Finding a fated mate is an excuse for failure. And thank fuck for you, Nix. Once we’re mated, I can stop running. The Arax clan will receive a lovely monogrammed ‘fuck you very much, I’m taken’ signed by us both.” He grinned at the thought, showing off a few sharpened teeth.

I laughed in disbelief. “Do you think that’ll stop them from…you know?”

“We won’t include a picture. I’ll imply you are Phoenix the Mighty, a badass mama wyrm who would eat that councilwoman if she came around these parts.”

I giggled harder at the sheer absurdity of what he’d just said.

“I believe your tale,” Ceridor spoke up. “However, if you bring an angry female great wyrm down on us, I will still reconsider my approval of you.”

Rusty’s dark brows lifted. “Gee, thanks,” he said.

My ears perked up, and I glanced back at him again. “You approve?” I confirmed.

Ceridor had no outward reluctance, only the usual devotion on his tired face. “He is what you need, and I would deny you nothing this important,” he murmured.

“I agree with that. Welcome to the group, Rusty,” Seth said more warmly.

“Thanks, man. Do we have a patch? How about a secret handshake?” the dragon shifter asked.

“We don’t, but I’m sure we can come up with one with how much driving we have yet to do,” he answered.

Ceridor sighed through his nose and closed his eyes, pretending to fall back asleep.