Page 73 of Fated Exile

With a tight fist of borrowed strength inside me, I narrow my eyes at the bough in my hand and concentrate on it to the exclusion of everything else in the room, and everyoneinside my head. Licking my lips, I speak the rhyming spell with as much clarity and deliberateness as I can muster.

"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but home is steps away."

The bough twists and bucks in my grip, resisting the spell's force. Its energy wants to be a flowing stream, a chaotic wind, a grasping plant. But the spell demands a singular, defined purpose: to travel two hundred steps in a single step.

Gritting my teeth, I repeat the spell. Then one more time. The words grow thick and wild in my mouth, resisting the bend of my tongue. Spellwork suddenly feels like something physical; sweat gathers on my brow, dripping down my cheeks to nestle at my jawline.

It's the third spell that does the trick. The bough shivers, shakes, and straightens out, its purpose running through it with clarity. Sighing in relief, I tap it in nine places as Kerry instructed, doing my best to make each piece even. It breaks easily at my touch, no longer resisting the imposition of order on its chaos.

"Very good!" Kerry claps her hands together once, beaming. I grin back at her, grabbing one of the inch-long sticks and rolling it around in my fingers. "Now, when it's time to travel, simply snap the twig and take a step forward. Chewing it works best—you can hide it in your mouth that way, so it's at the ready, and well-hidden from view. But a pocket works just as well."

Giddy excitement fills me at the thought of using my firstreal,witchy, spell. This is nothing like the curse magic I bent on John deLance, or my instinctual fumbling with mate bonds and little earth-coaxing spells. It feels like something proper, the kind of spellwork that's useful and purposeful.

"What about the guys?" I sweep the twigs into my palm and marvel at the magic I can feel crackling beneath their surface. "We should do something similar for them. Or can they use these as well?"

Sadness flickers across Kerry's face. "Unfortunately, I don't know any spells that can access werewolf energy, only witch energy. They could try—but I doubt they'd get anything more than a splinter for their efforts. There were spells that witches used to make charms for werewolves... but other than bits and baubles for fertility and stronger mate bonds, I don't know that any of them are still in practice. Certainly nothing strong enough to fight an enemy like Delphine."

"Oh." Disappointment crests inside me, but I do my best to hide it from Kerry. "Well, this is a good start. Now that I know this spell, I'll be able to learn others, right?"

"Of course! I'll get right on a curriculum." She thrusts her finger up in the air, a thought seemingly occurring to her. "Oh, you'll need to know about directional magic as well, and it'd be good to teach you a few defense and offense spells, like the one you used while dream-walking in Bastian's mind. I'll come up with some stuff right away! Any moment that's not occupied with patrol can go to magical studies."

She rushes to the desk, jotting down a few notes and murmuring to herself. My stomach sinks as I realize that today, for all its trials, tribulations, and great efforts, was only the start. Aunt Kerry is going to find spellwork ten times harder than this for me to master.

Suddenly, I regret asking.

* * *

The afternoon stretches long and sticky, a promise of a storm brewing in the air. I store most of the charms in my bedroom and take one with me, slipping it into the pocket of the tight sporty shorts I put on for patrol today.

I can sense Lance and Finn waiting for me just outside, standing on the front porch, ready for patrol. If I reach my awareness out further, I can find Kieran and Roarke near the Mating Circle, and sense Bastian at the urgent care clinic. Concern thrums through me, until I realize he's uninjured. There are other presences there—including a couple of the warriors, who are injured but not terribly so.

The mating bond lets me sense a little of the emotional state and surface thoughts of each man, but not much further than that. Lance and Finn, who are nearby, are bright spots, their impatience and boredom clearly and easily tasted on the back of my tongue.

It's harder to tell what Kieran and Roarke are up to, far away near the Mating Circle, though I know they're speaking to some of the pack members about pack business. I hope to be able to do the same soon—now that I'm alpha, healing the broken mating bonds and finding strong young pairs to thread together is important. First, though, we need to make sure there are no more vampires waiting in the woods, and no Delphine close behind them.

My instincts tell me that we won't find her anytime soon. Delphine has plans and machinations of her own. When she attacks, it'll be unexpected, sudden, and powerful. The vampire who snuck up on the Mating Circle was just that: a lone soldier, either rebelling or sent out on a scouting mission. He's being kept in the moonsickness compound for now, locked up and tightly guarded, but I look forward to interrogating him tonight after patrol.

I head out the front door and down the porch, where I find Lance and Finn lounging against the railing, the late afternoon sun backlighting their broad-shouldered forms. "Ready to head out?"

"Now that you are," Lance says, turning towards me and reaching out a broad hand. He grabs my arm and pulls me to him, strong yet gentle. "I missed you today. I know we had lunch together, but after last night... it was hard to be without you for so long."

"Same." I push up on my tiptoes and drop a kiss on his mouth, enjoying the warm slide of his plush lips against mine. "Maybe you do have a point about that addition. It's going to be hard to juggle everything, and I don't want to miss out on time with you."

Finn clears his throat and peers around Lance's shoulder. "Ididsuggest a calendar oh-so-long ago, did I not? Still have the online and offline organizational system worked out. All we have to do is figure out who's willing to overlap with whom, and we can split that around patrol, alpha duties, your magic shifts, and interrogating that vampire bastard until he sings like a canary."

I snort, raising a brow at him. "Is thatallwe have to do?"

"That and figure out how to kill Delphine," he says cheerily, reminding me of yet another big mystery hanging over everything. "But if you're down for it, so am I. Especially if a schedule means snuggle time with Lance over here."

"Not on your life."

Laughing, I pull away from Lance and walk over to Finn, who grabs me by the waist and pulls me against him possessively. There's a mischievous glint in his eyes as he bends down to kiss me, his tongue slyly pushing my lips open and stroking inside.

The mischievousness only increases when he slides his leg between mine, the start of his arousal rubbing up against my thigh, and trails his mouth down to my ear. "I'd repeat last night every single night of our lives until the day I'm too creaky and dusty to get out of bed or get it up... and maybe even then, too." His teeth skim my earlobe, and I shudder, ignoring the pulse of annoyance I sense from Lance. "Think I can convince old stiff-lip over here to share a night with me? I'll even swear not to let things cross."

I snort, murmuring, "You and I both know you have a better chance of shifting into a pig and flying away."

"Good one." Finn chuckles, pulling back to look down into my eyes, his hands running up my back and his thigh shifting against mine. "I suppose I'll start with the randy young buck, then, and make my way up the list until I get to ol' sexually uptight here. By our thirties, maybe I'll even have him convinced that there's nothing devilish about a two-man one-woman threesome."

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