Eleri Stone - Witch Bound

Alan’s house was old but well maintained. Refinished woodwork around the fireplace and archways between rooms. High ceilings and a lot of antiques, which Raquel had been told his wife collected and sold in a shop out by the interstate.

The rush of urgent activity to get Rane to the healer’s house had been so consuming that it hadn’t left any time for thought. But the lull afterward while they waited to see if she’d recover was never-ending. No one spoke. Elin sat on the couch sandwiched between Grace and Christian. Grace held Elin’s hand, and every once in a while Christian would bend his head to speak softly in her ear. Elin barely seemed to register it. It wasn’t surprising—the daze Elin was in or the fact that her clan was concerned for her too. Often when one crow died, the other quickly followed. And then twins would be born to some clanswoman within the next year or two. On-the-job training at its worst.

Fen sat across the room, done with pacing for the moment, although his leg shook restlessly. Raquel thought he’d be up prowling about the room again any minute now. Everyone looked up when Aiden entered, looking like the world rested on his broad shoulders. His gaze swept the room, coming to rest on Elin.

“She’s going to make it.”

Elin crumpled, as though her fear had been holding her upright. She turned her face into Christian’s chest and he gathered her in, kissing the top of her head as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Raquel had wondered why the crows, this one in particular, had wanted so little to do with her. After today, she was beginning to understand. All the hints and innuendo...so much of it attached to the woman in her fiancé’s arms right now.

She turned her head to find Fen staring at her, eyes sharp and piercing. She had the feeling he could see inside her head. She couldn’t read the expression on his face at all. After a moment, his jaw set and he dropped his gaze to the floor.

Aiden crossed the room, cupped his hand to the back of Elin’s head and whispered something that seemed to calm her. Her shoulders stopped shaking, but she stayed tucked up in Christian’s arms. Raquel had known that Christian had a life before she showed up. She’d heard the rumors about him. He’d broached the subject himself, carefully, saying that he’d taken other lovers in the town. She wasn’t a virgin either. It was good of Christian to recognize how badly Elin needed his support right now. Stupid to be hurt by it.

Raquel was so busy not being hurt that she started when Aiden spoke her name. “Alan says you saved her life out there. Thank you.”

She squirmed beneath the sudden attention. “I have some training as a healer. It doesn’t require much magic to keep a heart beating, just concentration mostly.”

His eyes narrowed, considering. She didn’t want to be a healer. She almost said it out loud, but he spoke before she did. “Nonetheless, thank you.”

“Did she tell you what happened?” Christian asked.

Aiden ran his hand through his hair. “She crossed into Asgard is what happened, despite my order not to.”

“She must have found something.” Fen leaned forward and clasped his hands between his knees, all intense focus and controlled anger. Raquel could feel the restlessness in him, the desire to hunt.

“She said ‘Vanir,’ but I couldn’t get any more out of her, not now. She’s sleeping and Alan says she’ll be out for a while. He placed her in a temporary coma so that she has time—” Fen sprung to his feet, but Aiden blocked his path. “Time to heal. We wait until we have the whole story from her.”

“What more do you need? He has to be a witch to have survived in Asgard for as long as he has, we knew that. You suspected all along that he was behind the weakness in the fault.”

“Suspected,” Aiden said. “We still don’t have anything more than that.”

“We have Rane, cut and beaten nearly to death, whispering his name. What more do you need?”

Aiden didn’t budge. “We wait for Rane to wake and give us the entire story. The reason she’s lying upstairs is because she disobeyed my orders and crossed into Asgard half-cocked. You’re not doing the same.”

Fen wanted to push past Aiden and storm off anyway—Raquel could see it in his stance—but instead, he cursed and backed off. Vanir were enemies to the Æsir. Clan lore said the Æsir and Vanir had once shared a world. Long ago, the Æsir crossed to Asgard and created their own home, but even that distance didn’t heal all of the old animosities. Like squabbling siblings, they’d spent as much time fighting over the centuries as at peace with one another.

The surviving Æsir didn’t know the specific cause of the last war that culminated in the destruction of their home, but they knew that the Vanir were behind it. The Vanir still inhabited Vanaheimr, but they exiled the worst of their criminals to Asgard. A death sentence, even if it might take years for them to actually stop breathing.

Grace shook her head. “He wouldn’t have done that. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Fen snorted. “He’s your best friend now? He wanted to keep you there as a pet.”

Grace grimaced. “He was...lonely. He wasn’t cruel. He didn’t hurt me or Hallie, who was there much longer than I was.”

“He was exiled for a reason,” Fen said. “And he is not our friend.”

Aiden held up a hand. “We don’t know yet that he’s the one who did this. We wait for Rane to wake up and decide from there.” He glared at Fen. “I’ll have your promise on that.”

Fen looked as if he’d balk, but after a long tense moment, he gave Aiden a short, jerky nod and headed for the door. Grace stood and moved into her husband’s arms. Raquel looked at Christian, who still held Elin, and then slipped out after Fen.

He was sitting on the porch steps staring off into the fields. Tension rolled off him like an electric current, but she sat next to him anyway.

“I thought you’d be running by now.”

“I should be.”

She knocked into his shoulder. “You can go if you want—I’ll cover for you. I’ll even drop your clothes off by your back door if you want.”

“I don’t run in town. None of the hounds do.”

Her clan allowed it, but it was a hotly debated tradition. A lot of the townspeople had nothing to do with the hunt and didn’t like to be reminded of it. Enormous, black-furred wolves prowling through town with unusually sharp teeth and intelligent eyes were a pretty big reminder. She’d never agreed with that point of view, but she didn’t say anything.

“It’s my own rule and the others picked up on it. Not a big deal really, I scared a little girl when I was a teenager. She was my cousin, but she never looked at me in quite the same way after she saw me as a hound.”

For someone like Fen that would be hard. Raquel still didn’t like the idea of him having to slide around the edges of town hiding what he was when he was out there risking his life to protect these people. She patted his knee, a weak comfort but all she could offer. “Go,” she said. “You meant what you said in there, right? You won’t try to cross?”

“I don’t know if I could force the portal open anyway. I just need...to get away.” He hopped off the porch, walked backward for a step or two. “Are you still planning to come over tonight?”

“Yep. Christian too.”

His smile fixed. “Sounds good. It’s your turn to make dinner, remember.”

“You didn’t make dinner. We had pizza.”

“I had pizza,” he agreed. “Until you lit it on fire, along with my house.”

She laughed. “You’re not going to let me forget that are you?”

That flashpan grin. “Not a chance, Rocky. See you later.”