Page 34 of Witch's Rebirth
15
DEJA
My heart rate skyrocketed as Seth and I entered the house. Would they even still be here? If they really thought I was dead, what reason would the guys have to stay?
Panic surged through my chest when I saw the state the house was in. Broken glass and ceramic crunched under my shoes, smashed furniture littered the house, debris was everywhere.
I threw defenses up immediately and sensed Seth do the same behind me. Power coiled in my belly, ready to strike at the slightest movement. We walked through slowly, surveying the damage. Did Diana's people ransack my house? If everyone thought she killed me, fucking with our things would just be another spit on my grave.
A flash of black at the corner of my eye made me turn and shoot tendrils of earth magic. With no hesitation, I was ready to kill what got in my way.
The tendrils wrapped around a broad, muscular forearm thrown up to block the attack. When the arm lowered to reveal its owner's face, all solidness seemed to leave my body.
"Raum," I choked and ran to him.
"Baby," he answered in the most pained voice I ever heard him say.
He wrapped me in a bone-crushing hug and lifted me off the ground. Our lips passed across each other in messy, desperate, uncoordinated kisses that never felt so sweet.
"Sal! Ash! Nona!" he yelled through his massive gorgeous grin. "Our girl is back!"
Sal's head popped out first from the top landing of the stairs, his green eyes wide as saucers. He jumped down, skipping all the steps in a graceful, feline leap and pulled me to him.
"Beautiful," he murmured in disbelief, his fingers gently running over my cheekbones and jaw. "Are you alright? What the hell happened?"
Before I could answer, another hand pulled me away by my arm. I found myself staring into icy blue eyes rimmed with red blood vessels. Ash tried to keep his face with his usual mask but his voice trembled as he spoke.
"Is it really you?" he asked coldly.
"It's her, man," Raum assured him. "She came at me with earth magic like only our little spitfire would."
Ash's expression began to crack but he still said nothing. His eyes remained suspicious but his mouth twisted as if starting to betray him.
"It's me, angel," I said, wrapping an arm around his neck. "And I love you, even though you drink nasty shit like coffee instead of twig and leaf water like civilized people."
He choked out a laugh, finally letting his guard down and swallowing my mouth in a bruising kiss. My arms wound tighter around him and his did the same around me. The world melted away as I burrowed into his touch, his scent. Our mouths didn't speak but his aura wrapped around mine and whispered his thoughts like a lullaby.
My love, my love...
"Hey, you two." Raum clapped his hands down on both of our shoulders with a cheesy grin. "Let Nona get in there and have a piece."
I turned slowly away from Ash to the young woman standing a bit further away from everyone else. Her eyes were red too and she wrung her hands nervously.
"I asked if I could stay here because I wanted to feel your magic before it faded away." She chewed her lip and looked away. "I know it looks weird but I swear-"
"Silly bitch, get over here." I held my arms out to her.
She choked out a sob and we ran to each other. Together we collapsed in a heap of tears on the floor, seeing as we no longer had any furniture downstairs.
The guys gave us space and I only vaguely noticed Seth going around and repairing what he could with his magic. Already he seemed to fit in seamlessly with the guys, and my heart lifted with gratitude. No one gave him the side-eye or possessive snarls anymore. They didn't ask if anything happened between us out in the woods but on some level, I was sure they knew. Raum probably saw it all happen in a vision, though he would never tell me that either.
"Now that we're all blissfully reunited," Raum pulled me into his lap on the loveseat in Ash's study, the only downstairs area left untouched by wreckage. "Want to tell us what happened?"
"It was Lucifer," I said to all the shocked faces in the room. "Back when the angel first tried to kill me, he kept a tiny piece of my soul in Hell and made it into an anchor. It would be triggered to pull me there for safety if anything similar happened again."
"Sly fucking bastard," Sal grinned. "That's genius."
"Ahem, plain English for the non-magical folk, please?" Nona raised her hand with a teasing grin.
