Page 91 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“I can help you take it off, but it’ll take me a little time to get what we need. But doing so will also mean I won’t be able to be as…helpful,” Brecken ventured.
“Because they’ll know it was you who helped me,” she said with a sigh, twisting the cuff around her forearm. At least it didn’t bite into her skin like the other bands did.
“I’ll help,” he said again, getting to his feet. “Just give me a little time to work out a plan.”
“And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?” she asked as he turned to walk away.
“What you’ve been doing all along, Tessa. Figuring out who youwantto be. But fair warning, you’re running out of time.”
18
AXEL
“Everything’s okay, right?” Axel asked, leaning against the wall with his hands behind his back.
It was taking all of his self-control not to snarl and shove the Witch away from Kat, despite knowing she wasn’t harming her. The Witch knew Cienna, and she ran the Apothecary District. She was on their side, and yet watching her hands hovering over Kat’s rounded belly with faint light flowing made him want to do incredibly violent things.
“Stop talking,” Miara said, her tone as harsh and cold as all the other Witches Axel had ever encountered.
Her long dark hair hung in loose waves around her shoulders, stark against her pale skin, and her violet eyes were closed as she worked, tilting her head as though listening for something.
“Everything is fine, Axel,” Kat said softly, her hands resting at her sides.
“She’s taking longer than usual,” he argued.
And she was. They’ve been coming to see Miara every week now, and the Witch never took this long to tell them everything was fine and progressing as normal. This wasn’t some fewminute delay either. It’d been nearly fifteen minutes of them sitting in utter, anxiety-inducing silence.
“Axel, let her work,” Kat said, her eyes closing. She could try to hide it, but he heard it. The thread of worry she was trying so hard to gloss over, and it was all he needed to push off the wall and step forward.
He bent over her head where she lay on the exam table, smoothing his hand over her hair. Pressing a kiss to her brow, he looked at Miara, not caring that she was still trying to focus. Katya being worried and stressed couldn’t be good for the babe, but Axel just didn’t like seeing Kat distraught about anything. She was the logical and sensible one. If she was worried, then everyone in the godsdamn realm should be worried.
“She’s been more tired lately,” he said to Miara, his hand slipping over Kat’s and interlacing their fingers.
“I’m sure she has,” Miara said, finally straightening and lowering her hands. “Fae babes grow rapidly, but the last months are the most taxing. She’s managing her own power, which I’m told is vast, and now the babe’s as well. That eats through her magic reserves rather quickly. It will not get better.”
“It’s going to get worse,” Axel clarified unnecessarily, but he wanted all the facts laid out.
“She needs to rest. And eat,” Miara added, moving to her worktable and sifting through vials of liquids and baskets of plants. “She also needs to be siphoning off that power. It will be exhausting.”
“But the babe is fine?” Kat asked, pushing onto her elbows to watch Miara.
“He is well,” Miara said, mashing some leaves with a pestle.
“But?” Kat pushed, and Axel’s brow furrowed as he helped her sit up.
“But what?” he asked.
“She took a long time to examine him today, and now she won’t look at us,” Kat said, embers sparking in her eyes. “She’s not telling us something.”
He looked at Miara, finding the Witch’s features pinched in annoyance. “I find you too clever for your own good.”
“You do not keep things from me when it involves my son,” Katya retorted, shadows appearing and drifting around her like an aura. “If you know something, you will tell us.”
Axel blinked at her fierceness. She rarely displayed it, but gods when she did?
He slid his hands into his pockets, leveling Miara with a dark look. “You heard her. Tell us what you know.”
“I don’tknowanything,” Miara replied, dumping the ground plants from the mortar into a larger bowl. She reached for a few vials, adding their contents as she added, “The future is ever-changing.”
