Through the Ether (Force of Nature Book 5) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,47
who shares bonds with each of us—we, too, now share one.”
With my breath caught in my throat, I shook free of Dean’s hold and walked toward where Merc held Knox—the one I now recognized and loved. The two of them stared at one another, a wave of unspoken words crashing between them, until Knox’s body finally gave out. His knees buckled beneath him, and he would have fallen had Merc not already had a hold on him.
The pain and anguish in Knox’s eyes were all-consuming when they finally met mine. I raced over and threw my arms around his waist to hold him. To hold him up. To hold him together. Whatever he needed from me, he could have.
“Leave us,” Merc commanded everyone in the hall.
Not surprisingly, they all turned and left without a word, leaving the three of us in the middle of the hallway. Kat hovered near my bedroom door.
“Piper,” Knox began, his voice hoarse and weak, as though he’d been trapped on a desert island for weeks, “I—”
“You don’t have to say anything,” I said as I clutched him tighter. “It wasn’t you…that wasn’t you.”
“She’s right,” Merc agreed, “but it is a part of you—one you cannot run from this time. One you will have to fight to keep at bay.” I turned my gaze to Merc and found the harsh lines of understanding carved into his expression. “It will never leave, but with Piper’s help—and mine—it will not consume you.”
“The price of magic…” I muttered to myself, hating the truth in those words more than ever.
“Is a motherfucker sometimes.” Knox forced a smile. “And it’s currently kicking my ass, so…”
He gave me a light squeeze, then pulled away. With concerted effort, he started down the hall toward his room. Merc cast me a sympathetic look before turning to join the exhausted werewolf. The soft murmurs of their voices traveled back to me, and I’d never wanted their hypersensitive hearing more in my life. What I would have given to know what they were saying.
Then a pang of dread in my gut made me wonder if it was better that I didn’t.
Kat sidled up to me and draped her arm around my shoulders.
“I’m worried, too,” she said gently.
“I won’t give up on him.”
“We can’t,” she replied before ushering me toward my bedroom.
“He’ll be okay, right?” I asked softly. Her grip on me tightened, but she didn’t answer.
We didn’t stop moving until she sat me down on the bed and lay down next to me. She patted the bed and waited for me to join her, then pulled the blankets up around me and tucked me in.
“Knox is strong and a stubborn piece of shit. He’s not going to let this get him—especially now that he has you to help anchor him.”
“But what if I can’t?” I said, staring up at the ceiling. “What if it isn’t enough?”
She grabbed my face and turned me to look into her piercing blue eyes. Eyes that had softened.
“It has to be.”
She nestled in next to me and closed her eyes, leaving me awake in the darkness with my fears and racing thoughts and the bone-deep tiredness I knew wouldn’t go away until the fey royals were dead. Or I was.
Chapter Seventeen
As I slept, I felt my magic wander, extending out from me as though protecting me in my slumber. It reached and danced in such a calming way. I was barely aware of it, though it seemed so apparent; one of the mysteries of the unconscious mind. So it was no surprise to me that I lost track of it at some point, letting it go wherever it felt necessary.
Until a voice I should not have heard permeated my sleep-addled mind.
“Piper!” Liam shouted, my name escaping between ragged breaths like he had just run into my room. But when I shot awake and flicked on my bedside lamp, there was no winded werewolf bringing tales of doom from Faerie—just me and relative darkness.
“Liam?” I replied, thinking I must have reached peak tiredness if I was trying to talk to my dream.
But when my dream answered, I shot to my feet.
“I can’t open a portal,” Liam said. It was then that I realized that it hadn’t been a dream; that I’d heard his voice inside my mind.
My magic had wandered into Faerie while I slept.
“Holy shit!” I gasped as I looked around the room frantically, as though something there could help me. “What do I do? Should I open one?”