31. Chapter Thirty-One
1544 Words
31
Chapter Thirty-One
Bryar Rose
A few moments later, Alec’s transport spell drops me off to the very spot where Knox is. In this case, it’s his castle, the one where Ty is living. I can tell because I find myself standing inside a bedroom made of gray rock. Threadbare tapestries of wolves hang on the walls. A random fountain sits in one corner. And Ty is here as well. She sits on the edge of a large four poster bed, wearing the same yellow gown she did a few moments ago in Egypt.
But Ty isn’t what holds my attention. Atop the mattress, there lies Knox, passed out and pale.
I stand by the doorway, waiting. “I’m here, Ty.”
Ty is across the room. She doesn’t look up when she hears me speak. “I’d expect nothing else,” she says. “I’m not going to hurt him.”
“I got that part. You brought him here to heal him, didn’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“So go on. I’ll wait.” Closing my eyes, I search for my inner animal. She’s pacing an angry line inside my soul.
“Our mate is sick,” she growls. “And you’re letting that witch tend to him?”
“You’ve got a better idea?” I ask. My wolf doesn’t reply to that, which I take to mean that she agrees. Whatever else you can say about Ty, she’s a very talented witch.
Across the room, Ty raises her fist. Even from a distance, there’s no missing the giant ruby that gleams through her fingers. Ty lifts her arm and speaks in a loud voice. “With this spell, I release you from my curse. From now on, you may stand beside your mate without pain.”
I shake my head. Knox always suspected it was Ty who cast the spell on him to make him ill. And he was right all along. I’m not sure whether to be angry or happy, so I decide to wait and see if Ty heals him. At that point, I’ll go with happy.
As Ty keeps her hand held high, the gemstone in her fist brightens. Beams of crimson peek out through Ty’s fingers. Magic. For a moment, the red light becomes blindingly bright. After that, it disappears. Instead of the stone, Ty now holds a vial of red fluid in her hand. Miniscule points of brightness appear inside the liquid.
“Is the spell cast?” I ask.
“That’s right.”
“Now you need him to drink that, don’t you?” I ask.
Ty shoots me a quick glance over her shoulder. She opens her mouth as if to speak, but closes it just as quickly. In the end, she only nods and offers me the small vial.
I step over, take the vial, and kneel by Knox’s side. He’s still unconscious, so it takes a while him to drink the vial. I can only pour a few drops on his lips at a time. He swallows them slowly. Perhaps an hour goes by this way. Once the last sip is down Knox’s throat, a thin layer of red mist encompasses his body. Tiny beams of crimson light leak out from his pores. The curse is disappearing. The red light dies out and Knox sighs with relief. Still kneeling beside him, I run my fingers through his silky black hair.
“Your curse made Knox sick when I was around,” I say to Ty. “You took his energy.”
Ty steps away. “You’ve every reason to hate me.”
“That depends.” I glance at her over my shoulder. “Why did you do it?”
“Reggie told me who you were. Magic reborn. You were going to die on the autumn equinox. I didn’t want Knox to get hurt, so I tried to help. I thought if he saw that being around you made him sick, then he’d break up with you.”
“And the fact that you wanted him to date you?” I ask.
“That was just me wishing that my life was different, that’s all. It was all wrong of me. I’m sorry.”
I keep brushing my fingers through Knox’s hair. We’re shifters; touch is always important. I shoot Ty a knowing look. “So, what was all this really about? What have you been hiding from in here?”
Ty exhales a long breath. “I hate my fairy tale life template.”
And with those words, I know exactly who Ty really is. “All this fish stuff. You’re the sea witch from the Little Mermaid, aren’t you?”
“You guessed it. That’s my nightmare.”
“How did Knox get mixed up in all this?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
I stand up and look her straight on. “I think it does.”
Ty paces a line across the bedroom floor before pausing. “Knox and I used to hunt Denarii. For me, it was a good way to make money. Plus Knox was a great client. He always paid on time and Denarii are easy to kill once you know how. Knox and I were pals, you know? Like work buddies.”
“I understand.”
“So, we went on this one gig and that’s where I met two men that changed my life. One was Reggie. The other was Triton.”
“Like King Triton?”
“The same. Lives in the Red Sea. He’s a merman and a ruler of his people. Smoking hot. Like on fire. We met when I was swimming one night. The guy is a total player, but I thought to myself: Ty, all you do is work. Why not have some fun and kiss a fish guy? So I did. Triton invited me to see him again and when I did? He was there with another woman already.” She rolls her eyes. “So dumb of me.”
“You didn’t know you were a Little Mermaid life template?”
“I didn’t think about it much, one way or another. Fairy tale life templates are for Magicorum who take part in society, not rogues like me and Knox. But after Triton? I’ll be honest. I freaked the hell out. This is like the worst life template to be stuck in.” She taps her chest with her fingers. “I’ll my life sulking at the bottom of the ocean with eels for friends.”
There’s a rickety wooden bench on the other side of the room. Crossing the chamber, I sit down on one end and motion for Ty to sit on the other. This isn’t the kind of conversation to have standing up. Or while sitting on your boyfriend’s mattress, for that matter.
Ty worries her thumbnail with her teeth for a moment. Then she sits down beside me. “After I caught Triton with the other mermaid,” Ty makes little quotation marks with her fingers when she says other mermaid. “That’s when I met Reggie. Or rather, that’s when Knox and I caught Reggie. Now, most people can’t understand most of what Reggie says, but I get him. He said I was Beauty, not a Sea Witch.” She taps her forehead with her fingers. “That’s when the crazy idea started that I was his Beauty and he was my Beast. It just got worse from there. Then Reggie told me you were doomed, I put Knox under a curse, and here we are.”
“Look, Ty—”
“You don’t need to lecture me. I know I acted like a total ass.”
I slide closer to her on the bench. “That wasn’t what I was about to say at all. I almost lost Knox because I didn’t have enough faith in us.” I set my hand above my heart. “Love is the greatest fairy tale. With it, you can make anything come true. I know it sounds sappy, but it’s true.”
Ty tilts her head. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
“Because I’ve been where you are now. Make your own fairy tale life template, Ty. Find Triton. See where it goes.”
Ty looks away, her eyes glistening with tears. “I’ll think about it.” She stands up, walks across the room, and pauses by the door. “You can have Knox back now,” she says. “He’s always been yours.”
With that, she steps out of the room.
Ty doesn’t need to say another word. I know what she’ll do next—pack up and move on. For a long minute, I stare at the empty doorway, wondering if I’ll ever see her again. It may be strange to feel this way, but I certainly hope I do.
In fact, I’m so wound up in my thoughts that I don’t even notice that Knox has awoken. When I become aware of him again, I find Knox lying on his side, looking over at me, and smiling. “How’s your wolf?” he asks.
I know the reason for his question, too. It wasn’t a lock that my wolf would make it through everything that happened at the pyramids. “She’s fine, thanks to you.”
Inside my soul, my wolf yips with glee. “Our mate is so wonderful to ask about me!”
“That he is,” I reply in my mind.
Knox narrows his eyes. “And what about the other magic that was inside you?”
“All gone. I’m just a shifter now.”
“Nah.” His smile widens. “You’re never just anything, Bry.” He pats the space on the bed beside him. “Come over here. I want to hold you and talk about where our story goes next.”
My heart lightens. “You’re the best, you know that?”
“Yeah.” He winks. “I am.”
And it’s the wink that pushes me over the edge. I race over to the bed, slip under the covers, and become wrapped up in the arms, warmth, and love that is my mate.
After all, I am one lucky werewolf.
- Writer
