Witchmate (Skeleton Key) (11 page)

“It’s not safe. There are witches still searching for me.”

Aerina shook her head. “This place is warded from my people. They couldn’t find it if they were standing three feet away.”

“Sweet,” Emma said. “I won’t go far.”

The crisp air smelled of apples and sunshine. Emma eased her bare feet into the cool morning grass, laughing as the blades tickled her toes. Two days earlier she’d been a thief. A lowly, albeit awesome, criminal. Today she was a princess and an alpha’s mate. What had Keir called it? His
domiscina
.

Near the tree line, Emma stooped down to pick a yellow and pink, multi-petaled flower. It had a scent similar to wisteria but looked almost like a chrysanthemum. She picked several more. They would brighten the small cabin.

“What a week,” Emma said.

“It’s not over yet,” a voice responded. Emma barely had time to turn her head, when a large hairy fist punched her in the face.

“What the hell, Amile?” Toland said. He leaned down to check for a pulse on the girl his sister-in-law had knocked out. “Keir has claimed this one as mate. He won’t thank you for injuring her.”

“Where is Keir?” Amile asked. “How do we know he went looking for her? Maybe something else happened to him? Maybe she did something to our
domiscin
.” Amile’s lip curled as she pointed an accusatory finger at Emma.

“Regardless,” Toland said. “Her fate is not ours to determine.”

“You’re weak, Tol.” She spat on the ground. “Thad should have been the alpha’s second, not you. The fact that Keir chose you means he’s weak as well.”

“You overstep, Amile.” He scooped the girl into his arms. “There is smoke rising from the cottage over there. Check it out, but use caution.”

A hatred he’d never seen flashed in Amile’s eyes. Why hadn’t he noticed her jealousy before now?

“Damn witches,” Amile muttered. “I have to do everything myself.”

With his hands full, Toland couldn’t move fast enough to avoid Amile’s blade. It stabbed into his ribcage on the left side and pierced his heart. The pain drove him to his knees, and Emma rolled from his grasp. The girl moaned, but it was hard to worry about her as blood filled his lungs. He tried to yank out the knife, but it was wedged into the bone.

Amile grabbed Emma by the hair, and Emma screamed as she began to drag her toward the cottage. “Keir D’San,” the wolfkind female yelled. “I have your mate.”

When Keir walked out the door, Amile shook Emma like a rag doll, forcing him to stop in his tracks. Toland rose to his knees, using what little he had left to force himself to his friend’s aid. He had managed only a few feet before he collapsed to the ground again. His last thoughts were of Lis. Of love. Of regret.

****

Keir watched with horror as Amile yanked Emma around. “Stay inside,” he told Aerina. “If Amile sees a witch, I don’t know what she’ll do. I can’t risk Emma.”

“I can kill her and end this now.”

“She is Thadeus Bodyn’s mate.”

“Willen’s child?”

“Yes. And if you kill Amile, he’ll die with her. He won’t survive like you.”

The stoic queen pursed her lips but then gave Keir a curt nod. “If it comes down to Wallen’s nephew or his child, I will choose Emma.”

Keir swallowed the lump in his throat. “Same here. But for now, let me try and talk her down.”

Aerina hid from view when Keir opened the door. He stepped out onto the porch. “Let her go, Amile. She isn’t your enemy.”

“Stay where you are or I’ll break her pretty little neck,” she warned. “Why won’t you just die, Keir D’San. Those stupid witches can’t do anything right.”

“You’re the traitor?” The revelation shocked him. He knew it had to be someone close to him, but he’d never suspected any of his inner circle. “All this time. Why, Amile? Why have you turned on your own people?”

“The witches sit in their high towers while we eat dirt and sleep shit.” She snarled. “I am no traitor,
Domiscin
. You are. You don’t deserve to be our alpha.”

“And you do? Is that what you want, Amile? You want to be
domiscin
of the San fe Sang?”

“You’re a fool, Keir. A short-sighted fool. Thadeus is more alpha than you’ll ever be.” She yanked Emma up and wrapped her forearm around her neck. Keir’s mate struggled to free herself from Amile’s grasp. “The fact that you would leave your people without a word in the middle of the night to chase this stranger, someone who is not one of us, that you would claim her as your mate, makes you unfit to lead.”

