Malice narrows his eyes at Aerin, as if daring her to correct him. The Witch looks back to Aerin with a smile on her face.
“A prophecy was foretold many, many, years ago. The Curse would end, Novhelm reunited, with the rise of a Phoenix. Aerin Tolvare is the first born with three magics since the time of Old.”
Aerin’s head spins.
“Who are her parents?” Emrys asks, his voice deep and rasping as a Wolf, hardly a voice at all.
“Aerin’s mother was half-Wolf, half-Witch. Murdered in the Zeneith Royal Village at the hands of her full-blooded Fae father. Blood was spilled upon her birth and blood will spill upon her death. Only then will things be right again.”
The Witch’s words echo around them, seeming to bounce around in the silence. Aerin scrambles to clear her head, tofigure out what question to ask next. She has a sinking feeling that her time with the Witch is running out. Like sand falling through her fingers.
Aerin has a thousand questions, but the most pressing one, the one eating at her chest, at her heart, at her very soul, comes to her lips before she can stop herself.
“Who will kill me?”
The Witch looks over Aerin’s shoulder to the trees beyond the ruins, tensing. Aerin senses something there, someone. Her ring burns on her finger. Malice and Emrys both turn. Aerin goes to turn as well, but before she can, the Witch grabs Aerin’s wrist across the bowls.
“Trust your gut, Aerin Tolvare. You must master your magic. Youmustbind all five, before it’s too late. Keep them close to you; it is not safe anymore.”
In a flash, the Witch, and all her things are gone. The floor is dirty once again, leaves rolling through the open space, the salty wind howling. Malice is at her side, hauling her to her feet.
“I am so fucking mad at you,” he says, lifting her in his arms. The air outside crackles with something dark, shadows extending from the ruins far beyond their natural reach. “But for right now, we need to get the hell out of here.”
Before Aerin can protest, or ask what they are running from, he shoots them into the sky.
They land just outsideof Zeneith’s gates in a small grassy clearing surrounded by tall trees. Emrys comes loping into the clearing only seconds after Malice places Aerin on her feet and puts space between them. Emrys shifts into his Fae form, taking up a stance next to Malice. He looks just as pissed, his leanfeatures severe when painted with anger. Sharper still when that anger is pointed at her.
Aerin rubs her face, biting the bullet. “I had to, alright? I hated doing it, but it was the only way.”
Malice snarls in response, his fangs bared. “Do not feed us that bullshit!”
Aerin’s eyes follow as Emrys’s hand lays reassuringly against Malice’s wrist. She watches Malice’s hand twitch in response, though he doesn’t pull away.
“What would you like me to say?” Aerin concedes. She does feel guilty, somewhere inside of her, for tricking them. But at the end of the day, her plan worked, and she has about a thousand other things to think about right now. Like that fucked up prophecy and the warning the Witch gave. She needs their irritation resolved.
“Or rather, is there something I can do?” Aerin corrects, making her voice sultry and taking a small step towards them.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” Emrys says, seeing right through her tactic.
Aerin’s eyes go to him, to his fingers still wrapped around Malice’s wrist.
“Are you upset with me as well?” Aerin asks Emrys.
Malice makes a grumbling sound but says nothing, allowing Emrys to speak for himself.
“Of course I am. You lied to me. And worse you let that Viper pretend tobeyou.” Aerin waits for the rest, for the lashing out, for the sharp words that will pierce her deeply. They don’t come. “But it is not my place to question your decisions, Alpha.”
Aerin looks away, an uncomfortable feeling crawling over her skin at the Wolf’s admission. Aerin looks back into his brown eyes. “I am sorry, Emrys…” Aerin trails off, the words of apology all she can give him. Any more and her carefully crafted control may come crashing down.
It seems the wobble in her voice is enough to convince him. Emrys lets go of Malice and crosses the space between them, wrapping Aerin in his long arms.
“We will achieve all of your goals, Alpha,” he murmurs into her hair. As he pulls back, his lips find hers in a tender, apologetic way. “I am here to carry some of the burden. Allow me to do this for you.” He wipes away a lone tear in the corner of Aerin’s eye as she nods a yes.
Nine years ago, Aerin lay in Emrys’s arms in a clearing like this one, crying into his shoulder and confessing all her worries, all her unhappiness. But Aerin isn’t that young girl anymore; she can’t cry into someone’s shoulder and hope everything works out. Now, she has to be strong.
“Good,” Emrys says, stepping out of her arms and taking a place at her side.
The look of repulsion on Malice’s face says it all. Aerin meets his haunting blue eyes and says, “I promise, no more secrets.”
