Page 28 of The Night Vision
“I didn’t read your mind. It’s something I’ve sensed since we metandit’s common sense. Someone taught you to love the outdoors. I assume it wasn’t your grandmother who showed you how to track and hunt and you’re very good at building things with your bare hands. Tighe probably knows this as well,” he said, bowing his head at Tighe.
He nodded quickly. “I don’t feel any connection to your mother but you loved an older, wiser man and you miss him.”
There was a faint sniff and Silas laughed softly. “My Pop-pop. I loved my Memaw too, but Pop-pop was my world. My grandparents raised me but I lost them both by the time I graduated from high school.”
“I’m so sorry,” Nox said sincerely. “I was lucky because I had Merlin when I lost my parents. But it must have been tough to be on your own like that, when you were just becoming an adult.”
“It was,” Silas said and shrugged. “I never cared about being popular or having material things, and I’ve never been that ambitious. I just want them to be proud of me.”
Nox laughed softly, his eyes watering. “Oh, you bet they are.”
“Are they?” Silas asked quietly and there was a small smile as he picked up his cup and raised it to Nox. “Thank you.”
Without thinking, Tighe rushed around the island and hugged Nox. “Thank you!”
“I didn’t do anything, really!” he laughed but Tighe shook his head.
“You made Silas happy and I think you helped him.”
“He did,” Silas agreed softly.
“It was nothing!” Nox insisted as he set Tighe away from him. “And now you two know how to make a poppet if you ever have a nemesis,” he said with a teasing grin.
“Me? A nemesis?” Tighe said and Silas laughed.
“Who would make the Easter Bunny their nemesis?” he asked, earning a grunt of agreement from Nelson but Merlin clicked his teeth at them.
“I can think of one person,” he said. “That’s whythisis the only place we can keep Tighe until we’ve dealt with Dùbhghlas. I know of no other place that’s been warded this strongly against him.”
“Dùbhghlas had a mother and he loved her?” Silas verified and Merlin nodded. “Don’t think she’d be proud of him if she knew what he turned into.”
Merlin shook his head, his eyes brimming with anger. “Brighid Dùbhghlas was a powerfully dark witch and a vain, hateful woman. She groomed Dùbhghlas to be evil. There were rumors that she was teaching him how to summon and deal with demons as a child. It couldn’t be proven but I suspect she was sacrificed in aid of his relentless obsession with power and dark magick.”
“Sacrificed?” Tighe asked and Merlin widened his eyes.
“We can only guess at this point, but Brighid died on the eve of Hugh’s seventeenth birthday. That was a significant age to the Celts and I believe that he killed her in order to bind himself to the darkness and as an offering,” he said in a hushed whisper.
Silas gasped. “Who would do that?Why?”
“That, my lad, is the difference between a white witch and a dark warlock. Hugh grew extremely powerful after Brighid died and that kind of power comes from making a terrible pact. You must sacrifice the one you hold most dear, sever the most precious part of your soul, and commit yourself to the darkness. That can be your only love if you wish to wield it, whereas Nox wields love as his greatest power.” Merlin beamed at him but Nox shrugged it off.
“Fuckery might be my second favorite. What’s life without a little laughter and some mischief?”
“Peaceful?” Nelson guessed.
“Blah!” Nox replied and canted toward Tighe. “Don’t listen to Nelson. He likes to be kept on his toes.”
Merlin hummed in agreement. “The only thing Nelson fears is spare time and idleness, the man was born to hunt and save the day.”
“Like Silas!” Tighe said as he helped himself to more tea.
“Very much like Silas,” Nox said and gave him a friendly nudge. “Fate’s been kind to us, hasn’t it?”
It was impossible not to blush and smile, Tighe’s face was warm as he nodded. “It has been very kind,” he said as he shared a lingering look with Silas.
Tighe was all too aware of how lucky he was as Silas smiled back at him. He could still feel the traces of their last mating in his tender flesh and damp briefs. After years of wandering alone, Tighe had found his partner and his purpose. He was meant forSilas and Tighe would do whatever it took to protect him and make him happy.
Which had him wondering:how can I make a poppet?