“Tol!” A man roared. It was Thadeus. He knelt beside his brother’s listless body. “Amile,” he shouted. “Who did this? Who?”

Jaylinn and Mika exited the woods next. They stopped abruptly when they saw Thadeus and Toland on the ground. Amile turned to her mate, her face stricken with his grief.

“This is Keir’s fault,” she shouted. “He’s killed Toland.” She tightened her hold on Emma’s neck as if to dare him to say different.

“He’s still alive,” Thadeus shouted. “But barely. I fear the blade punctured his heart as well as his lungs. We have to get him to Lis.”

“He’ll never survive the trip,” she said quietly to Keir. “And now that I know this beast is your mate, all I have to do is kill her, and you’ll be dead as well.”

“Don’t do this, Amile. Thadeus will never forgive you.”

“I’m his mate. He’ll believe what I tell him.”

Suddenly, Amile dropped hard onto her knees, her grip on Emma slacked as the smaller woman slipped out of her grasp. Amile grabbed her head and wailed.

Aerina walked out then. “What are you doing to her?” Keir asked, horrified at her blood-curdling cries.

“I’m doing nothing,” Aerina said. “Emma has taken matters into her own hands.”

Keir stared at Emma, who was now levitating two feet off the ground, her honey-colored hair blazing with blue fire as she focused on the warrior woman.

Thadeus bellowed with pain as he collapsed to the ground. Emma was killing Amile, and the mate bond would take Thadeus with her.

“Careful, wolf,” Aerina said. “Her magic is unlike anything else in this world. It is a combination of elemental, psychic, and spiritual. I cannot predict what will happen if you touch her. The magnitude of her power is greater than all the witches in my kingdom combined.”

Keir approached her the way he would a hot coal. “Emma,” he said. “Let her go.”

Emma’s eyes blazed with rage. Amile’s eyes bugged as she clutched her neck, fighting to breathe.

“You’re killing her, my love,” Keir said softly.

“She deserves to die,” Emma said.

“I agree, but Thadeus doesn’t. He is my friend, and he is her mate. If you kill Amile, Thadeus will die too.”

“She tried to do that to us,” Emma protested. “She would have killed me to kill you.”

“Let her go, sweetheart.”

“I don’t know how,” Emma said. “It’s too strong.”

“What’s too strong?”

“My rage,” she answered quietly before focusing all of her energy back to Amile.

****

Emma felt as if she’d been plugged into a nuclear reactor and was feeding on all its energy at once. Her skin felt cold even as her mind burned with fury. This woman had tried to kill her. Kill her mate. She’d betrayed her own kind, and for what? More control? More power?

“Please, love. Let her go,” Keir said again.

Emma tried again to stop what she was doing to Amile, but she couldn’t find an off switch. Hell, the on switch had been flicked by accident. “I don’t know how. I can’t stop.” The force of magic roared through her body. Keir stepped between her and her prey. “Don’t get in the way, Keir.”

“I can’t let you do this, Emma. This isn’t you.”

Tears leaked down her face, an involuntary response to the power coursing through her veins. “Help me,” Emma said. This time, not a prayer to someone unknown, but a plea for her mother to step in. “Help me stop.”

“Bring your wolf, daughter.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You are half me, Emmaline, but you are also half your father’s child. Let go of the magic and welcome the wolf.”

Emma remembered Keir’s shift into his animal form. She thought about how his bones had bent and cracked and reshaped. How fur had sprouted thick along his golden skin. How his amber eyes had blinked up at her. She thought about the smell of his musk, earthy and natural.

Her body jerked as she dropped to the ground, writhing as her insides broke apart and reformed. When she could stand, she stood on four legs and gave her fur a shake. She felt Keir’s love then. His thoughts joined with hers in a soothing song of harmony. They were one. Mated. This was how it was meant to be. The anger fled as his love filled her up. In moments, she was back in human form again.

Aerina was standing over Amile, keeping watch on the treacherous warrior woman.

“Your friend,” Emma said. “We have to help him.” She ran toward the fallen men, ignoring the protests as she slid next to Toland, Keir on her heels.

