“But ya’ did know? Eventually?”
Caitlin leaned against the wall. “I did. The first time…back in Dublin when we were young? It was a simple moment. Havin’ a pint in a little pub after a rugby match. Liam put his arm around me, and it just felt…right. Like I could stay there forever and I’d never want for anythin’.”
“There was a second time?” Farren brushed a lock of Eli’s hair away from his face. Whatever the practitioners had done to him, he was out cold. She’d been attracted to him from the first moment they’d met. Now? She wanted to rip his clothes off. But it was more than sex. Farren ached to know him.
“There was.”
Cade banged on the door. “Farren, we need to talk to you. Right fucking now.”
Holding up her hand, Caitlin frowned. “I’ll take care of this. At least for a wee bit.” She opened the door to Cade and Liam both. “Liam, luv? Remember what happened when I came back to Seattle?”
The beta wolf’s gaze softened, and he cupped Caitlin’s cheek. “Of course. Ya’ didn’t know who ya’ were, and it almost killed me.”
“Not that.” She let Liam take her into his arms and tipped her head up to look at him. “With Cade. When he was so mad at me for hurtin’ Mara? Ya’ asked for time, and he gave it to ya’. Well, Farren needs the same. She won’t let Eli hurt anyone. Remember the runes I cast after she left tonight?”
“I remember ya’ castin’ them.”
Farren knew that tone. Liam hadn’t understood a thing the runes had told her. But he loved Caitlin with everything he was, and the two had developed an easy, joking way with one another the past few months.
The air elemental laughed. “Well, I’ll refresh yer memory then. Farren needs to know as well.”
Still sitting next to Eli, Farren draped her fingers over his. They were cool, and in his sleep, his muscles tensed and relaxed. “Tell me, then.”
“Teiwaz. The Warrior,” Caitlin began. “Despite what most believe, it doesn’t indicate victory in a battle with others, but in a battle with yerself. From its position, I believe Eli will ultimately be successful. He’s strong, though he doesn’t know it yet. Then, there was Sowelu. A rune of great power, it virtually guarantees that Eli will become his true self. He’ll be able to break whatever spell or charm binds him. And finally, Gebo. A partnership. Whether it’s between Eli and Farren or Eli and the rest of us, or Eli and someone else, we have to find out.”
Farren wasn’t certain what to make of Caitlin’s casting. Or runes in general. Her mum had operated purely on instinct and science. As a member of the Garda, she’d had to. But her da’? He’d have listened to Caitlin.
“And if he partners with a practitioner?” Cade growled.
“Then I’ll kill him myself.” Farren stalked over to the doorway—the one Caitlin had thankfully already stepped through—and slammed the door in their faces.
She was done with their bullshit. At the moment, all she wanted to do was talk to this man lying on her bed. That and care for him. Make sure he was okay. Fuck it. She was already half gone over him, and they’d had all of three conversations?
“Wake up, ya’ bastard,” she whispered close to his ear. Even now, after almost dying on the beach, he smelled like the rocks and the sand and the salty air. Along with a hint of wood smoke. Strong. Solid.
She couldn’t see any injuries. At least not to his well-muscled arms, his face, or his hands. But she knew all too well what magic did to a person. How it burned from the inside out. How it controlled, how it took everything you once were and reduced it to nothing but a memory.
Skimming her finger along his cheekbone, she let her wolf take control. The animal memorized Eli’s scent. The way his chest rose and fell steadily. The rhythm of his heartbeat.
Go get the first aid kit. Be ready to help him when he wakes up.
She managed to stand, but only for ten seconds. This was her mate, and her wolf refused to leave his side. So rather than do what she knew she should, Farren stretched out on the bed next to him, still fully clothed, and closed her eyes.
When her breathing matched his, she let herself drift off to sleep.
* * *
Eli
Where was he? The room was dark, but the scent…like lying in a field of heather. Floral, yet musky. The forest with a thick layer of moss after a rainstorm. His entire body hurt like he’d been flattened by a double-decker bus or run through a washing machine.
“Your powers may be bound, but you are an elemental just the same.”
He wasn’t an elemental. He couldn’t be. Those tricks that Mara and Caitlin had done? They were just that. Tricks.
Then how do you explain what happened on the beach? Or how you’ve been at the epicenter of four separate earthquakes in the past two weeks?
Maybe it had all been a figment of his imagination. Perhaps he was losing his mind?
