Magic Rises

invitation is for the Beast Lord and the Consort. I understand if you choose not to go.”
    I just looked at him. Really? He meant everything to me. If I had to die so he could live, I would put my life on the line in an instant, and he would do the same for me. “I’m sorry, run that by me again?”
    “We’ll have to cross the ocean in the middle of hurricane season, go to a foreign country filled with hostile shapeshifters, and babysit a pregnant woman, while everyone plots and waits for an opportunity to stab us in the back.”
    I shrugged. “Well, it sounds bad if you put it that way . . .”
    “Kate,” he growled.
    “Yes?”
    “I’m trying to tell you that you don’t have to go. I have to, but you can stay if you want.”
    Ha-ha. “I thought we were a team.”
    “We are.”
    “You’re sending some confusing signals.”
    Curran growled deep in his throat.
    “That’s impressive but not really informative, Your Furriness.”
    “This is going to suck,” Curran said. “It will suck much less if you come with me. You want me to level, here it is: I need you. I need you because I love you. Three months without you will be hell. But even if we weren’t together, I would still need you. You’re a good fighter, you’ve worked as a bodyguard, and you know magic. We may not have many magic users, but we don’t know if those packs do, and if they hit us with magic, we have no way to counter.” He spread his arms. “But I love you and I don’t want you to be hurt. I’m not going to ask you to come with me. That would be like stepping in front of a moving train and saying, ‘Hey, honey, come stand next to me.’”
    I hopped off the wall and stood next to him. “Anytime.”
    He just looked at me.
    “I’ve never killed a train before. It might be fun to try.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “One time I was dying in a cage inside a palace that was flying over a magic jungle. And some idiot went in there, chased the palace down, fought his way through hundreds of rakshasas, and rescued me.”
    “I remember,” he said.
    “That’s when I realized you loved me,” I said. “I was in the cage and I heard you roar.”
    He chuckled. The tension in his shoulders eased. He hugged me and I kissed him. He tasted like Curran—male, healthy, and mine—and I would know that taste anywhere.
    “I’m coming with you, Your Foolishness. You can’t get rid of me.”
    “Thank you.”
    Besides, it would be good to get out of Atlanta. And away from Hugh d’Ambray—my father’s warlord.
    My family background is complicated. If my real father discovered I was still breathing, he would move heaven and earth to choke the life out of my body. For twenty-six years I had managed to hide in plain sight. But then my path had crossed with Hugh d’Ambray’s, and a couple of months ago he’d figured out who I probably was. I didn’t think he was one hundred percent sure, but he had to have strong suspicions. Sooner or later, Hugh d’Ambray would come knocking at my door, and I wasn’t ready. My body had healed and I was learning how to mold my blood into weapons and armor, which was one of my father’s greatest powers, but I needed more practice.
    The trip would buy me some time, and every day I’d grow stronger. Good luck looking for me across the ocean, Hugh.
    Curran stepped closer. I leaned against him. Below us the forest stretched into the distance, and beyond it to the right, the twisted ruins of Atlanta darkened the horizon.
    The anxiety swelled in me and crested. The words came out on their own. “If we have children, how likely are they to go loup?”
    “Less likely than most,” Curran said. “I’m a First, and we don’t go crazy as often.”
    Firsts were a different breed from other shapeshifters. They were stronger and faster and had greater control of changing shape. But they were still subject to Lyc-V and the horror of loupism. “Is it possible?”
    “Yes.”
    I could feel the anxiety building inside me, like I was a windup toy being cranked up. “What are the chances?”
    He sighed. “I don’t know, Kate. Nobody in my family went loup as far as I know, but I was too young to ask about things like this. I just know it’s less likely. We’ll get the panacea, baby. I promise you that we will get it.”
    “I know.”
    “Do you want to have children?”
    I tried to wrap my mind around the idea of having Curran’s children. It wasn’t even a thought; it was a distant hazy idea, and