Chapter 33
By the time the bell rang the next morning, Nate was frustrated. Evangeline refused to let him go upstairs. Bran was running blocker. Bastard had a good amount of height and muscle on him, and he wasn’t going to fight his brother.
He stormed to the door and came face to face with Nikolai. A growl ripped from his lips as he pushed past the tall woman he barely registered.
The woman lifted her hand, and he rose off the floor and back, suspended two feet above the ground.
He bared his teeth. “Get out of this home.”
Nikolai’s brow arched.
The woman stepped inside, a smirk on her face. Crow’s feet crinkled her eyes, and steel gray and mahogany framed her otherwise youthful face. “Careful, Nathan Taggert. I’m Ceridwen Murdock. And this is Nikolai’s twin brother, Mircea. Don’t worry, he isn’t rotten to the core. And his daughter, Nadya, who will help Savon learn everything the other sorcerers were afraid to teach her, including her father.”
Nate sniffed the air. The scent was similar, but different enough. His eyes narrowed. “Twin? He’ll break Nikolai’s curse?”
“If you promise not to bite,” the look-a-like offered in a thick accent.
“Sorry. He tried to kill my mate.”
“Which is why I’m here, to free her from his spell.”
Bran hurried down the stairs. “Everything good?”
“Will be. Someone call Tremaine,” Ceridwen stated. She released the spell.
Nate kept his distance, not ready to trust him.
Mircea stepped inside and motioned for someone else to follow.
A young girl with black hair and pale gray eyes stepped into the room. The air seemed charged. Much the same way it always felt when Savon stepped into a room.
She met Nate’s gaze, then ducked her head, a blush spreading across her cheeks. “You’re hers, aren’t you?”
“If you mean Savon’s, then yes.”
“You’re very strong. I understand she is in her own way. You’re a good match.”
“Thanks,” he answered, the word dragged out.
Mircea chuckled. “Shall we?”
“Yeah.”
Bran held up his phone and walked into the kitchen.
Nate took them upstairs.
Savon jerked, her hands twitching, her legs flexing.
Evangeline looked at each of them. Then she focused on Nate. “Savon is restless. As soon as Mircea breaks the curse, you can go back in.”
“How much time have you spent in her dreams?” Ceridwen asked with a wry smile.
“Not enough,” he muttered.
Evangeline rolled her eyes. “He’s been up and moving for half an hour. That’s the longest he’s been up since soon after he brought her back here. He may have been up a total of two hours since then.”
“How long has she been under?”
“Around forty hours.”
“Let’s work this magic, then Ceri can take us to the motel. After she has some rest, we’d all like to talk to Savon,” Mircea offered.
Nate bit his tongue to keep himself quiet.
Mircea held up his hands. “I’ll need to sit beside her and touch her face. That’s it. And you need to rein in your wolf if he gets antsy.”
“The man might be worse,” Bran muttered.
Mircea chuckled. “Him too.” He sat beside Savon, without touching her, until he reached for her face. He placed his fingers on her forehead and chanted in another language.
Reds pulsed from Savon’s chest, crimson and scarlet, then wisped up like smoke. Her body relaxed and Mircea moved away from the bed.
“Her memories should come flowing back. We’ll be nearby.”
“Thank you,” Nate said.
“You’re welcome. Hopefully she hasn’t retreated so far she’s hard to find.”
Evangeline shook her head. “He’s worked hard to bring her toward the surface.”
“Then hurry. It will be best if you’re there through the memories.” Mircea stepped into the hall, followed by Nadya.
Ceridwen smiled. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you.” She stepped out of the room.
“We’ll take care of the others when they get here.”
Nate curled around Savon and dove in. He found Savon where he’d left her, only the memory surrounding her had changed.
Nikolai was over her, pinning her, his hand wrapped around her throat while he tried to shove her legs open.
She screamed, pure terror in her voice. Grays and reds flowed around her while only black surrounded the bastard.
Savon got her hands on his chest and screamed a spell. She rolled him to the floor and touched the couch. It erupted in flames as she scrambled away, pulling her clothes into place before running out of the house. She walked down the street and glanced back to see people gathering as tears fell down her face.
Nate stepped in front of her and grabbed her shoulders. “Sav, I’m here.”
