Witchmate (Skeleton Key) (10 page)

“You are not dying, though I can understand why you think so,” the woman said. “You used more magic than I have felt in a very long time.”

She heard a hoarse, almost strangled voice, say, “Emma.” A wheezing cough proceeded movement beneath her. She heard her name again, but it sounded hollow as if she were in a tunnel. Her body involuntarily stiffened, and she felt herself rise from the ground. The rocks ceased their relentless digging into her skin.

“Rest now, child.”

Emma curled up as if cradled by the strange woman’s voice. “Keir,” she whispered.

“Rest,” the woman insisted. “Rest now.”

Every muscle and bone in Keir’s body ached. The straw mattress crinkled as he rolled to his side. Emma lay next to him. Her chest rose and fell in a steady, natural rhythm. He breathed a sigh of relief. They’d made it across the river alive.

The blanket over them scratched at his skin. He lifted the cover. He’d been redressed in a cream-colored pair of soft cotton pants. Emma wore a white dressing gown. Had she managed to find them shelter and fresh clothes? And how? He’d never seen anything like the magic she’d used at the river.

Her command of magic would make her a major target with both wolfkind and the witches. His people would want her dead, and the witches would want to use her to finally defeat the wolves. Neither situation was acceptable.

“Emma,” he said. He gently shook her shoulder. “Emma, wake up.”

She stirred under his touch. “Keir.” She turned her head and opened her eyes.

Normally dark blue, they had turned the color of a bright afternoon sky. Keir tried to hide his shock at the transformation. “Do you feel well?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Are you okay?”

“Stiff and sore, but no worse for wear.” He cupped her cheek. “Thanks to you. I still don’t know how you managed to get me out of the water and here.” He forced a smile and gestured to the cozy room. “Where ever here is.”

“I…” Emma quickly sat up, holding the blanket to her chest, and looked around. “I didn’t bring us here.”

“I brought you here.” The soft-spoken voice startled both Keir and Emma. A fire flared in the hearth across the room. A woman stood near the flames, her black hair plaited in a braid over her right shoulder, and her white gown reflected the oranges and yellows of the dancing flames.

The most startling thing, Keir hadn’t sensed her in the room. Not even a hint. He’d believed until that moment that they were alone.

He jumped up, fighting the scream in his muscles and put himself between Emma and the intruder. His fingers snapped and reshaped, his nails turning to razor sharp claws. “Stay back, witch.”

“If I’d wanted to harm you, wolf king, I would have done it while you slept so peacefully in my bed.” She waved her hand. A soft light brightened the room. “Besides, you broke your back when the water hit you. If you keep moving around, you will do yourself more damage.

A broken back would have taken months, maybe years, to heal. Wolfkind could heal most injuries if they weren’t fatal, but the process was slow and painful. “If my back was broken, how am I healed now?”

“Spirit magic.”

“I know little of that.”

“You wouldn’t,” she said. “It’s a defensive magic used for healing, bolstering the power in others, energy, and so on. Spirit practitioners are effectively the backbone of our battles.”

“Like a combat medic,” Emma said.

“Exactly like that,” the witch replied. “Their magic is used to heal, wolf.”

“Who are you?” Keir asked. “Why did you bring us here?”

In the brighter light, Keir saw that the walls were a thick tangle of woven vines.

Witchvine
.

“Yes.” The woman smiled sadly. “My home is made of wallen ivy.” She sat down in a rocking chair near the fireplace.

This was no ordinary witch. In this room, her powers should have been non-existent. “How can you work your magic with this much witchvine surrounding you?”

“It is my creation.”

“What?” Alarms were sounding in Keir’s head. Who was the woman that she was powerful enough to not only practice witchcraft within the confines of a witchvine structure but to also claim she was the maker of the one true equalizer in the war against her kind? “Why would you do such a thing?”

“My dear boy. For you.” She nodded to Keir. “And for her.” Her fingers flickered toward Emma. “Partially. The real reason was revenge, but the years have squashed my appetite for such indulgence.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” Keir said. “Tell us who you are.”

