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When I’d tracked down someone’s runaway teenager and only asked for cloaking spells in return, they’d thought I was crazy, but they’d sure the hell come in handy now.
Quickly, I ripped the wooden slats up from the floor and unearthed three chests. One smaller and the most important, the other two larger and filled with weapons and other potions.
I handed the smallest to Kinsley. “Protect that as best you can.”
I’d almost saidwith her life, but as important as the contents were, nothing was more important than my mate still living.
She cradled the wooden chest to her stomach. “Of course.”
With effort, I hauled the other two boxes from their hiding spot and stacked them on top of one another. My stomach churned as soon as I stood up. “We need to go.”
Kinsley headed for the kitchen, where Markus thankfully already had the trunk I’d hidden there in his arms. “Is this it?” he asked.
A blast of power rocked the outside of the cabin. “It’s going to have to be,” Lia answered as she reached for Markus and Kinsley. My arms were full, but Kinsley was able to grab on to me.
Unfortunately, not before a crazed woman with long, midnight-colored hair floating around her kicked in my front door and shot an electric blue orb at us.
“Shit,” Lia muttered just before she teleported us back to Fire and Fluorite, but it was too late.
Markus had been hit in the back with the witch’s magic, and when we appeared in the living room of our borrowed house, he fell to the floor, dropping the box onto his feet, adding insult to injury.
Kinsley set the chest I’d given her down on the table and moved to help him while Lia inspected his back.
“How the hell did they know we were there?” the unicorn snapped.
I was setting my boxes on the ground as I answered, “There was residual magic left behind from whoever went through there before us. That’s why I said to hurry. I figured you knew what that meant.”
She sneered at me. “Next time, be fucking specific.”
Markus getting hurt had quickly turned Lia into someone none of us had seen yet. Kinsley helped as best she could, but by the time Lia had him lying down the way she wanted, we realized it was better to leave her alone.
Markus at least had gone unconscious, so whatever the gaping wound on his back was doing to him, he wasn’t aware of the pain.
Small favors.
Kinsley and I took the trunks to our room while Lia did her thing with Markus. I caught Kinsley looking back several times.
“He’s going to be okay,” I promised. “Lia is just as powerful, if not more, than the witch.”
“I’m pretty sure that was Hazel,” she said, surprising me. “I didn’t get a good look at her face, but she had the dark-purple hair I’ve always known her to have. It’s part of her signature.”
That last part was said with thick irritation.
“She must have been the witch in my house the first time and left something behind to alert her if anyone came. Though, if she didn’t sense the cloaking spells on these”—I gestured toward the chests—“then she’s not as powerful as I thought.”
“Or she’d left them as bait so you’d be there long enough, searching for stuff, allowing her time to return.” Kinsley shrugged, making a solid point, then handed me the smaller box she was still holding onto. “What’s in this one?”
“Let me show you.” I flipped the latch and turned the chest back toward her.
Inside were pictures of me, my mother, and sister before the world had become a much darker place. Along with those, there were baby items like our first pairs of shoes—something my mom had insisted had been important to keep—and locks of our baby hair, including Mom’s.
Kinsley teared up. “This is what you deemed important enough to protect with my life? I mean, I know you didn’t say that, but I heard the implication and mentally rolled my eyes because I thought it was some sort of weapon.” She sniffled and chuckled. “I think your asshole-ness is rubbing off on me.”
Her light laughter made me grin, and I wiped a fresh teardrop from her cheek. “Maybe, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Plus, you didn’t know me before I lost them. I was a different person then. Keeping these items safe is my way of honoring my mother.”
She looked up with admiration I didn’t expect. “I’m sure she’s proud of the man you’ve become.”
I wasn’t sure about that, but there were other things we needed to be discussing instead of diving back into my past.
