The Promise of the Trees - Sword, Ring, and Crown Book 3 (Complete - Editing)

Chapter Seventeen- Madeline

I looked around at the mostly empty magic shop. There wasn't a speck of dust, and even his collection of hats was gone.  All that was in the room was Mike's chair, and a table and two more chairs. I stared at Mike.

"What happened here?" I asked.

He shrugged. "You know how it is. I had a debt I had to pay."

He said it with no emotion, but I knew that he was angry at the loss of his stuff. He was a worse hoarder than a dragon, and I am sure this all gutted him.

I frowned. "What debt do you have now?"

He turned away from me and started walking towards the door, stopping when he reached it.

"You'll find out eventually. Listen, I have to go get some supplies. Stay here."

Then it was just Dom, Luis, and me in the shop. "Should we trust him?" I asked Dom. I already knew the answer. Just the fact that he wouldn't answer my questions was enough of a clue.

He snorted. "Yeah right. He's probably running off and sending some creepy wizard guy or something to capture us."

"Or worse, his creditors." I added with a smirk.

That quip of mine got a reaction from Luis who scoffed. "Why does that not surprise me? What will you do if he does betray us again?"

I glanced at him sharply. "I should ask you the same question. "

He raised an eyebrow at me as if challenging my accusation. I couldn't trust that he was on my side. Not yet.

"You hurt Dom. You hurt me." I glared at Luis and tried to ignore how much I still loved him.

"I know." His expression remained dead and that pissed me off. 

I grabbed his shirt collar. "We promised to have no secrets between us! But you hid so much!"

"Well, that was before... well, everything..." His gaze lingered on Dom for a second before returning to mine.

I felt my face flame and I pushed him. "Are we going to argue over this again?"

He snarled. "I'm sorry. I'm trying." Then Luis gestured to the door. "I have to go back to Joseph."

"What? No! You aren't going back to Joseph. "

"If he thinks I betrayed him, the first thing he will do is burn my heartwood."

I blanched at that. "What? What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what I'm saying. He has my heartwood. I was reborn as a Phouka, but he has the heartwood that I possessed as a Tree. That makes him able to control me. I had a way to keep from that, but that was gone when you made the choices you made, and the shard of my lifeforce you possessed was taken away."

The unspoken accusation made my breath hitch and a sudden ache spread in my chest. "That shard became your son, Luis. And part of the reason I still am trying to get you to stop being an idiot is because of that.  Besides, you and the other men made oaths to me. Oaths mean something, or don't you remember that? You made an oath to be my husband! You had a choice, Luis!" My voice shook as the tears burned my eyes.

Luis' hand came up to wipe away a stray tear. "I know." he whispered. "I wish sorry was enough. I wish sorry would help me to not feel like this when I see another's arms around you. I thought I could reason all this. I thought that the marriages would just be in name. But that's not what happened" His gaze flickered over me then back down again.  

A little choked laugh escaped my lips at his jibe. If he knew what I had been going through just to rescue Dom when he kidnapped him, he wouldn't say that. Thank God Willow realized that apple juice was close to the nectar my branches possessed. She just had to work a spell she found in my father's spellbound to bind the qualities of my nectar to it.