“He won’t survive,” Jaylinn said. “He’s lost too much blood, and his pulse is thready.”

Emma had taken an anatomy class in high school and tried to remember the parts of the lungs and the heart, but other than a general idea of how they worked, she couldn’t remember specifics. Where his brother had pulled out the blade, Emma stuck her fingers in the hole.

“What are you doing?” someone said.

“She’s going to kill him,” another voice added.

“Let her work,” Keir said. “She is Tol’s best chance.”

More protesting ensued, but Emma ignored it as she carefully examined the wound. If there were holes, she thought, they needed to be plugged.

“Heal, damn it.”

Aerina’s voice entered her mind.
Push your magic into his damaged skin and will it to health.

“Heal,” Emma said, this time with less frustration. The knitting bone tickled her finger as the expanding lung pushed out against the tip. She yanked her finger out of Toland’s chest and watched with a mixture of astonishment and horror as the muscle and skin closed until all that was left was a pale pink line where the dagger had entered.

Toland’s breath evened out, his pulse getting stronger by the second. “Keir,” he said weakly when he began to rouse.

“Easy, my friend. Rest for a moment.”

“Amile.” He shook his head. “She’s betrayed…”

“Shhh,” Keir said. “It’s over now.”

Emma watched Toland’s heartbroken brother gather his strength. “I’m sorry, Tol. I didn’t know. I swear it.” He looked at Keir. “Forgive me,
Domiscin
. I will accept the consequences for my mate’s action.”

Keir nodded then turned his attention back to Toland. “Let’s get you up. There is someone you should meet.” He looked at the two women. “Emma is my
domiscina
. Do you accept her authority as my own?”

Both women had sour expressions, but they nodded.

“I hate to spoil this kum-ba-ya moment, but I don’t think I can walk back to the cottage. I’m zapped.”

“I’m Mika,” one of the women said. “I’ll help you, so Keir can assist Toland.

Emma smiled. “Thanks, Mika.”

“How is it that you are wolfkind,” the other woman said. “And you can spell cast?”

“Leave her alone, Jaylinn,” Mika said.

“It’s a long story,” Emma said. “But one I’ll tell you if you help me up.”

The woman Jaylinn tapped her chin for a long moment of consideration then nodded. “I accept your terms.”

Emma resisted rolling her eyes. “I’m so glad.”

Emma watched Keir as he directed his people, no, she amended to herself, their people, to assemble in the cottage’s field. Rows of permanent homes were being built in and around the area. Finally, after six months of hard negotiations, the settlement was looking like a real town.

It took amazing savvy by both queen and alpha to broker peace between the two races. Emma was living proof that biologically they all came from the same maker. She mused that it was the reason the children of both were not much different from normal humans before puberty.

“Friends, kinsmen, welcome to Wallen Valley,” Keir said. Emma's chest warmed every time she heard the new town’s name. It had been her father’s secret place to meet with the love of his life. She’d been born here. It made sense to name the place for him.

“Today,” Keir continued, projecting his voice out to the crowd. “We are here to commemorate a new beginning. One where witches…”

There were a few boos in the group, but mostly, the wolf clans kept respectably quiet.

“….and wolfkind.”

The witches remained silent.

“This land has been granted to us as a good faith gesture by Queen Aerina Lockside. It will be a new beginning for both our people. We no longer have keep moving our families to stay one step ahead of death.”

Cheers rose up from the gathering.

“Aerina has promised that no witch will come into Wallen Valley without permission until a lasting trust has been built. I know it will take a long time to overcome prejudice. Many of you have lost family to the war. On both sides,” he added. “But the reasons for this war no longer exist. Let us celebrate as we usher in a new century. One where we can teach our children to farm not fight. To thrive not merely survive. To love,” he said at last. “Not to hate. Let this be our legacy. A better world for our children.”

The witches and wolves shouted it back, “A better world for our children,” their voices echoing throughout Wallen Valley.

She rubbed her swollen belly. “You hear that, little one. Daddy is making the world better for you.” Emma had grown to love the area. Its heavy growth of witchvine made it a perfect safe haven for the wolfkind. Although, because she was Aerina and Wallen’s daughter, it didn’t stop her magic. “So nobody better get out of line,” she told the baby.

