Page 63 of Autumn of the Witch

Sasha was quiet for a moment, brows lowered. “So that thing out there… we can’t make it go away.”

Viv looked stunned. “What?”

“It isn’t your spell. Or Micah’s. It’s your mom’s. What you just said—doesn’t that mean she has to break it?”

Viv and Micah stared at each other as horror sank like a weight in Micah’s belly. He hadn’t thought of that. What if Sasha was right?

Viv took a shaky breath. “Well, we can’t exactly convinceherto help. We’ll have to find a way on our own.”

“But if that’s how the magic works,” Sasha said, but Viv interrupted him, stroking his hair.

“It doesn’t matter. We have the three of us, and the book. We can do this on our own. It’ll have to be enough.”

* * *

Sasha Black was a lot of things.

He was a submissive, a masochist, and husband to two witches—or would be, soon enough. He was a brawler, a friend, a nephew, a son, an uncle. He was strong, and he’d won the log-flipping contest three years running before deciding to give someone else a chance at it. He wasn’t the smartest person around—that was definitely his wife and his husband. But he was smart enough, and handy, and he could and would carry just about anything for anyone. And while he didn’t win every one of his bouts, he always had a good time.

One thing he wasn’t, was a liar.

He also wasn’t a coward. Sasha would do anything for Viv—and Micah—and if they needed Daria’s help to get rid of thatthingthat was trying to take Viv away… then Sasha would make that happen.

He knew Viv wouldn’t want him to go see her mother, much less ask her for help. But the more Sasha thought about it, the more he was convinced that the ritual they were planning wouldn’t work unless Daria undid what she’d done. That thing in the woods—while it wasn’t Daria, exactly, it was her fault it existed in the first place.

And Sasha believed in taking your responsibilities seriously. If you made a magic twig shadow person that wanted to eat your daughter, you fucking dealt with it when the time came. If Viv couldn’t tell her mother that, that was fine. Sasha could.

And hewould. He’d stood up for Viv before, in the pits, and even though no one challenged him, Sasha hadn’t cared. He’d felt proud, standing there with his chin raised high. Now he would fight for Viv. For Micah. For the life they were making together.

The part where he’d have to lie to her and Micah, though, that part sucked. Sasha had always been a terrible liar. When he was little and he’d broken something—he broke a lot of things, especially before he’d gotten a handle on his strength—he never could blame someone else for his own accidents. Even when one of his cousinstriedto take the blame, Sasha wouldn’t let them.

But it was of the utmost importance that he tell a lie now, and do it well enough that the people who knew him best believed him. He waited until a few nights after their initial attempt at destroying the… thing… and found them poring over the magic book, cuddled up in blankets in front of the fire. The weather was rapidly turning colder, and winter wasn’t far away. They needed to be able to gather supplies to see them through until spring, so Sasha knew he had to convince Viv’s mom to show up and own up when they did the ritual.

I promised to fight for you, so I’m going to.It made it easier to tell the lie, thinking about it that way. That this was the fight he should have had in the ring, because Viv should have had a line of suitors challenging him for her.

“Hey, so, you guys seem to have this pretty much in hand,” Sasha said, going for casual, bouncing a bit on his heels. “And when it’s all done and we’re rid of evil twig creatures, we’ll need to make those rings.”

Viv and Micah both smiled at him. Good. That was a good start. “We will,” Viv said warmly, kissing Micah’s hand. “That will be a much more enjoyable ritual to plan, I think.”

Micah nodded, blushing. Aw, they were so cute. This was what he was going to protect.

“So, this ritual’ll be pretty intense, yeah? And as fucking hot as that threesome was, I know you both need to keep your energy up, so I figured instead of whining to be beat up and fucked, I’d just go for the first and fight a few rounds tonight.”

There. That sounded believable, didn’t it?

“I don’t want anyone to hurt you,” Micah said, eyes narrowing. “Anyone other than us.”

Oh, shit. Possessive dom Micah was hot asfuck. Sasha told himself to stay firm. “Aw, it ain’t even close, boss. Promise. It’s mostly me ducking a lot and shooting the shit with the others, and, you know, maybe winning a few supplies.”

Micah glanced at Viv. “The thought of anyone else making him bleed isn’t— I don’t like it.”

She patted him on the arm. “I know, but trust me, it’s not the same. It’s good for him to work off some energy. You’ll see. That first fight after winter, he’s always so excited for it.”

“Yeah, and this might be one of the last chances until then. ’Sides, boss, I gotta go brag about my hot new husband,” Sasha added, making a note to do that the next time he reallydidgo to the fighting pits. He wanted to brag about Micah. Who wouldn’t?

“It’s okay, if you want,” Viv said. “Just don’t be gone too late. We all need to conserve our energy, even though I know you have a lot of it.” She gave Micah another reassuring smile. “It’ll help him focus, and you know we’re all going to need to do that, for this to work.”

Micah sighed and nodded, and he looked abashed as he kissed Sasha goodbye. “I’m not trying to tell you not to do something you enjoy. I just feel… like you’reoursto hurt.”

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