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“I’ll be where I found Auri.”
Luc didn’t like the sound of that at all, tugging Nix closer and readjusting to offer his brother more support. He looked up at the sky, wondering if Lexa would arrive in her dragon form, hopeful he’d see her shadow. But the sky was filled with a haze of high gray clouds.
When they finally reached the meadow, Luc helped Nix over to a boulder, then sat down next to him, unwilling to let go of his brother for even a moment. He looked around recognizing the place—it looked like a meadow. Tall grass intermingled with wildflowers fluttering like waves on the sea in the fall breeze. Around them, trees of various varieties hovered tall and imposing. Though still daytime, the clouds cast a dim, almost eerie light.
“What now?” Lachlan asked as he circled the space. His attire matched his guards’, with a leather breastplate, leather bracers, and a dagger strapped to his hip, but rather than a sword like his guards, he had a bow and quiver. The prince’s hair was a touch long, falling into his face so that he had to continually shake it out of his eyes. “Do we have to do some incantation?” When he turned his head to look at them, he was grinning.
With a huff and a shake of his head, Luc turned to Nix, who shrugged. “Just have to call the witch.”
“Make it dramatic, I suppose,” Luc said with a grin.
Nix smiled. “Baba,” he intoned, his voice thick with omnipotence, “witch of these woods, wielder of magic, the god of night and darkness calls you forth.”
“That was pretty convincing,” Luc told his brother. “I’d come running.”
“Me too,” Lachlan replied, still traipsing through the meadow. “And here I thought you were just a pretty boy.” He pulled up a wildflower as he said it, pressing it into his nose. For some reason, it made Luc think of Brinna, and he looked away.
Nix chuckled.
Luc looked for Lachlan’s guards, finding them situated around the meadow, watchful and scowling.
“I kissed Auri here,” Nix said, grabbing Luc’s attention. “This place helped her remember me, when she’d forgotten.” His voice drifted.
“I think it was you who helped her remember.”
Nix didn’t reply, just leaned into him even more. Eventually he said, “I’m tired, Luc.”
“Keep going, Nix. I can fix this.”
Nix shook his head. “Not everything is yours to fix. Sometimes things happen. Good things. Bad things. Wonderful things. Awful things. That’s life.”
“But–”
“I’m so grateful for the spell.”
Luc’s stomach suspended with shock, hanging weightless in his body. “What?”
“If it hadn’t happened, I never would have found Auri.” Nix’s eyes curled with joy, and he pressed a hand to Luc’s cheek, then tapped it a few times before his hand fell away. “I forgive you, you know. I forgave you long ago. In your shoes, perhaps I might have done something similar.” He paused. “Stop punishing yourself.”
“But–”
“You’ve yoked. To Brinna.”
Surprised that Nix knew, Luc didn’t deny it and nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for–”
“Can’t control a yoke. I should know. See what you have to look forward to?” Nix chuffed a laugh, but it quickly faded.
At a strange sound—a tumult of air mixed with the groaning and creaking of trees—Luc looked away from Nix. As the vibration in the earth intensified, birds squawked and took flight from the trees, and a breeze whipped through, carrying dead leaves and the strong odor of moist earth. Darkness spread toward them, a collection of shadows.
“Is that you?” Luc asked Nix.
His brother shook his head. “No. Pretty impressive. Perhaps our witch wants to show off?”
Luc chuckled.
A bright light appeared amidst the gray shadows, small at first, then expanding as it moved through the wood toward them. As the light grew brighter, iridescence like that of pearl shimmered, until at the core of the darkness, the pearl coalesced into a beautiful woman. Her bright white hair swirled as if she were suspended in water, her form dressed in that brilliant shimmer of light.
Lachlan’s men had moved and surrounded the prince, but two of them—Jude and Brendsen—relaxed, slack jawed at the vision the woman made. Only Johesha remained vigilant between the witch and the prince.
