Chapter 22
Collum paced in front of the fire in the great room, watching the twilight with a bottle of whiskey by his side. She left me. She'd taken another's hand and walked away. He wanted to stand on the roof and tell the moon to fuck off. Instead, he tipped the bottle to his mouth, chugged, and swore at shadows.
He thought back to the day he'd first met Alex. Kaylen begged him to save the baby. She’d been a fragile bundle of blubber and he’d been terrified. He’d never held a baby. He’d been trained to kill things, to exact punishment. She’d been his chance at redemption. Look at him now—all the work he'd done to make her disappear and he’d failed. Been too cocky. Then again, he'd planned on fighting off Elementals, not a man who could open portals.
Somehow, Domhall had known. Fucking Domhall. He never should have trusted that lunatic.
He silently raged to the wind and the dark. She was gone. After two thousand years, he’d found her in the most unexpected place and she’d left him. Collum pitched the empty bottle into the fire and reached for another. Steam poured off his body. His wings tensed, shifted beneath his skin.
He barely had a glance for his ancestral home. The history that usually burrowed into his bones to calm him had no effect tonight. His body ached to fight and kill. It’s what he was good at. What his father trained him to do. He threw the second bottle at the fireplace to watch it shatter. To rain liquid over fire. He failed. He never fucking failed. When he found the son of a bitch that took her, he’d break him slowly, and relish every goddamn second of it.
~ ~ ~
The knocking on the door barely broke through the haze in Collum’s mind. Glenn entered without waiting for an answer.
“Before you bite my head off, you should know you have a visitor.”
“Get out. What part of don't disturb me don't you get?”
“You may have most of the village terrified of you. You may have most of the dragons bowing and scraping to you like you’re some kind of king or something. You don't pay me enough for that.”
“I am a king and I pay you a goddamn fortune.”
“Yeah, funny how it doesn't matter.” Glenn laughed. “As I said you have a visitor.”
Collum snarled low in his throat and turned back to pick up the fourth bottle. “Get rid of him. I have nothing to say to anyone.”
“Well, I could do that, but I'm not going to. I suspect she isn't one who takes no for an answer very often.”
“He's right, mi amour, I don't.”
A tiny creature pushed past Glenn and strode into Collum’s hall like she owned it. Her waist length, mahogany hair flew out behind her. Hazel eyes framed by lush black lashes, filled with laughter. She strutted into his home wearing knee high black stiletto boots and red leather pants, and flopped in the chair closest to his bar.
“Hey, big guy, chill. You called me. Any more of that whiskey hanging around? It's been a long flight and my feet are killing me.”
Glenn cleared his throat. “My lord, may I present, Maria Del Voscovo—The Witch.”
The woman lounging on Collum’s chair said, “Ah, Glenny, what a great intro. You should get a raise. But you guys can just call me Mar.”
Collum remained silent. He blinked. The woman in front of him walked in looking like sex on a stick and knew it. Her perky breasts pushed up and spilled over the bustier she wore. Leather pants moulded to her flesh like a second skin.
“So, what do they call you? I mean I can't keep saying big guy, can I? Though it does have a certain ring. Have you looked in the mirror lately?” She winked. “Taking steroids, are we?”
Collum choked on the mouthful of whiskey he'd just swallowed.
“Woo there, you might want to slow down. Can't hold your liquor? It's okay, not everyone can. Speaking of which, I'll take mine with two ice cubes.”
Glenn burst out laughing and shut the door behind him as he left.
Collum gaped at her. This couldn't be the powerful witch he'd been told of. “Who the hell are you? I sought a great sorceress, not a wet behind the ears, party girl.”
“Yeah, I get that sometimes. Stereotype much? We can't all be about fire and brimstone. I like my life a little less bloody, thanks.”
He covered his face with his hands. “I can't deal with this right now.”
“Sure, you can. Now go ahead and pour me that drink. It ain't going to pour itself you know.” She winked at him again, pulled the boots off her feet and wriggled her toes in front of the fire. “Holy shit that feels great. My toes were starting to ache. You know how much those heels hurt?”
He snorted with disbelief, thinking of the crumbling wall in his garden and the mass of bruises on his back and torso.
“Witch, I no longer need you or your complaints. You made the trek for nothing.”
She replied, “Dragon, I doubt it. You need me more than you know.” She patted the cushion next to her. “C'mon let's chat. I figure you aren't done drinking and I haven't even started.”
A she lifted her face to the darkening sky outside, her voice quieted and took on an earthy quality. “The nights are long and beautiful here. Maybe you'll take me for a walk by your ocean later.”
The air in the room shifted and Collum rose to tower over her. Even in his drunken state he recognized magic. “You know something.”
The witch reached out and took the bottle from his hand. “Carino, I know more than something.”