Eleri Stone - Witch Bound

He bent and pressed a kiss to her forehead. A light sweep of his lips that tingled all the way to her toes. “Give me some time to get used to the idea then.” His lips curved against her skin. “Let me woo you.”

“I’ll let you woo me all night long.”

He swallowed a laugh. “This is Aiden’s home and you were injured. Don’t worry, I’ll be here in the morning. I’ll always be here when you need me, however this turns out.”

When he reached the door, she called his name and he turned around.

“I love you, Fen.”

She could see his smile even in the dim light. “Go to sleep, Rocky.”

Kamis walked into the living room on his own feet, leaning heavily on a cane. Christian had driven her home. At least until she figured out where she was going to live permanently, this was her home. She made a mental note to ask Christian if she’d be able to rent the place from him.

Kamis would have to stay here too because...well, he was her responsibility now. And maybe Fen had gotten his wish—next time she rescued someone from demons she was going to think long and hard about it first.

Fen... When she’d come downstairs the morning after the crossing, there’d been too many people crowded into the small house for her to speak with him privately. Aiden—hoping out of sight meant out of mind where the clan was concerned—had wanted Kamis out of his home as soon as possible. She was anxious to see Fen again, growing increasingly impatient because first she had to deal with this —a sarcastic Vanir demigod who wouldn’t stay out of her head. She set aside the book she was reading and when she looked up, Kamis inclined his head in a strangely formal manner.

“Mistress.” There was no trace of mockery in his expression, but she could feel something through their bond that suggested laughter. “May I sit?”

“Of course,” she said. “And I’m not your mistress. Can’t you speak?”

A pained sigh escaped him as he settled into the chair. “I’m physically capable of forming the words, but it will take me some time to learn your language. Will it be a problem?”

“Only if you try to mindspeak a human.”

He shook his head. “They wouldn’t hear me.”

“Kathy will be here later with someone to check out the link. She thinks she’ll be able to modify it so it’s not so...”

“Transparent? I can speak to you through the link, not spy on you. If you had more control over the information you pass to me, it would take care of the problem without risk to either of us.”

“Are you saying I...broadcast my thoughts?”

He lifted his brows. “You send them, yes. It is...distracting but no different from any two of my kind forced to live in close quarters.”

“Maybe no different for you. We don’t read each other’s minds here.”

Another hint of laughter. “No. The Æsir were always a crude and secretive people.”

She bristled. At least the Æsir weren’t destroyers of worlds.

A bleak, empty despair filled the space between them. “No, they were not.”

She fought the urge to apologize. “Do you hear everything? ”

“As I said, only what you cast at me, child. You’re already beginning to block yourself instinctively. Within another day or two, I’ll hear only what you send to me directly. Until then I can block you and if need be, I can be discreet.”

She considered how far she could trust him.

He frowned at his hand clasped around the head of the cane. It occurred to her that he could easily wield it as a weapon. “I meant it when I said I intended you no harm.” His gaze met hers. “I owe you my life.”

She didn’t want that, to hold him under that obligation. But she’d use whatever means necessary to keep him from hurting the people here. She stood when she heard a car door slam outside. Kathy and her friend had arrived. “Pay me back by staying out of my head.”

Kathy hugged her tightly the moment she opened the door. Peter was a tall, gaunt man with thinning blond hair and a shy smile. Blue eyes narrowed at her and he took her in while Kathy fussed. Behind them, a chill wind blew the snow around so wildly Raquel couldn’t tell if it was actually snowing or just drifting.

“Come on in. We’re in the living room. Straight ahead past the kitchen.” While she hung coats, Kathy led the way past the stairs and down the hallway.

Raquel took a deep breath, cast one glance at the door before following. Peter was a healer not a witch, but there was a fine line between the two. The Æsir with an affinity for healing tended to be more discerning as a whole, were overall less powerful but had finer control over their abilities. It was the discernment—that sight, the ability to see inside an injured person to the cause of the problem—that really set them apart. People who chose to become witches instead usually had more raw power and tended to rely on runes and ritual to control and direct it. By the way Peter kept sneaking curious looks at her as she served tea and coffee, she wondered what exactly he saw when he looked at her.

“Okay,” Kathy said, setting a black leather-bound book on the coffee table and opening it to a bookmarked page. “Here’s the rune Sheldon suggested we add to the amulet to fix your little problem.”

“I’m sorry,” Peter interrupted before she really got going, which told Raquel that he knew Kathy pretty well. She steamrolled when she’d made up her mind, and her tone of voice said she’d already done just that. Peter set his mug on the table. “How big of a problem is it? The link you’ve formed is solid enough considering the power discrepancy, but any changes we make at this point could damage it beyond repair.”

“Then we form another,” Kathy said. “I can place it this time.”

Kamis’s posture changed subtly. Peter spoke before the Vanir could raise an objection, “That might not be as easy as you think. Raquel barely has the power to anchor him and—” he looked at her again with those wide blue eyes, “—I imagine he was far more willing to let you place the geis than he might be now.”

They all looked to Kamis, who nodded. “I would suggest that you make no changes to the amulet itself, for the girl’s sake if not my own. There’s as much danger to removing such things as placing them.”

Kathy threw her hands up. “Then what do we do? You can’t have a Vanir witch eavesdropping on clan business. Aiden won’t stand for that.”

Raquel, who’d been far more consumed by the invasion to her personal privacy, hadn’t even considered that.

“A Svalinn focus,” Kamis suggested.

Svalinn was the sun shield of Norse myth. Raquel was vaguely familiar with the concept but didn’t understand how that type of shield would block Kamis.

Peter nodded thoughtfully. “That might work.”

Kathy looked between the men. “How?”

Peter cocked his head to one side. “The link’s not really open in a way that will allow him access to her power or her thoughts. She is the one who is in a position of power here. If she blocks her thoughts, they are blocked. If she sends them, he receives. A Svalinn focus is a training device that we can key to help her control what she’s sending.”

“Then he couldn’t eavesdrop on me?”

Peter gave her an apologetic smile. “Technically, that’s not what he’s doing now. You’re sending your thoughts to him. A Svalinn block will help shield your thoughts until you’re able to do it on your own.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What’s to prevent him from pushing through the link to search my mind?”

Peter shook his head. “That’s not how the link works.”