Chapter 43

Chapter Forty-Three

“You’re not going to be able to hear anything he says,” Silas warned her. He could feel a tic developing in the muscles of his jaw as he fought to stop grinding his teeth.

He’d always intended to properly introduce Tal and Petra, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it.

“But I’ll know he’s there,” Petra stubbornly insisted. “Right?”

“Right.”

“How do you know he’ll be there? Can you reach him somehow?”

Silas loved that his witch had regained a bit of her energy, that spark of something that had so drawn him to her in the first place, but he selfishly wanted all of her attention on him, not Tal.

He would do unspeakable things for his brother, but sharing his mate’s attention? It was untenable.

But he fought the urge to drag her back into the house. He bit back the growl that rumbled in his chest at the thought of her being so close to an unmated man — mostly incorporeal as he might have been. He didn’t do it out of his affection for Tal or even the understanding that Petra getting on board with the plan to give Tal his body back would make everything much smoother.

No, he did it because Petra asked him to.

Soft shit, he silently griped as he expertly picked his way down a nearly invisible deer track behind his house.

He didn’t hate doing things for her. In fact, he was surprised to find a deep, foreign sense of satisfaction whenever he did the right thing to make her happy. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t a little galling.

Silas tightened his grip on Petra’s hand, pulling her along after him through the underbrush. The air was muggy and only the faintest traces of a hot pink sunset lingered in the navy blue sky they could barely make out through the gaps in the forest canopy.

“Tal will be there,” he finally answered as he swept a branch aside and held it until Petra was safely out of swiping range. “He hangs out in this area a lot when we aren’t together. He’ll definitely hear us coming.”

Tal did like to drift in the ether and pop out in odd places, mostly to watch people, but they hadn’t been apart for more than a few weeks at a time since Silas was a toddler. He highly doubted his brother would leave the area now, of all times. Not when everything was such a mess.

“Okay, but where exactly are we— Oh.”

They came to a stop at the edge of a small clearing. The underbrush wasn’t quite so thick, mostly because a ring of large old growth trees blocked out too much light for the weaker plants to grow. Off to one side, a trickle of a creek wound in a serpentine scrawl. On the opposite end, in the deepest shadows of the biggest tree, was an old, rundown fort.

Clearing his throat, Silas explained, “If you keep following this track, you’ll eventually hit my parents’ house. As a kid I’d come down here to mess around without getting in trouble.”

He’d never been able to play with his cousins. Not for long, anyway. He always ended up doing something that made someone cry or run to his parents to complain. Sometimes he had fun, but mostly he ended up frustrated, unable to understand why his cousins were so sensitive.

So he’d spent his childhood alone, tromping through the deep wilderness, his canvas pack stuffed with books and tools he’d pilfered from various family members. Tal liked to come with him, but only when Silas ventured out after sunset or on particularly gloomy days with little sun.

The fort was initially built as Silas’s own little workshop, full of odds and ends of machinery and books on sigilwork he stole, but at some point Tal had taken a liking to it, since he could hide out there during the day, so it became his, too.

He wasn’t sure what Petra could see in the rapidly gathering darkness, but he could make out the painstakingly carved piece of plywood he’d nailed over the lopsided doorway.

Tal’s Place

Silas could feel the shadows around him seething with life. It was all familiar on an elemental level — the taste of the air, the scents of the forest, the magic that clung to the darkness between leaf and root. He wasn’t sentimental, but he liked how he felt whenever he returned to this particular spot.

There was something different about bringing Petra, though. When he looked at her, glowing faintly, dressed mostly in his clothing, free of makeup and all the masks she’d been forced to wear, he felt… centered. Like something that had been missing was returned to its rightful place in the very heart of him and the forest both.

Unable to resist, Silas reeled her into his chest and tilted her head up for a punishing kiss. “You look so pretty in the dark,” he rasped. Petra made a soft sound in the back of her throat, but before she could say anything, he ordered, “Now stay here.”

Petra’s eyes, closed for their kiss, popped open. “Wait, where are you going?” Her fingers curled into the well-washed fabric of his t-shirt like she had any hope of holding him there if he wanted to be free.

Fuck, I like that. His cock, on a hair trigger these days, jerked with interest at the thought of her clinging to him.

“What?” he teased, prying her hands off just so he could feel her reach for him again. “Afraid I’m going to leave you in the dark woods all by yourself, little goddess?”

“A little, yeah. I’ve never been in a forest before.” She tried for a smile, but it came out so weak that she let it fall almost immediately. “I’m a city girl, remember?”

He expected her to tease him, maybe to threaten to run away. Her simple honesty was disarming. Scowling, he cupped the front of her throat and felt her pulse throb under the shadows there. “Well, stop worrying, city girl. I’m not gonna leave you. The only time I’ll let you leave my side in these woods is when I wanna chase you down for a fuck in the dirt. Understand?”

He loved the way her skin glowed, but he really loved watching her eyes dilate like that. Leaning down for one more kiss, he whispered, “My naughty little goddess. I knew you’d like the sound of that.”

He tore himself away from her before he lost the fraying edge of his willpower. Blood rushed in his ears, thick with hormones and the need to claim, but he forced himself back a step. Then another.

It was a good thing that Petra held very still, her eyes locked on him and her swollen lips slightly parted. If she’d so much as twitched or glanced to the side, his instincts would have seen it as a sign that she intended to run. If she gave him an excuse to chase her down again…

Silas cursed and spun around. The memory of tearing out of her pathetic little shower to hunt her down in the cathedral’s sanctuary felt like it came from another life. He was desperate for another taste of it. Her.

Mood souring with every inch of distance he put between them, Silas stomped across the clearing. He swiveled his head once to skewer her with a look. She’d crossed her arms but otherwise remained exactly where he’d left her. That small act of trust eased some of his frustration. Such a good girl.