She swallowed hard. “I remember everything. Why do you love me, Nate? I’m not what you think I am.”
“Because you killed the asshole who meant to steal your freedom?”
She shook her head. “I’ve let horrible things happen I could have prevented.”
“Like?” he whispered.
“Let the spirits destroy those who’ve hurt me.”
“They hurt you.”
She shook her head. “They didn’t deserve to die. I could have stopped the entities, but I let them do as they pleased, knowing the outcome.”
“Sav, that’s not your fault. You didn’t send them after the person. And maybe, they deserved worse.”
“I’m not a god.”
“Exactly. Just because you can influence other beings doesn’t mean you have to. That’s why so many people are afraid of sorcery. You have the ability to control things no one can see. And you don’t force them to comply. It’s not your fault.”
“I could have stopped them, though.”
“Were they good people?”
She shook her head. “But I let them die because I was hurt or angry.”
“I’ll be honest. There have been wolves who started battles they couldn’t win. I could have put them back together. I didn’t. They were wrong, and they were never going to learn how wrong. Instead of fixing them, I let them die. I’d do it again.”
“You aren’t afraid you’ll hurt me and I’ll let the spirits rip you apart?”
“Not in the slightest.” Honest truth. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded.
“Do you think my beast would ever hurt you?”
She smiled. “He likes me.”
“My wolf?” he asked, wrapping his hands around her waist as he stepped closer.
Her eyes twinkled as she dipped her head. “As much as you do.”
“I love you, Savon.”
“So did Nikolai, but he didn’t like me. He was obsessed.”
“I like everything about you.” He leaned down to steal a kiss.
She melted against him and whispered against his lips, “Help me find the way out.”
Stepping back, he took her hand and walked to the edge of her mind. He stopped, looking over. “Now we step through.”
She did, pulling him with her.
* * * *
Waking up was easy. She’d tried two different times after he’d left earlier, out of pure frustration. Savon didn’t want to be alone, she wanted to cling to Nate.
Her eyes opened, and she rolled into Nate’s embrace.
He caught her face, grazing his thumb over her cheek. “Having you in my arms while awake is better than in your dreams.”
“A million times over,” she replied.
He took a slow kiss, then leaned back when someone cleared their throat.
Bran interrupted. “You’re not alone. In fact, you have a house full of people, and we have a ton to discuss.”
Evangeline popped her head into the room. “That was easy.”
Savon laughed. “Nate did bring me almost to the top. I guess.” She shook her head. “Who’s here?”
“Ceridwen, Mircea, Nadya, Tremaine, Robert, Preston, and Frannie are all downstairs. Then us.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Take a shower. Then come down. You’ll have a thermos of soup you should drink before joining us. It will be on your dresser.” Evangeline stepped out of the room.
Nate appeared before her and scooped her into his arms. “Let me take care of you.”
“Hurry,” Bran stated.
Savon dropped her head to Nate’s chest, then leaned back to capture his attention. “We should hurry.”
Light danced through his eyes as he carried her into the bathroom and stood her before the shower. He reached in, flipped it on, then straightened to rid her of the tank because she was already shoving her sweats down. His followed, then his shirt. He banded his arms around her waist and lifted her off her feet.
She pushed at his chest. “I’m not incapable.”
He sighed. “You should be weak after being under for nearly two days. I’m the doctor. Let me make sure you’re really okay.”
“Can’t argue with that,” she murmured. She stood her ground when he released her, wanting to prove she was fine. A wave of dizziness hit her, but she stood rigid, watching as he kneaded her shoulders.
The world stilled and she melted under his touch. “So good at that.”
He grinned. “Came from long hours of practice on you.”
He’d massage her back for hours, just to be able to touch her while her parents were around. “Still worried about what I’ll think?”
He shook his head. “You?”
“With Old Lady Murdock down there, maybe. She knows most of my secrets. She could change your mind.”
“Doubt it. She seems to like me. But you should know, Nikolai’s twin is downstairs.”
“Twin?”
“Needed someone from Nikolai’s clan to free you from his curse.”
“Right. Didn’t know he had a brother, much less a twin. Just proves how little I knew about him.”
“Didn’t you ever ask?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Just like he never asked about my family. Didn’t matter. We lived in the present. At least I did.”
“We can live in the present,” he promised.
