Page 64 of Witch Unbound
I wanted to melt against her, mold to her and beg her to kiss me again.
She chuckled, low and sexy, as if reading my thoughts. “When you get back, Cupcake. When you get back, you’re spending the night with me.”
If that wasn’t an incentive to haul my ass back home quick, I wasn’t sure what was.
Chapter Fifteen
If Jasper were here, he’d have come with us. His power would have been uber helpful right now, but he wasn’t here, and it was up to me and my mini crew to get the job done.
I’d jumped us to the coordinates provided by Mel, and now we were standing in the storeroom of a grocery store. Interesting spot for a rift. Had anyone accidentally fallen through? Also, how had the Magiguard found this particular rift in the first place?
I adjusted the potions belt Sloane had insisted I wear. Witches may not be able to access miasma in Faerie, but potions should still work fine. Or so she believed.
I wasn’t about to turn down the extra help. Besides, I got the impression this was her way of being present even though she couldn’t come with me.
I reached up to touch my mouth that still throbbed from her kisses. I wanted more, and I’d make sure I got them.
But first we had a mission to complete.
“You guys ready?” I looked from Lauris to Bramble, then to Rune, who had Wren hanging onto his back like a furry backpack. “We stick together on the other side. No wandering off, got it?”
We’d dressed in black to blend with the night, weaponed up with iron, and loaded up with potions. Lauris carried supplies Sloane felt might come in handy in a pack hanging off his shoulder. We were as ready as we’d ever be.
The rift was a silver crack in the air, inviting and ominous. I took the lead and stepped through from cement floor to forest floor, from anemic light from a single bulb to moonlight so bright that for a moment I thought it was day.
The others spilled into the fae realm behind me and fanned out.
Wren made a soft sound, almost a whimper.
“It’s okay, buddy,” Rune said.
But Wren was too busy shaking like a leaf, eyes so wide I was afraid they’d pop out of his head.
“Wren? Buddy?”
“Noooo. No, no, no, bad. Cora, this is bad.”
His fear was palpable, pressing against my skin as I gently tugged him off Rune and cradled him to me. “Hey, hush, calm down. What is? Talk to me. Where are we? Why is it bad?” He was breathing so fast I was worried he’d pass out from hyperventilating. “Wren!” I injected a snap into my tone. “Focus. I need you to focus.”
He stilled and then tipped his face up to mine. “Enter not the dead dark trees for evil lurks and danger creeps, all that ignore this warning rhyme will dance with death a thousand nights.” He shuddered. “Cora, we’re doomed. Dooomed.” His wail was so mournful it made my insides shrivel and shake.
“It’s okay; we’ll be okay.” Rune smoothed a hand over his head. “We’re not doomed. We have potions and weapons. All we need to know is which way to the tower?”
Wren sobbed softly and shook his head. “Wren not know. Wren never been in the dead dark forest.”
“So we find a way out,” Bramble said. Her wings materialized behind her—beautiful, tapered butterfly wings, black and studded with silver. “I’ll take a look.” She gave me a jaunty salute that melted the foreboding Wren’s wail had awakened.
“Be careful,” Lauris said.
She dropped him a wink. “We got this.” She looked over her shoulder. “Don’t we, wings?”
Was it my imagination or did her wings shiver in response?
But there was no time to dwell because she was already in the air, rising up toward an epic starry sky that made my heart ache with longing to touch it.
She was high enough for me to be able to see the soles of her boots when a low moan riding a gust of air lashed past me. My hair whipped into my eyes, momentarily blinding me. Bramble let out a cry of alarm that was chased by Lauris’s bellow.
“What the fuck?” Rune cried.
