17. Chapter 17

Ifinished washing my hands in the courtyard fountain as I watched Andy mutter to herself and furiously scratch out notes in her notebook. The water in the fountain was as magical as always. Powered by Hasumi"s abilities, it was always burbling away, eternally clear. Every trace of dirt and green residue from my gardening endeavors flowed away and was transmuted in the blink of an eye. I trailed my fingers through the cool silvery water for a moment more, enjoying the touch of this element almost as much as I enjoyed the grounding energies of the earth.

I missed our home world. This place didn"t live and breathe like Magea. I couldn"t sense its ebb and flow around me in the same way. But at least I was alive and free—able to mourn my home realm.

Andy huffed and scribbled, scratching out something she had written with frustrated strokes of her pen. She had been like this all week. I knew she was trying to come up with some solution to the problems that plagued us. It was something we had all been wrestling with as we went about our new routine here in the pocket world. But I was afraid my witch was taking too much responsibility for this, pushing herself too hard to solve all the world"s problems at once.

No hunt would be successful if the hunter wasn"t keen enough to get out of their own way. I sighed, wishing a bow or a hunting knife were the answer to our issues. I wanted to hunt, a physical hunt,to use my finely honed fae senses to track down the imbeciles who had caused this mess and skin them. The magical community had always treated Andy poorly, simply because of the actions of her clan. And now they were persecuting her, ready to imprison or kill the witch at the whim of a corrupt organization that never should have been given so much power in the first place. And the rest of along with her, if they couldn"t find a way to bend us to their own purposes first.

Desperate people were always willing to give up their freedoms and their common sense when they succumbed to fear. I was trapped in the bestiary during the magical civil war that was instigated by Andy"s parents. I didn"t know all the details. But I knew entire communities were wiped out by witch supremacists. My clan—my family—had been one of those casualties. I emerged from the bestiary to find them all long dead, killed in the war. The SA had risen after that conflict, built itself up on the ashes of loss and fear. I was sure the entire magical community had been happy to give over power to anyone who said they believed in equality and safety for all living creatures.

Even if it was all just meaningless rhetoric.

And now, the Alliance was up to something, some power grab that involved gathering powerful magical artifacts, dealing with supremacist zealots, and turning the public eye toward Andy and our newly found family.

But the public didn"t know that. The civil war was still fresh in people"s minds. It had only been a couple of decades since the horrors of that conflict. The magical races were long-lived, so that amount of time was nothing to them. People were still desperate for safety. They remembered the war clearly enough to fear. To want to put their trust in the SA once again, to hope that the shining organization that had saved them before would once again swoop in and give them peace and safety when there were rumblings of discontent. They didn"t realize that the SA was the source of this new rising conflict. People would believe anything if it gave them some sense of safety and security. And Andy probably thought everything rested on her shoulders, as usual.

I sighed and dried my hands on my pants before striding over to where Andy sat on the little bench along the wall of the mansion overlooking this small courtyard garden. "You didn"t cause any of this," I reminded her firmly. "It wasn"t you who started this trouble."

She looked up at me, her furious scribbling finally coming to a halt. The pained scowl she had been wearing faded from her face, and a wry smile replaced it. Her gray eyes met mine, and she huffed a bitter laugh. "No, but I"m sure as shit going to be the one to end it."

I loved that about her, usually. The way she just decided she was going to fix everything all the time. But at the moment, I was afraid her determination might push her toward a breaking point. I reached out and took her notebook and pen from her, closing the journal where she kept her ideas and did her brainstorming. "Maybe," I told her with an arch of my brow. "But not today." I tossed her things to the side, where they landed on a small patch of grass with a muffled thump.

She raised her eyebrows at me in return. "Oh?"

I smiled, slow and wicked, as I reached out and drew my fingertips along her cheek, tracing the sweet curve of her oval face. So soft, my witch. She didn"t look like a warrior, with her lush curves, her tumbled green hair and soft storm-cloud eyes. But she was. She was as much a hunter as I was, in her own way. She hunted for answers. She hunted for justice, for herself, and for the rest of us. I knew she"d figure out what to do. She always did. She would come up with some brash, dangerous, brave solution—one that was part genius and part madness, in usual Lovell fashion—then she"d go execute that idea as if she never once doubted her own success. It was simply what she did.

And I would be right there with her, fighting alongside her however I needed to. But for now…. I was a fae hunter, known for my cunning and ferocity. Able to track any magical creature I was after. Able to handle any fight with the grace and power of my ancestors. But this woman, from the very beginning, always drew out another side of me. One I hadn"t known existed. I wanted to nurture. To comfort. All these soft things tangled up with my need to protect.