“Are you talking to yourself again, cousin?” Toland sat next to her on the porch.

Emma smiled fondly. She’d never had blood relatives before, but now she had two. Her mom and Toland. Her father had been his uncle. His and Thadeus’s. She still felt guilt over Toland and Keir’s loss of a brother. Thankfully, he’d only been exiled and not killed for his mate’s treason. Still, he’d have to spend the rest of his life alone with a woman who betrayed her own kind.

Amile had been in contact with a guy named Renald. They’d agreed that if Renald killed Toland and Keir, she would give them information about the tribe’s movements. When Thadeus had found out that she’d meant to kill his twin brother, it had been too much for him to forgive.  On earth, he could have just divorced her and moved on, but in this world, a mating was permanent.

“Emma,” Toland said, snapping her from her reverie.

She glanced at him and grinned. She patted her stomach. “The baby likes it when I talk to him.”

“Him?”

Emma shrugged. “Maybe.” Her psychic powers had given her insight to the pregnancy, but Keir wanted to be surprised. “I’m thinking Wallen Luer D’San. What do you think of the name?”

Tol smiled. “It’s perfect.”

“Speaking of perfect,” Emma segued. “How is your mate? Will he be joining us soon?” Emma had grown to love both Toland and Lis. They’d had a double mating ceremony with Emma and Keir. And in that, he’d kept his promise to Keir that he’d mate when his friend did.

“Lis is excited. Your knowledge of medicine, even beyond what your magic can do, has made his life an adventure. He’s found an area full of the lavender. I can’t believe it works on headaches.”

Emma couldn’t believe she’d actually remembered that tidbit. One of Mike’s girlfriends had been seriously into holistic medicines. She missed Mike, but not as much as she thought she would. Her other medical knowledge consisted of things she’d learned while watching bad medical dramas on television. She didn’t miss that as much as she’d thought she would either, though maybe a bit more than Mike.

Every once in a while, she’d zap a charge into her phone and look at pictures. They were mostly blueprints of the Lucinda Mowry’s home, but some weren’t. Like the picture she’d taken of the St. Louis Arch. The expression on Keir’s face when he’d seen how tiny the people were standing next to the structure had cracked Emma up. She had a feeling he was plotting to build his own monstrous monument.

Keir sat down on the other side of her. “Well, that went well,” he said.

Emma kissed him. “You were awesome.”

“I was bad ask,” he replied.

“Bad ass,” Emma corrected. She’d explained “awesome” to Keir, along with some other slang… that he constantly got wrong. She suspected he did it on purpose just to yank her chain. “And you definitely are all that and a box of chocolate.”

“How are you feeling, love? You look tired.”

“I’m six months preggers, so tired is about right.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she snuggled into his warmth. God, he smelled good.

“Do you want to go lie down?”

She glanced up at him, his golden eyes catching the sun’s rays in a spectacular fashion. She wiggled her brows. “I’d like to go to bed, but not to sleep.” She didn’t know about other pregnant women, but damn, after the first trimester of morning, noon, and night vomiting, she’d turned into morning, noon, and night horny.

Keir laughed.

Toland stood up. “That’s my cue to leave.”

“See ya, cuz,” Emma said without taking her eyes off her delicious man. “Well?”

“I love you, Emma.”

“Is that a yes?”

He grinned. “I’m always a yes.” He bundled her up in his arms, easily lifting her from the porch. “I never thought I’d be this happy,” he told her.

Emma looped her hands behind his neck. “You’re are my home, Keir. As long as I have you, I won’t ever want for anything more.”

He kissed her. His lips melding sweetly to Emma’s as he carried her into the cottage.

Thank you, Aerina,
Emma thought.
Thank you for saving me for him.

She didn’t expect a reply but wasn’t surprised when Aerina said,
You’re welcome, my daughter. Live and love. That is all I’ve ever wished for you
.

As Emma stared at the wickedly naughty expression on her husband’s face as he dropped her pants, his erection springing forward like a divining rod detecting gold, Emma nodded, her throat tight with lust.

“Wish granted,” she said. “Totally.”

The End

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Skeleton Key
novella!

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.

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Skeleton Key
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