He couldn’t wait until he could properly reward her.

Having no doubt that Tal was around but wisely keeping his distance until called, Silas gave the flimsy sign above the entrance a tap with his knuckles, waited a moment, and then bent nearly in half to fit through the doorway.

The inside was quite spacious for a child and a wraith, but for a fully grown half demon, it wasn’t exactly a comfortable fit.

Despite the ache in his back, Silas took a moment to glance around and take stock of the fort. It’d been years since he’d bothered to check on it, but his childhood fishing gear remained propped against one wall. The books were gone, but the crude shelves held other things he’d filched for Tal over the years: a bronze spy glass from a rich fuck’s desk, an expired packet of shredded gum no one made anymore, and a bottle of his family’s most expensive whiskey.

A pair of tiny boots with holes in the rubber soles were carefully aligned by the door, and on the far end of the room a cork board one of his uncles threw out dominated the wall. On it were pinned hundreds of scraps of paper so fully covered in chicken scratch sigilwork and a child’s blueprints for mechanical bodies that the paper could barely be distinguished. Moisture had ruined much of the notes, but Tal refused to let Silas take it down.

He was sentimental about it all, though Silas himself cringed at the sight of such poor work.

Annoyed as ever at the sight of it and already itching to get back to his mate, Silas glared at the darkest corner of the fort. Tal’s presence was muted. If he could have compared it to something, Silas would have said that it was a bit like someone standing in the corner, stock still, and praying they wouldn’t be noticed.

“My mate wants to see you,” he growled.

There was a long moment of stillness before the shadows began to cautiously unfurl. When Tal spoke, his voice was pained. Is that really a good idea right now?

“No, it’s not. This is already driving me crazy. But she asked for it, so she gets it.” Silas jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “She stays where she is, you stay by the door here. If you move any closer, I’m going to double the ass-kicking you’ve got coming for letting her get fuckin’ shot.”

Tal didn’t argue. They both understood that it wasn’t really his fault. But the fact was that Tal had been entrusted with the sacred duty of protecting Silas’s mate — even if she hadn’t been at the time — and he failed. There were consequences for that sort of thing. There had to be, or else they’d never be able to move past shit and let mistakes go.

She really wants to see me? Tal’s form resolved a little more. To Silas’s trained eye, he was clearly visible, but he wondered if Petra was going to have trouble making sense of the shadowed mass.

Wanting to be done with this already, Silas answered, “She asked, didn’t she?”

But she won’t be able to hear me.

“I’ll translate.”

It wasn’t like it would be the first time. His clan knew all about Tal. They weren’t necessarily comfortable around the wraith, seeing as he was technically dead, but there had been a handful of times where Silas acted as Tal’s voice for them.

Okay.

But Tal didn’t move. He remained there in the corner, his shadows ebbing and flowing in a way Silas recognized as unease. Already at the limit of his patience, he snapped, “Are you gonna come outside or not?”

Honestly? I’m nervous.

“Why? You’ve already met her.” Several times. One of which involved seeing what the bolt gun did to her insides.

Tal’s tone took on a familiar note of exasperation when he replied, She’s your mate, Si. It’s a big deal.

“It’s not like it was a surprise to you.”

So? It still matters.

Silas had half expected Tal to say something smug about being right, but the wraith hadn’t said a word about his warnings. That uncomfortable squirming sensation took up root in his chest again, but he had no hope of pinpointing where it came from.

I want to make a good impression, but I can’t because I’m… this. It’s frustrating.

“You can’t make a worse first impression than me,” he pointed out.

You’ve got me there.

“She’s waiting,” Silas prodded, growing increasingly antsy.

I know. I’m sorry. I’m just— Tal cut himself off, then, in a resigned tone, explained, I think I’m jealous of you, Si, and I don’t want her first impression of me to be this.

“I’d be jealous of me, too.” He bared his fangs. “But you’ll have to kill me if you want her.”

I don’t want Petra, Tal firmly replied. But I want what you have. I’d do anything to get it. Horrible, evil things — and I wouldn’t think twice about it. I don’t want her to see that, or to only know me as a monster in the dark. I want… I just want.

It wasn’t a big surprise to him. He and Tal had always shared the ugliest parts of themselves with one another, and usually those parts lined up neat and tidy. The difference between them was that Tal felt shame. Silas could never manage that bit.

Distinctly uncomfortable, as he always was when Tal got sentimental, Silas rolled his eyes and quipped, “Well, it’s a good thing for both of us that Petra likes monsters.”

“Silas?” His mate’s voice, a little high pitched, made all his muscles tense. Silas was already backing out of the fort before he’d even made the choice to do so.

“C’mon, asshole,” he muttered, ducking to make sure his horns didn’t catch on the ceiling. In a louder voice, he called out, “You’re fine, baby. I’m coming out now.”

The breath squeezed out of his lungs when he backed out of the doorway and turned around to find her standing where he’d left her, all alone and glowing in the full darkness that had fallen.

A look of profound relief crossed her features. She lifted a foot like she intended to hustle across the clearing, and he immediately tensed. Not only did he not want her too close to Tal, but there were loads of rocks and random machinery parts scattered around, hidden by vines and moss. If she tripped and hurt herself, he was pretty sure he’d lose his mind.

Heartbeat accelerating, Silas held up a hand. It was deeply gratifying to see her halt immediately.

They had a long way to go, but that sign of trust was everything.

His voice came out a little hoarse when he ordered, “You keep your pretty ass there. I’m coming to you.”

Petra sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, but she nodded.

A dizzying swell of pleasure expanded in his chest. “That’s my girl,” he rumbled, lengthening his stride.