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Nix shook his head. “Tell me we have something we can use?”
“Brinna thinks the witch is in the woods. Baba—the name Scarlett used.”
Nix’s eyes brightened and he grinned, though under duress.
“Perhaps you should stay here? I will find Lachlan.”
Nix shook his head. “You have no power, so you’re stuck with me.”
His father’s words drifted through Luc’s mind.When you are ready to accept who you are and who you are intended to be, I will restore your power to you.For the first time, Luc wished he did have his powers back. Wished he could use them to fix his brother, fix this situation. “I suppose I’ll just have to succumb to Father’s wishes.” But the truth of it was that it didn’t feel like giving in anymore, but accepting the truth, what had always been inevitable.
Nix offered a wan grin. “It is inevitable,” he said echoing Lucian’s own thoughts. Nix huffed a laugh. “Is Auri…”
“She is still asleep. Still in the world.” He avoided offering that she was also fading.
Nix nodded and tried to straighten as if it pained his body. “Come,” he said, and Sol drifted away as he transported them to the woods.
It had been sometime since Luc had seen the hedge outside of a dream, and his renewed view of it still took his breath away. “Irrational magic.”
“Most assuredly.”
“Nixus!”
Luc turned, then grabbed hold of Nix, who faltered, helping to steady him. Luc swallowed the words of his concern, knowing Nix would ignore them.
Lachlan’s eyes danced between them. “What’s wrong?”
“Missing my love, is all,” Nix said with a smile, pushing off Luc to stand on his own.
“Please tell me you’ve found something,” the prince said, his words an echo of Nix’s earlier sentiment. He shoved his hands into his hair, an action he’d clearly been perfecting, since every brown hair on his head was in disarray.
Luc thought of Brinna telling him about Tarley’s nightmare and realized they were all stuck. Not just the family—though the Fareviews were sleeping—Lachlan, Nixus, and himself were living nightmares of their own, as stuck as the Fareviews behind their hedge. “Did you tell him?” he asked Nix.
“Tell me what?” Lachlan’s eyes bounced between them.
“No,” Nix said. “I didn’t–” He took a fortifying breath but remained silent.
“Anything?”
Nix shook his head.
Luc wondered if Lachlan—a mortal—would understand the magic, then recalled the darkling, turned to look at the hedge, and realized it was a ridiculous thought. He looked at Lachlan. “Do you have somewhere we can rest?” He glanced at Nix, then back to Lachlan.
“I don’t need rest,” Nix argued, but his body didn’t protest as he leaned heavily against Luc.
Lachlan nodded, a quick burst of movement that shouted his impatience. “My tent!” He turned, leading them down the roadway parallel to the hedge to a small camp with members of the prince’s guard. Luc didn’t know any of them, though he’d seen them at the wedding. They stood stoic and observant, watching Lachlan enter the tent, their eyes steady and assessing. Lachlan introduced them: Johesha, Jude, Brendsen—obviously important since they’d followed them into the tent. Though a large tent filled with a cot, a table, chairs, rugs, it was tight with all of them inside.
Lachlan indicated places to sit before leaning against a table. “Do these accommodations meet your expectations?”
His snark made Luc smile, which seemed to irritate him further, which Luc also understood.
“What’s so fucking amusing?” Lachlan snapped.
Luc held up his hands, a twinge grabbing hold of a bit inside him and twisting. He blinked and worried for Brinna, then tried to focus on Lachlan, who looked ready to shove a dagger into Luc’s chest—which would work without his powers.
“No. No.” Luc shook his head. “This isn’t an amusing situation. And the story isn’t any more amusing.”
Lachlan leaned against the table once more, crossing his arms over his chest. “Tell me.”