* * * *
There seemed to be more people at Savon’s when Robert translocated Tremaine and Preston into the living room. He locked gazes with the spitting image of Nikolai, except, he had a few light scars on his face.
“Tell me he’s related to our problem,” Tremaine asked calmly.
“This is Mircea. The good twin.” Ceridwen smirked. “Rather charming young man.”
Mircea snorted. “I’m several hundred years old, as you well know. No one is calling me young.”
“I have eons on you, dear.” She winked, then nodded at the girl. “This is Nadya. She’s here to help Savon learn to harness her abilities better than even Darron could manage.”
“Better?”
“Aye, better. Both Savon and Nadya have more talent than he ever could have dreamed. Which is why he refused to train her. He didn’t realize that the truly powerful usually learn discipline he sometimes forgot.”
“How so?” Tremaine asked.
Nadya’s eyes darkened. “We remember what abusing our power can do. I think it has more to do with being women.”
Tremaine held up his hands. “I’m simply gathering information. I said nothing about gender, or age. Simply wanting to understand when I had always been told Darron was the strongest.”
Mircea smirked. “Only because I keep Nadya in our encampment as much as possible. She tends to spook the most mundane human beings.”
Bran’s brow pinched. “I hope that will help the rest of the situation. Seems we may have a coup brewing. But I’ll wait to explain that when they come down. I told them to hurry, but she’s been under for two days.”
Preston shook his head. “They might need a reunion. You can’t tell me at least most of the people in this room haven’t been there.”
Robert groaned. “Keep it to yourself.”
Tremaine pulled back the smile. “How bad is this possible coup?”
“I believe we can handle it,” Bran answered.
“Oh, it will be handled,” Ceridwen answered. “Though you’ll have our help. We’re staying until we resolve all the problems revolving around Fawn’s meddling.”
Tremaine shook his head. “So, you didn’t interfere?”
She laughed. “I’ve always seen Nathan and Savon finding their way back to each other. They were destined for one another. No matter the path, they twined together eventually.”
Bran huffed. “My mother planned all this somehow?”
“She never had the gift of sight. I think she saw opportunity and sought revenge that would, in her mind, set everyone back on the right path.” Ceridwen glanced up the stairs. “Nate did well, bringing her so close to the surface. I honestly expected it to take her longer to come out of the sleep.”
Evangeline rubbed her arm. “I’m glad. The pack is getting antsy to have someone in the Alpha role again. And I think they can all agree that Killian needs to go.”
Savon came down the stairs, slower than her normal pace. She put on a good show of being a hundred percent. Nate followed, clearly tense.
Tremaine lifted a single brow. “You’ll never change, will you?”
Savon shot him a smirk. “You know me better than that.”
He gave Nate a sympathetic smile. “Stubborn to the core.”
“Wouldn’t have her any other way,” Nate answered.
Her face lit up, but she took a seat on the couch. Nate sat beside her.
Tremaine nodded at Ceridwen. “Best if this all comes from you.”
Nodding, Ms. Murdock laid out everything she knew, adding a few details about the Sylvan Forest and how only a Sylvan Fae could lead someone there.
“So, my mother is alive, and you need Bran or me to take everyone there?”
Ceridwen looked around the room. “Maybe not everyone. Just those we need. I imagine Killian is in bad shape. He’ll need to be healed before you can challenge him, Nathan.”
“I’d rather take him down when he’s healthy. He believes I’m weak. I want him to know I’m not when I crush him.”
Bran snorted. “He doesn’t believe you’re weak. He thinks you’ll make his same mistakes. And the only mistake he admits to is loving my mother.”
“To you, perhaps, but he’s called me weak all my life.”
“Yeah, well, he told me a lot of things he didn’t tell you. At least where you’re concerned.”
“Even when I came back he told me how much of a disappointment I was.”
“He had his priorities screwed. He wanted power. That was all. And you were out following your dreams,” Bran pointed out.
“Doesn’t make any of it right. The bastard has hurt too many people, torn others apart. How the hell he kept power so long is beyond me.” Nate stood and paced away. “I should have challenged him in the beginning. Then we wouldn’t be in this mess. I could have gone to get Savon, and none of this shit would have happened.”
