Lissa Kasey - WitchCurse

WitchCurse

A Kitsune Chronicles Story

By Lissa Kasey

WitchCurse : A Kitsune Chronicles Story

Copyright 2022 Lissa Kasey

All rights reserved

Cover Art by Doelle Designs

Art by: Eeilyfair Design

Editing: Indie Pride, LLC

Published by Lissa Kasey

http://www.lissakasey.com

Please Be Advised

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the authors imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. This eBook cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book can be shared or reproduced without the express permission of the Author.

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Trigger Warnings

Listed below are the trigger warnings for this book. If any of these things bother you, please proceed with caution:

References to past sexual assault and coercion

Memories of child abuse/neglect

Mental illnesses including Anxiety, Depression

Violence and gore

Nick

We knew the end was coming. Kiran told me to add as many books as I could to the bond between us, burning them into our shared memory, but also weakening him. Id only taken the ones I thought most important, leaving things like the histories of royal lineages. I didnt care who had fucked whom to get what prince or princess to be used as pawns. Most of the high fae were dead, or in the human realm, where we would be if I could open a door between worlds like Sebastian could.

The castle was little more than a single room these days, held up by Kirans waning strength and a child who had become a lure for the maddened remains of Underhill. Attacks came daily. Kiran could only do so much to hide our presence as the ghostly remains of Underhill sought to feast.

Before the last of the exterior had fallen, Id been lost for a while. Going outside to breathe but finding myself screaming into the void, madness darkening everything within me as anger raged, seeking an option other than our inevitable death. I had lived a long time in Underhill. Some might have called it a good life, a long life, and welcomed death. Only Id never had the chance to make some dreams reality. Mostly the ones that involved my bondmate and me, since the moment he bound me, he began to fade.

Liam spent every waking moment studying and practicing magic, trying to open a door to free us, but without the link to his mate, he hit wall after wall. I suspected the only thing keeping him sane was the child, living magic shaped into a tiny being.

Kiran had been the one to teach the babe to hide the power, which kept us safe, but as the child grew, sometimes the power raged like a beacon to the collapsing world around us. Kiran could not teach them how to open a door between worlds. He thought he might have once accidentally ripped a hole in the veil when hed been young, but did not know how hed done it, if it could be repeated, if it was something hed done at all, or was simply misremembering from his long life.

Liam suspected that time had sped up in our world compared to the mortal realm, meaning that Sebastian wasnt even awake in the other world yet. Their bond was stretched and sort of muted, as he said it did sometimes with unnatural sleep. Which sounded ominous. Had Sebastian been injured? And if so, how badly? Would he awake in time for us to escape, or sleep through the final collapse of Underhill? I tried not to dwell on the rising anxiety, though it rolled off everyone in waves. All except Kiran.

It was rare to see Kiran sitting in his chair, doing more than staring into the distance. Today the child, Ari, sat on his lap, snuggled tightly to my bondmate, as if he feared Kiran would take his last breath. It was a terror we shared, though I could feel Kirans strength. Hed burn himself out completely, waiting until the end. He had joked more than once that he should go devour some of Underhills remaining monsters to regain a nibble of strength. Even those were little more than a shadow of a memory now. Sometimes the ground would shake, but there would be nothing outside. And if Kiran took the last dredges of Underhill?

That would be a disaster.

Both because that was the little remains of this world holding around us, and each time Kiran fed on the fae, he further deteriorated. The blight, as Liam and I identified it, expanding as Underhill died. Would he survive its final collapse? How long could anyone feed on madness and remain whole? Which meant Kiran went hungry.

That sensation was a well of growing terror inside him. An actual churning abyss of heavy darkness, with a dozen wards and barriers within Kirans mind, keeping it confined. He knew it was there, likely felt it like daggers every moment of every day, but said nothing. Only sat with Ari on his lap, rocking the babe.

Liam had been frantic all morning. The walls were closing in. He could feel his bond with Sebastian opening, Sebastian finally waking in the other world, where time passed much slower. Liam thought he could use Sebastians kitsune magic to open a door between worlds. We would have one chance, and would have to move fast. I didnt know what to expect, but we couldnt carry anything but ourselves across the veil, and everything in this small dwelling was part of Kirans power. Anything left behind would be more of his strength lost.

Do you have a plan to gather the little that remains before we step through the doorway? I asked him, mind to mind, not wanting to scare anyone. The few remaining fae kept to the opposite side of the space as though fearing Kiran would eat them, even though hed gone years touching none of them, no matter how much it weakened him and shrank our sanctuary.

It took him a moment to respond, his movements and thoughts slow, head turning my way, as though the question confused him. I crossed the room, picked up Ari, giving the child a kiss and a hug, then a little shove toward the opposite side of the room. Go find papa.

Ari hesitated, eyes glowing with power. Its almost time. Daddy is waking. I can feel him.

Thats why you need to go to your papa.

The child didnt move for another minute, focused on Kiran. Uncle Kiran...

Kiran gave the babe a slight but exhausted smile. Listen to Uncle Nick. Hes strong and will keep you safe.

Ari clenched tiny hands into fists and floundered as though trying to find words to say, but looked up at me instead. I patted the child on the head. Its okay. Go find papa. Get ready. Your daddy needs papa, right?

Aris eyes filled with tears, but they flung themselves away toward the group gathering, and where Liam paced, a half dozen books spread open at his feet.

Making babies cry, Kiran grumbled, turning his gaze from the group and back to the wall. I had bundled him in every blanket we had left, many of them made by Liam or Aris magic, but it wasnt enough. Human methods to a fae problem. His death couldnt be prevented with fabric or heat. I wasnt certain feeding him a dozen high court fae would help anymore. Not with the entire world closing down around our ears.

Nick, I heard Liam call, felt the shift in magic, and glanced back to see the door forming, the fae racing to line up for freedom. Kiran didnt move.

I set my jaw in a firm line, the walls around us getting smaller by the moment. Without the rest of them, wed have maybe a few more weeks, stuck in a room with barely the space to breathe. Not that Kiran was living a life, existing maybe, like a zombie, scarcely breathing for fear of taking an ounce more of magic than was necessary. I sat down at Kirans feet and put my head in his lap to rest. The door opened, and the fae rushed through. I hoped it went to the right place, though I could feel it like an old familiar ache in my bones. Whatever lay on the other side of that door was part of my past; it was okay to leave it there.