Niklas blinked. Had she actually seen the Fae on her planet of disbelief? He rubbed the back of his neck and watched her through hooded eyes.
* * * *
“What was that?” she asked, her eyes round. She turned around in a circle, knowing that despite everything, her face and voice were filled with awe. The stone had never done anything like that before. She felt a surge of raw power when Niklas touched it. Instead of growing cloudy and dull, the stone actually brightened at the contact. Brianna had even gotten a glimpse into his mind. She saw
all
of his thoughts!
She felt his determination to save his people, his commitment to them, and his resolve to marry The One. Her? He
did
say they were married. Niklas was determined to keep her safe at all costs, even at the cost of his very existence. He loved her more than his life. She swallowed around the lump in her throat. Tears threatened to come. They burned her eyes. How could she love this man so much after all he’d done to her, taken from her? She opened her mouth to speak, but her tongue seemed stuck to the roof of her mouth. “Niklas, I—” She managed before he interrupted her.
“Shh…I understand,
Laharra
.” Niklas stepped closer to Brianna, brought his hand up and cupped her face. He looked deep into her eyes.
He radiated sensuality, gentleness, and raw masculinity. It was a heady combination that drew her to him like a magnet. She stepped closer, giving in to the overwhelming urge to smooth his hair down. He was always running his fingers through it, messing it up.
Niklas bent his head, took her lips in a long drugging kiss. Laharra
, how I have dreamed of this.
He groaned, the sound coming from deep within him. It was as though she was a drug he was addicted to and powerless to resist.
She made a little sound in the back of her throat then moaned into his mouth. Her heart pounded so hard, he could most likely hear her heart hammering inside her chest. Almost of their own accord, Brianna’s arms crawled up the broad expanse of his shoulders, wound around his neck, pulling him closer and deepening their kiss.
You belong to me,
Laharru
, and no other.
“I am overjoyed,
Laharra
. You have chosen to speak to me privately, using our mind link.” His lips brushed hers lightly as he spoke and pulled away slowly. It was obvious that he didn’t want to lose control and take her here in the cargo hold where anyone could walk in and find them.
Brianna clung to his shoulders, her legs weak. How did he do that to her? He always seemed to know what to do or say to keep her off guard. She still wasn’t sure she wanted to forgive him. Yet, here she was, standing in his arms, enjoying his kiss and the sensual press of his muscular body against her own.
“We’ll go back to our room. Where you can keep this safe,” Niklas said, touching the chain around her neck.
She looked down at the glowing stone. The intense gleam grew softer as they put distance between themselves. She reached up, touching it lightly with her finger. “It never did that before. Do you know why it was glowing, Niklas?” She tilted her head, watched him intently. “You know something about it. I could tell by the look on your face when I first took it out.”
* * * *
He wanted to explain. He didn’t want lies between them, as he knew he’d be very lucky if she decided to forgive him for kidnapping her. “We call it the
Heart of Terrna
.” He turned, then paced away from her. “It belonged to Morwyyn. It was created and protected by him. Some say it belongs to the people of
Terrna
.” He raked his hand through his hair.
“This stone has been in my family for hundreds of years,” she said, covering the stone with her hand as if protecting it. “No one is taking this from me, Niklas. I won’t allow it!”
He stepped closer, took her hand in his and was pleased when she didn’t pull away. “I do not plan to snatch it away from you,
Mi Dara
. Although there are some who would try—the evil one watching us on the beach for instance.” He brought her closer, bent down and rested his forehead against hers.
“I would guess it has been passed through millennia not hundreds of years.” He smiled grimly. “Morwyyn was very old on our world when he left. It surprises me that he did not survive on yours.” He took her arm and led her across the cargo bay to her sofa where they both sat down. “He escaped during the great uprising. He hid on Earth, even changed his name. You would know him as Merlin.”
Brianna gasped, her eyes filled with wonder. “Merlin? He was from your world?” She shook her head. “How could the stone be so old? You said Morwyyn created it. If the legends are true, Merlin existed here sometime around the Middle or Dark Ages. No one is really sure when. He and the stories told about him are little more than legend. No one believes he existed. Not really.” At least no one but Pagans believe in the legends. She stood and began to pace.
Niklas watched her, understanding how she felt. The whole thing must sound absurd, yet it had happened just the same. “Morwyyn and the stone disappeared from
Terrna
nearly two thousand of your years ago. No one knew where he had gone. He was charged with protecting the rightful Heir of
Terrna
. The stone, created for that purpose, has a mystical power best kept from the wrong hands.” He stood, watching her carefully.
* * * *
Brianna frowned, thinking. She’d always known the stone had some inner power. There was an energy she’d always felt, which was easily perverted when exposed to the wrong element. “This is what the bad guys want?” She put a hand to her breast, closing her hand around the pendant, as if that action alone would protect it.
Niklas shook his head. “They want both of you. They know only you can wield the power contained within its depths.”
“Me, why me?” she gasped, her eyes wide with alarm. Her body stiffened with shock, and she began to sway back and forth.
He rushed to her side and thrust his arm out to steady her, before she toppled over. “You are a direct descendant of Morwyyn.
He
also had the power to wield the stone.”