“Most of it would have found a way to happen. Unfortunately, you can alter a course slightly, but rarely completely. I’ve tried, but the best I can do is find the smoothest course, and that’s usually bumpy.” Ceridwen offered a smile and turned to Savon. “How are you handling the knowledge your mother is alive?”
“Not really surprised. There were hints in the letters.” Savon sat back. “About the Branches, about you. About why she was here in the first place. It all sort of makes sense. I think she wants me to find her.”
“Which fits with my theory.”
“I came here to challenge my father,” Nate stated. “Jay got there first.”
“Jay was tired of waiting for someone to step up.” Bran leaned against the wall. “He thought you were here to act as his second or maybe an enforcer. Figured you would fall in line with Killian.”
“Yeah, I realize that, but it was never going to happen,” Nate muttered.
Amused, Preston asked, “What was the theory for Jay not taking the Alpha position?”
“That Killian had been cursed, poisoned, or the pack was so broken it had fallen apart,” Bran answered.
“And I’ve managed to command a couple wolves since then. So some thought I had somehow beat my father out of the position, but I believe that was more dominance and lack of leader than anything else. My father sure as hell hadn’t passed any power onto me.”
* * * *
Savon didn’t like any of this. They had to go drag Killian back, make sure he was healthy, let Nate challenge him, and then force all the wolves to fall in line.
Not to mention she was half surprised that Nikolai’s twin didn’t seem to hate her. And no one had told her exactly what happened to the bastard yet either. There were too damned many pieces to the puzzle and she needed answers in the worst way.
“What’s our time frame looking like?” Savon blurted out while stopping the threads of conversation that circled around her.
Nadya took a tentative step forward. “Hopefully I can have a day to help you before you travel to Faery. The entities there can prove troublesome. Most of them you can actually see, while no one else can.”
“What?” Savon asked. There were only a few she’d ever seen almost ghostly images of. Things not of this world, and only in places where the veil was thinner.
But Faery wasn’t Earth, and she’d never crossed over. Maybe there were spirits that drifted between this world and that? A sea of questions threatened to drown her. She preferred when she could focus on one thought, not a million.
“We should go within a couple days,” Ceridwen offered. “Give you a chance to rest. And a day to learn from Nadya.”
“Thank you.” She turned toward Mircea. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about your brother. If he had just let me go, and not come after me, I would have left him alone.”
“He deserved to die. He’ll no longer be a threat to you or anyone else. There’s no love lost here.”
That helped a tiny bit. “Two days? What happens until then?”
“Today, you re-center yourself, however you need to. Tomorrow, Nadya will help you. The day after we’ll figure out how we want to deal with the Sylvan Forest. We can’t translocate all the way to your mother, but we can to the edge. We can take a portal back. Question is, will she let him go? If I’m wrong, she could be holding him for a very different reason.”
“Please don’t go there.” Bran scrubbed a hand over his face and nodded to Nate. “I already know my mom did his dad. I really don’t want to know.”
Savon rolled her eyes. “We still have to find out and deal with him. Whether you like it or not. Look, if we aren’t doing this today, can we do this tomorrow? I need to go anywhere else. I feel like I’ve been trapped too long.”
Tremaine smirked. “You need to stay safe. You realize that, don’t you? Nikolai didn’t know where to find you. He was working for Canagan. Which means, she wants you out of the way at the very least.”
“I’m not worried about her. Her wolves don’t listen to her commands when I’m around. Makes me think none of the werewolves will either, if I have my way.”
“Maybe not, but do you really want to wind up hurt, or worse, because you got too cocky? And don’t tell me you haven’t. I remember your date with an ancient vampire.”
“I did leave him in a pile of ashes,” she protested.
Tremaine’s eyes narrowed. He leaned forward. “You also wound up in the hospital for a transfusion. Just let me wind a spell so we know if you need us. That way, we don’t have to search.”
“Fine.” She stood, walked over to Tremaine, and held out her arm. “I’m assuming it’s the same one you’ve used in the past.”
He nodded. “Thank you. I’ll feel better knowing you’re not lost to us.” He wrapped her in a hug. “Let Nate take care of you. You’re still shaky.”
She nodded. “I will. Promise.”
He wove the spell around her and released her.
Robert looked at Preston and Tremaine. “In that case, we’ll be nearby.”
Preston gave her a smirk. “Keep him on his toes.”
Robert shook his head before they disappeared.