Emma slid her legs over the side of the bed. Keir sat down beside her, his hand relaxing as she twined her fingers in his. “I’m going to take a stab at
name-that-woman
and guess that this is the witch in the wood.”

Keir narrowed his gaze on the woman. “She’s a fairytale, Emma. A myth.”

“And yet.” The woman held her arms out and hands up in supplication and shrugged. “Here I am.”

“Did you actually cry a river?” Emma asked.

The woman laughed. “I did not.” She shook her head. “But there were days…”

“Why did you bring us here, witch?” Keir growled the words. If this truly were the witch in the woods, then neither he nor Emma were safe.

“I think what Keir means to say is thank you for taking care of us and keeping us safe while we were otherwise incapacitated.”

Keir diverted an incredulous stare at Emma.

She shrugged. “Kindness and gratitude never worsened a situation.”

The woman chuckled. “You are not as I expected, Emma.”

“You expected me?”

“Yes, Emma. I’ve been expecting you for a hundred years.”

Keir felt Emma stiffen. She leaned forward and peered at the witch. “Why do you look so familiar? I swear I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

The witch stood up and crossed the room. Keir went on alert but didn’t move against her. She’d been cordial up to this point, and she was powerful enough that if she’d wanted to hurt either of them, she could have while they slept.

Emma suddenly jerked her hand from Keir’s. She shook her head, disbelief written all over her expression. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“What?” Keir asked. “What is it?”

“Lucinda Mowry.”

The woman raised a brow. “Excellent, little thief.”

****

Emma couldn’t hide her shock, and considering she’d been trained all her life to adjust to surprises, it was saying something that this one threw her for a loop. “I’m so confused right now.”

“You know this witch?”

“Well, a version of her. One where she’s blonde, rich, has a kick ass art collection, and a mean-as-hell vault.”

“Now I’m confused.”

“She was the woman I was robbing when I ended up in this world.”

“Ah,” Keir said. “The mysterious door and key.”

“It cost a lot of magic to gain access between worlds.” She danced her fingers along the braid. “Twice.”

“You’ve only traveled to my world twice?” Emma shook her head. “I know that’s wrong. Lucinda Mowry is a billionaire who has her fingers in a lot of pies. I studied the shit out of her life, and the work she’s done cannot magically happen without someone driving the ship.”

“I didn’t mean me, child,” The woman resembling Mowry said. “Technically, Lucinda is my golem. I have used her from time to time.”

“Isn’t a golem a figure made from clay that is brought to life to protect its maker?” Emma asked.

“Any inanimate matter will do in a golem’s creation. But I didn’t use her for protection. I created her so I could watch you grow. I gave her a piece of my soul to give her life, but I also gave her free will on earth for when I wasn’t projecting myself into her body, and she used it to our advantage. ”

“You’re a psychic witch?” Keir shouldered forward, angling his body between Emma and the woman. “I saw you perform elemental magic.”

“I’m psychic, elemental, and spiritual, wolf. I am all three and more.”

“I’m more confused than when this conversation first started.” Emma stood up and stretched her legs. “First things first. You’ve been watching me? Why?”

“I think that would be obvious.”

“Hit me over the head with the knowledge stick, lady. I need a little more information.”

“I sent you to that world, and it was time to bring you back.”

“You… I… What? You sent me there?” Emma vigorously shook her head. “I was born there. Born in the small city of Columbia, Missouri. Moved around through the foster care system until Mike Bana took me in to raise. I can’t have come from this world.”

“You are here now.”

Emma opened her mouth then shut it. What could she say to the woman to dispute her? The fact that she was in a place with magic and werewolves were real pretty much spoke to the possibility that anything was possible. “Why?” Emma asked again. “If I was from this world then why send me there?”

The woman’s expression softened. “You were born under a blood moon and named Emmaline Wallen Lockside. Your mother is Aerina Lockside and your father is Wallen Bodyn, San fe Sang ambassador of the wolfkind and best friend of
Domiscin
Luer D’San.”

“Wallen Bodyn? His twin brother Willen raised me after my parent’s death.” He looked at Emma as if searching her for answers. “It can’t be. Aerina is the witch queen. No wolfkind would dare to mate with a witch.”