“Why didn’t you just get another stone? Why didn’t they?” She took a deep breath, shaking her head. She backed away from Niklas, her eyes wide, floored by the realization that she wasn’t just
plain
Brianna anymore. Was she some strange sorceress who could save their world merely by waving her arms and her wand? The idea was mind-boggling. Brianna opened her hand, looked at the pendant she’d loved for so long and looked up into his eyes. “How could something so harmless looking cause so much trouble?”
He shrugged, a casual movement which rippled the muscles beneath his shirt. Brianna turned away, trying to ignore the sight.
Even Niklas didn’t understand many things, yet he had to try to explain them to her. He took her arm and gently led her from the huge room. “No one knows where the stone came from or how Morwyyn was able to charge it with his power. Even on my world, some think it’s just a legend, still others believe he engineered it somehow. Perhaps he did.”
Brianna nodded and followed Niklas into an express lift. He spoke something in his language and the small room shifted slightly. “The
materia prima
,” she whispered. Her hand closed around her pendant and felt it pulse against her palm. The energy radiating from the stone strengthened every time Niklas got near it.
What had Morwyyn done? What was it Morgaine said about him? Something about him having enough power to escape this world during the time of persecution or something like that? Morgaine had also said that her grandfather would be pleased. Present tense. The thought that he could still be alive was totally insane. Yet hope flared within her. Family.
The lift doors opened and she followed Niklas out into a familiar hallway. “How do you think Morwyyn could have created such a thing? Was he really so powerful?” Had her family retained possession of the legendary philosopher’s stone all these years?
Niklas turned, slowing his gait when he realized she had a hard time keeping up. “It is said his mother was human, his father Fae. Morwyyn received the frailty of the human body, but he was able to live in the realm of the Fae where he would not age.”
Brianna shook her head to clear it. “What is that supposed to mean exactly?” Looking up at him, Bri hoped she didn’t sound stupid, but she couldn’t help it. She still wasn’t quite herself after she lost consciousness. Surprised to see they’d already reached the door to his suite of rooms where he’d insisted she sleep, Brianna looked up with shock. She’d been unaware that they were even heading in that direction. She’d been so preoccupied with her thoughts.
Niklas punched a complex code onto the keypad and the door opened quietly. “To put it simply, he was half-human and half-faery.” Niklas threw her an odd look.
“I understood
that
part,” Brianna said dryly. “So stop looking at me as if you think I’m dense.” She crossed her arms and glowered at him. “I meant the part about his being able to live in their realm.”
He ushered her into the room, then closed the door behind them and led her to the far corner. “Most stories about Morwyyn border on the fantastic. Some rumored him to be hundreds of years old.” He chuckled. “Some even rumor him to still be alive, living in the faery realm.”
“Why is that so hard to believe?” She walked across the room to sit down. She jumped up with a squeal when the seat began to conform to her size and shape.
“Relax,
Laharra
, it moves to make you more comfortable. There is no reason to be frightened.”
Niklas crowded her back to the chair, holding her hands as she sat down. Enduring her death grip, he held her wide-eyed gaze with a smile as the seat conformed to her size and shape.
“How am I supposed to get used to that?” Brianna looked down at the chair. Bending from the waist, she put her head between her legs to look under it. She wanted to figure out how it worked.
Niklas shrugged. “It has been thus all of my life.”
She shrugged. “Of course, you don’t know anything different.”
Niklas shook his head. “But of course I know things are different in different places. I have the experiences of being on other worlds. Your world, for instance,” he said matter of fact.
“Of course. You
have
experienced other cultures.”
He nodded. “As, in time, you shall experience other cultures. Then perhaps our way will not seem so foreign to you.”
Brianna nodded thoughtfully. She could understand that. A country with no understanding of computers might think a computer was strange. A world without space travel would think a spaceship was strange or magical. It made sense, although for him, it most likely worked in reverse.
Everyone thought his things were magic, and he probably thought everyone else was strange. Brianna giggled at the thought. She clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. She didn’t want to have to explain
that
to Niklas. Carefully, she took the chain from around her neck and held it up to the light, watching the peculiar glow shine through the milky depths of the stone. “What should I do with this? I don’t think I should be wearing it like it’s nothing if it’s so powerful.” She dangled it out in front of her.
He reached out to take it, his hand palm up, waiting for her to trust him.
How could I not trust you,
Laharru
. You wait for me to give you the stone when we both know you could easily take it.
* * * *
Niklas inclined his head. He knew he didn’t deserve her. He would spend the rest of his life trying to be worthy of his Brianna. Still, he waited for her to place the stone in his hand. When she hesitated for a single moment, he gave her a knowing look. He raised a brow, waiting.
She smiled softly and slowly lowered the chain until the stone rested in the center of his palm, then closed his fingers around it.
He felt the energy flow through them both.
“You should put this away before the power affects us. I don’t know about you, but I can feel it inside of me, making me feel…” A blush dusted her cheeks.
Niklas felt it, too. The stone amplified their energy. Right now it amplified their frustrated sexual energy, and they were both becoming very aroused. He turned to the corner and waved his hand, using his DNA to open a closet. The lock clicked open. Niklas reached inside and took out a box. He turned and motioned for Brianna to join him.
Niklas showed her the plain looking metal box. Brianna could see the drawers and wondered if it was the safest place for her pendant.
“If you press here on this side, then here on the top, this door will swing open.”
Brianna watched with interest as Niklas hid the stone in a secret compartment.