Authors: Rachel Carrington
“Perhaps there is an explanation for this which does not indicate
harm,” Jaxon tried to reassure his brother.
“She is understandably upset.”
“Of course.
You should be
with her,” Jaxon suggested.
“Though she is a witch?”
Rane
raised one eyebrow.
Jaxon winced.
“I stand
properly admonished.”
Rane smiled and returned the squeeze to his brother’s shoulder.
“Just find out what is going on and do it
quickly, please.
A witch without her
magic is…”
“Mortal,” Jaxon supplied.
“I was going to say a target, but mortal works just as well, I
suppose.”
He walked away, but once
outside the Assembly Room, he didn’t waste time with walking.
He centered his thoughts on Skye and found
her easily.
***
Skye looked up as Rane appeared in the center of the bedroom.
She sat up on the bed.
“Do you know what’s going on yet?”
“No.
You will be tested soon
and hopefully, our healers will be able to identify the problem.”
He walked toward her.
“For now, you need to stay calm.
Seek the serenity the Well-Wishers have given
you.”
“Stay calm?
Rane, my sister
is in the hands of a monster and without my magic, I can’t help her.”
Rane squatted down in front of her and took her hand.
“Emily will be safe.
I will make sure of it.”
She covered his hand.
“It’s
not the same.
I need to be able to
protect her.”
He kissed her knuckles.
“You
will.
This is just a temporary
setback.
That’s all.”
“I need to get a message to Sabrina or Unger or whoever in the hell
it is.
We need more time.”
“I don’t believe Unger will be amenable to an extension of time.”
“We have to try.”
She pushed
him away and got to her feet.
“Can you
make the arrangements?”
Rane stood and cupped her face.
“I will do what you need me to do.”
Skye closed her eyes and bit her lower lip.
“I can’t fail Emily.”
He drew her close and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“You won’t.
I won’t allow it.”
She fell into his embrace, clinging to his strength.
For the first time in as long as she could
remember, she was scared.
How could she
take care of Emily without her magic?
Emily was a novice witch.
She had
no knowledge of the magic and what she could do with it.
She was still too young.
She needed protection.
Rane held her tightly, giving her what she needed to stand, to hold
on.
“You will be okay.
Emily will be returned to you.”
“I want to know what is happening to me.”
“You will.
You just need to
be patient.”
“Were you patient after I tagged you?”
He smiled down into her upturned face.
“To be honest, I did not know what was
happening to me that my powers were failing.”
He kissed the tip of her nose.
“Now, do not worry.
All will be
well.”
He set her away from him and
looked at her once more.
“You should get
some rest.
The healers will be here
before evening falls.”
He started to
walk to the door, but Skye called his name.
He stopped and looked over his shoulder.
“Yes?”
“Will you, do you have to leave now?”
He turned slowly.
“Do you not
wish for me to leave?”
“I don’t want to be alone.”
He held out his hand.
“Of
course.
Forgive me.
I should have thought of that.”
Skye sensed the tension in his body as he returned to her side and
she reached out for him.
“What’s wrong
with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re acting so formal.”
Rane lowered his head.
“I’m
sorry.
Honestly, I’m worried about you.”
“Then tell me that.
Don’t pat
me on the head and tell me everything’s going to be alright.”
Rane embraced her again and Skye felt his body relax against
hers.
She breathed in his scent and held
him close.
“I’ll stay here with you,
Skye.
You won’t be alone.”
Skye stood up on her tiptoes and kissed the side of his neck.
“I don’t want to be alone.”
She knew the exact moment his body reacted to
her touch and she slid her hand up the wall of his chest.
“Will you stay with me until the healers
come?”
Rane swallowed hard.
“Of
course.”
“You seem nervous,” she pointed out in a husky tone of voice.
“You are upset.
I wouldn’t
want to take advantage of you.”
“Rane?”
He looked down at her, waiting for her to say what she wanted to
say.