“Have you not mated with a witch, Keir D’San?”

Emma’s body went rigid. “None of this is true. How can it be true?”

“It’s not,” Keir said. “Wallen was executed by the witches. He would never ally himself with the queen of our enemy. Besides, if it were a true mating, Aerina would have died with Wallen.”

“The choosing, as you call it, is robust in your kind, and when Wallen’s biology chose me, we chose to make our mating real. The breaking of our bond with his death nearly killed me.” She shook her head, her eyes distant. “She often prayed it would. But she survived. Most likely due to her spirit magic.” The witch cast her pale eyes on Keir. “Self-preservation is a strong instinct. And you are wrong on another account. We weren’t always enemies.” Her brow pinched with sorrow. “Wallen loved your father, Keir. He talked about Luer D’San often.”

“How do you know this?” Emma asked.

“Because I’m Aerina Lockside.” She stepped closer to Emma. “Your mother.”

Keir launched himself at the woman. She went down without a fight. “Kill me, wolf, if you must, but know that I am your only hope for peace.”

“Your people slaughtered my parents.”

“Yes.”

Emma’s heart wrenched. She could hear the pain in Keir’s words and the resolution in Aerina’s. Her mom. Could it really be true? Was this woman her mother? “Please, Keir,” Emma pleaded. “Don’t hurt her.”

Her words did the trick. Keir eased up on the arm pinning Aerina by the throat.

“Why did you send me away?” Emma asked.

“I couldn’t keep you safe. You were the last part of Wallen I had, and if my father had known you were born alive, he would have killed you.”

“Why now? Why not bring me back sooner? It’s been twenty-five years!” All her years of suppressed frustration and anger at being abandoned surfaced. “How could you just leave me like that?”

“It’s been a hundred years in this world Emma. I’ve suffered as much as you, but for a longer amount of time. I couldn’t bring you back until my father was dead. Until I could kill him.”

“You killed the king?” Keir asked. He still held Aerina down, but his anger had ebbed.

“It took nearly a century to become powerful enough, but yes, I avenged my mate’s death.” She gestured to the small room. “It took me that long to gather enough vine to cover this cottage. Mine and Wallen’s.”

“You made a witch trap,” Keir said, awe in his voice. “For your own father.”

“He was a monster.” She sat up from the floor when Keir stood. “He didn’t kill Wallen because we’d fallen in love, he killed him because we produced a child. Or what he called, a mistake of nature. He believed witches and wolves were not just different races, but different species, so when I became pregnant, he considered me and my unborn child to be abominations. Wallen fought with my father so that I could escape.” She looked around the room. “Here. To our secret place in the woods.” She placed the flat of her palm on her chest. “His death nearly crippled me.” Aerina looked to Emma. “You were the only reason I fought to stay alive.”

Emma’s heart shattered for Aerina. She remembered what if felt like to just imagine never seeing Keir again. To actually lose him would be death for her. “So, I’m both a witch and werewolf? How does that even work?”

“I can see you are mated, child.” Aerina gave her a small smile. “I think you know exactly how it works.”

“Oh.” The heat of blush crept up Emma’s face. “I’m an idiot.”

“How do we bring about peace?” Keir asked.

“I am the queen of my people. You are the alpha of yours. We sit. We talk. We make a pact and enforce it. The way it used to be.”

“You realize that you might be the only person around who knows what our lives were like before the war.”

“Are you saying my mom is older than dirt?”

Aerina gave Emma a dry look, and for a moment, Emma thought she might get an overdue scolding. Instead, Aerina laughed. It sounded like music. “I am older than dirt,” Aerina agreed. She nodded to Keir. “What say you, wolf? You are already mated with my daughter. We might as well talk peace.”

“Agreed,” Keir said. 

Emma got a warm fuzzy watching Keir and Aerina talk. Just a couple of days earlier she had neither a mom nor a boyfriend, and now she had both. She walked to the window as they hammered out the details of the plan. Multicolored flowers carpeted the wide open plain surrounded by a wall of trees. “I’m going to step out for some air while you two handle the political BS.” Really, she needed a minute alone to reconcile everything she thought she knew with everything she’d learned.