And right now, what Andy needed protecting from was herself.

I leaned in closer, bracing a hand on the back of the bench as I invaded her space. "You need a break," I informed her in a conversational tone, despite the way all my hunting instincts suddenly flared to life, ready to seek a different kind of prey. I could smell her spike of interest, taste the flavor of her magic on the air, hear the sudden uptick in her heartbeat, all my senses alive and attuned to her.

Andy smirked at me, knowing full well what I was up to. "Do I?" Her hands came to rest on my hips as I nudged her legs apart and stood between her knees. Always so welcoming, my witch. I wanted to sink into her softness and get lost. But she was the one who needed a distraction, not me.

Leaning closer, I touched my lips to hers, just a soft whisper of a caress, a tease, a promise. "You do," I replied. "And I think I have just the thing."

I nuzzled at her neck, trailing kisses down the side, reveling in the way she shivered at my touch on the sensitive skin. Pausing at her shoulder, I nipped with my sharp canines, making her suck in a surprised little breath that went right to my center, earning a shudder from me in reply. I hadn"t had her all to myself in quite some time. I needed to remedy that.

My hands found her generous breasts, cupping and kneading, weighing them in my palms. What I wouldn"t give to have her stretched out naked among the plants right now, under a warm Magea sun, rather than this strange in between light. But I would make do for now.

Andy hummed against my lips as I moved back to kissing her, not teasing this time. Her lips parted for me, and I tangled my tongue with hers, the taste of her like fresh green grass and earth magic. Her aura reached for mine, a bright thing tinged with just a subtle hint of the necromancer"s darkness. I hated that. Not the cool, dark flavor of the man"s magic, but the fact that she was lifebonded to him. It made me want to demand the same thing. I yearned to be connected to her that way. But theirs was a bond created out of necessity. I knew it wasn"t something she would enter into if given a choice. So, I had to be content with just this, with the feel of our auras twining when we were intimate and our guard was lowered.

I devoured her mouth like a starving person, my hand sliding under her shirt to find bare skin. I could tell before, of course, but this confirmation made me nearly purr with delight. I loved it when my witch went without a bra. Needless contraptions. Of course, I bound my breasts when hunting, but on Andy… bras were just a barrier to my delight. She sighed against my lips as I ran my thumbs over her nipples, making them pebble beneath my touch. She really was so responsive. And so lush, the living embodiment of the earth energy she carried—the power of life, and growth, and fertility.

It wasn"t long before I got my way, my curvy witch spread out naked on a patch of grass that hadn"t yet been taken over by vegetable plants. Climbing vines of sweet peas trailed overhead on their trellis, their pink blossoms lending their beauty to the moment. I shed my own clothes as well, uncaring if someone should walk out here and catch us. It wasn"t exactly a secret that she was enjoying us all, and it wouldn"t be the first time any of them had watched me take Andy apart with my mouth.

I eased her soft thighs apart and prowled forward on my hands and knees toward my goal, enjoying the way her back arched and her hands wrapped around my antlers at the first swipe of my tongue through her slick folds. "Fuck, Niamh," she murmured breathlessly. "You are so good at that."

I chuckled, pausing in my slow torture to glance up at her, past the sweet swell of her belly and the perfect softness of her breasts. "I"m only getting started, witch."

I felt her magic swell around me as I continued, swirling my tongue around her clit as we worked a spell just for us. My fingers slid into her slick heat, and she convulsed around me only a moment later, magic bursting and twining around us, sending echoes of enhanced pleasure through both of us. I felt the echoes of her climax as my own, and I writhed against the ground, suddenly craving friction.

Andy tugged on my antlers impatiently, and I crawled up her body, pressing my leanness to her curves. Our legs tangled, and we rocked gently, enjoying the friction as we kissed, losing ourselves in each other.

Eventually, I pulled back, trailing my hand over her hip and thigh in a caress as I urged her to roll with me, to come kneel over my face. Andy just laughed and ignored my urging. "I know what you"re doing," she informed me, her face still flushed from her pleasure. "And it"s not happening."

I arched a brow at her. "Oh? And just what are you talking about?"

She laughed and grabbed my hip instead, pulling me with her as she rolled, bringing me on top. "You"re trying to distract me and make this all about me. Again." She grinned. "Stop being so self-sacrificing and come sit on my face."

I barked a laugh at her words. But who was I to argue? Pressing a lingering kiss to her breasts, I did as she ordered. Her hands gripped my ass as she sucked on my clit, and I braced myself on the nearby bench, rocking as I chased my pleasure, riding her face like a wild beast, losing myself to the chase, to the building pleasure inside me and the climax that lingered just out of reach.

