Page 131 of Liar Witch
My beast was doing his very best to encourage our twin to loosen his grip on his leviathan side, even knowing how much that loss of control upsets Nos. It’s bad enough that he had to get in the water at all.
His frown disappears, his mouth parting slightly as he slips into a vision without answering me. Nilsa hasn’t noticed, but Ry has, and he slips into minding Nos automatically. The vampire fiddles with a new ring on his pinky finger as he watches for any sign of my brother falling into another seizure. But this vision doesn’t last long.
A few seconds later, Nos is back, blinking away whatever Fate showed him with a frown that turns into a glare as he fixes his eyes on a spot above my head.
He shoulders out of the room without a word. The aggression pouring off of him stuns the rest of us to silence.
Noster isn’t the angry twin. He’s normally the calm one. Wise, if a little bitter and gloomy at times.
Fate’s curse made him that way a long time ago.
Shit. For Nos to react like this…
“He’ll come around,” Nilsa whispers against my chest. “He really struggled when he brought me aboard after our swimming lesson went wrong.”
I cock my head at her. “Struggled how?”
Her small smile is almost enough to cushion the blow of her next words. “He acted a little more like you, actually. Scales out, growling, touching and sniffing me all the time…”
Her voice makes it clear that she didn’t mind one bit, but I know what that kind of a slip will have done to my brother. Such a display from him would once have been met with swift and brutal punishment—for me.
“Cas?”
“Don’t worry about it, Princess,” I mutter. “I’m sure he’s just mad at me for putting you in danger.”
“I challenged your beast,” she replies. “I know now, and next time—”
“Next time?” I’m pretty sure my voice has jumped an octave.
Val said Nos mentioned she wants to try again, but I’m not prepared for how serious she sounds about it.
“Next time,” she insists. “I won’t do that again. I’m not giving up.”
“Stubborn,” Ry grunts, but it sounds more like he approves than anything. “Though next time you stay human,” he growls at me. “No excuses. Show one scale and the lesson stops.”
Kier nods beside him, crossing his arms in a show of unity.
“I understand,” I say, meaning it. I promised myself when we started these lessons that I wasn’t going to fuck it up, and look where that got us. “I’m sure Val can make you a platform or something to sit on and get your feet wet.”
She says nothing, but I can feel her frustration now as much as I could then. For someone as proud as her, admitting she has a weakness is hard enough. Accepting our support is probably worse, and I’m pretty sure askingValfor help might just be beyond her limits.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Noster
The door to our cabin slams behind me, but I can’t stop moving. I pace the confines of the room like a caged animal, caught in equal parts terror and anger at what I’ve just Seen.
I want to roar at the world. At Fate and the other Goddesses for being this cruel.
My beast, still out of control after that dip in the water with Nilsa, lashes out. Writhing so hard against his bonds that it feels like the two halves of me are at war with one another.
He wants us to do it, to mark Nilsa in the old way like we did in that glimpse of the future. Goddess, the vision of her, reaching out to Cas and me in our beast forms like she wasn’t a fraction of the size of a leviathan, affected my beast so badly that he almost forced a shift.
Even now, my arms itch from the feeling of his scales locked just beneath the surface.
I can’t say I don’t want to do it. It’s not necessary—most shifters mate with a single traditional claiming bite during sex—but the idea of marking Nilsa twice stirs something primal within me. To accept a bite from our beast forms is risky as fuck, but our brave mate isn’t the type to let a little danger put her off when she wants something.
No, that future is fine. Perfect, even.