Andy hummed against my sensitized flesh, doubling down on her efforts as release crashed over me, making me cry out. She laved her tongue over my quivering flesh until I finally collapsed, rolling off her in a tangle of heavy limbs and quiet bliss.

"See," Andy said smugly, rolling to face me as we sprawled together under the strangely colored sky. "Much better when it"s not all about me, right?"

I huffed, turning my head to look at her. "I suppose it was sufficient. For the first round."

She smacked me on the arm and closed her eyes as if she was going to settle in and sleep right here, naked and happy in the middle of the courtyard. "Lies. I blew your mind, and you know it."

I moved to sit with my back against the garden bench, Andy"s head pillowed on my thigh as I combed my fingers through the silkiness of her tangled green waves. "Mmm, possibly."

The light, constant breeze that always existed here trailed lazy fingers over my exposed skin and I soaked in the ambient magic, bolstered by the magic Andy and I had just inadvertently shared with our lovemaking. "We will figure things out," I finally said, still stroking her soft hair. "You don"t have to do it all alone."

She sighed against my thigh. "I know. I just… I wish I had some direction. Some idea what to do next. I hate the not knowing. This limbo. It makes me feel useless."

I nodded. I knew what she meant. I was getting sick of this inaction too. But… "One of the most important things to remember, something that every great fae hunter knows well," I informed her softly. "Is how to wait. How to watch and plan and only strike when the time is right."

She sat up, crossing her legs and looking out at the courtyard as she considered my words, like a verdant fertility goddess carved from warmly glowing marble. "Well, I hope the damned time is right soon," she snarked. "Because I"m going to go stir crazy if we have to wait much longer. Although…" she turned to regard me with one eyebrow raised. "Maybe if I spent more of my time like this, I"d feel differently."

I chuckled, stretching my arms out above my head, toward the non-existent sun, as energy coursed through me, fully considering another tumble in the grass. "I"m happy to help you pass the time, witch."

Unfortunately, our interlude was interrupted when the boogeyman and the necromancer came striding into the courtyard, arms waving, voices raised, clearly in the middle of a heated argument. When they finally saw us, they both froze. Ambrose simply let his eyes slide over Andy, as his irritated expression was replaced by a slow smile of appreciation. But the distant look on Dyre"s face had my witch tensing up and immediately reaching for her clothes.

So much for all my hard work. The necromancer prick had just erased all the ease from Andy"s being. Typical. I hadn"t expected him to come out here, since his little corpse guard dog was stationed in the other courtyard right now. Huffing, I flopped onto my back in the grass and closed my eyes. I wasn"t ashamed of my body, nakedness was natural. So was communing with the earth this way. And neither of the men would leer at me anyway. They knew what I thought of cock. Ugh. No, thank you.

Andy and Dyre shared some stilted words, and I felt them both moving away, probably back to chatting about spells and whatever secret project Andy had been hounding him about for the last few days. I thought it had something to do with Elijah, if their sudden silence around the ghost was any indication.

I started when something touched my shoulder. Turning my head, I opened one eye to glare at the boogeyman who had just nudged me with a toe. He had his hands in the pockets of his immaculate black pants as he gazed down at me. "Sorry to interrupt," he said with a wry smile. "How is she? Any better?"

I huffed and closed my eyes again. "She was. Until you two idiots came out here. You need to get your boyfriend under control before I stab him for stressing her out."

He chuckled, deep and dark. "I"ll try to siphon some of the heavier emotions off her when I get the chance."

I waved him away and felt the shift in magic that said he had dematerialized to go spy on the others. The boogeyman was strange. But I appreciated the way he was always silently looking after everyone. Odd for a nightmare. And odd for me, to consider the dark creature an ally… a friend.

A few moments later, my basking was interrupted again. But this time I didn"t mind so much. Tiny rodent feet walked up my leg, across my belly, and to the center of my torso, where Bis chittered at me softly before he gently curled up to take a nap on me.

"Is Andy okay?" his little chirps asked, my affinity for animals letting me understand him with ease.

"She"ll be fine," I told him, patting his little head. "She"s just stressed out."

"Does she know about the hole, then?"

I stiffened. "The hole? The hole in what, Bis?"

He kneaded his little paws into my stomach as he stretched and yawned. "The one where her magic is leaking out. Where the pocket world is tethered."

His tone was so matter of fact. As if surely, we all saw what he was talking about.

"Damn it," I muttered. This was not good. If Andy was leaking magic and it had something to do with the pocket world, we were all in danger.

And… how had Bis picked up on it when no one else had?