“I want you to take advantage of me… as much as I want to take
advantage of you.”
His eyes glittered.
“Skye,
you are not in your right frame of mind and---“his breath whooshed out of his
lungs when Skye’s hand found the masculine bulge between his thighs.
“Do you think we could stop talking now?”
Rane grabbed a hold of her wrist.
“Skye, I don’t think---”
”Perfect,” Skye smiled against his lips.
“I don’t want you to think.
Follow your instincts, Rane.
I need you now.”
She stepped even closer to him.
“What are your instincts telling you?”
Rane touched his forehead to hers and groaned low in his
throat.
“You know exactly what my
instincts are telling me.”
He cupped her
bottom and brought her up closer to his body.
“I want you more now than I did the first night I saw you sneaking into
my house.”
“So take me,” she instructed him softly.
Rane captured her hands and brought them to his lips.
He pressed a kiss to her fingertips and kept
his lips pressed against her skin for a long moment before he finally spoke
again.
“I can’t.”
She tugged her hands free.
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Take it as you will, but I won’t make love to you at a time when
you are not ready.”
“You say you are,
but I want to make sure you won’t regret the morning after.”
He hugged her tightly.
“Understand that I do not say no because I do
not want you.
I say no because I do want
you.
I say no because I will not risk
hurting you.
When I make love to you,
you will know that my love for you is real.”
CHAPTER TEN
Emily watched Unger carefully.
Now that she knew his true identity, she held her tongue more.
Sabrina, she knew.
This monster was different.
As he approached her now, Emily shrunk back
against the cot she slept on.
Unger, who’d returned to Sabrina’s form, sailed across the wooden
floor, his hands extended.
“My dear
Emily, I presume you heard my little speech to the other witches.”
“I’m not deaf.
Of course I
heard it.”
Unger’s eyes flickered but he kept a smile glued on his face.
“Well, then, in that case, let’s get down to
business, shall we?”
“Business?
I’m fourteen.
What kind of business could you have with
me?”
Unger tapped his chin.
“Oh,
you might be most surprised.”
He sat
down in a rickety chair opposite the cot.
“I presume you have a way to get in contact with that lovely sister of
yours?”
“This isn’t the Twilight Zone.
I can’t call my sister telepathically.”
“You’re a witch, are you not?”
Emily’s eyes narrowed.
“How
would you know that?”
Unger sneered at her.
“I know
everything about you, little girl.
What’s more, I know everything about your sister.
Everything I need to know anyway.
What say you and me have a little
conversation about next Friday.”
Emily blinked at him.
“What
about next Friday?”
“Aren’t you aware of Ostara?”
He picked his teeth with one long nail.
Emily shivered.
What she
knew, she wouldn’t share with this monster.
“I know what it means.”
“Then you should know that it’s next week.”
“Should I?”
He gnashed his teeth to warn her.
“Don’t play games with me, kid.
You’ve got what I want.”
Emily drew her knees up to her chest.
“What is that?”
She wasn’t so sure she wanted to know, but
she figured the longer she kept this creep talking, the longer she would stay
alive.
While she’d believed Sabrina
wouldn’t kill her, she wasn’t so sure about the creature inside Sabrina’s body.
“Information about Skye’s abilities.
What she’s capable of.”
Emily shook her head and her long hair spilled across her
forehead.
“She doesn’t use her magic in
front of me.
She wants us to be normal
people.”
Unger shot forward so quickly, Emily barely saw him move.
“You aren’t normal, girl.”
He gripped her upper arm.
“You’re witches.
Both of you are and before I kill you both, I
want to know what you know.”
Tears filled Emily’s eyes in spite of her determination not to let
Unger see her fear.
“I don’t know
anything to tell you.”
Unger leaped to his feet and with a roar, revealed his true
visage.
Emily recoiled with horror and scooted farther up the cot.
She’d never seen anything so hideous in her
life.
Folds of skin hung low over
slanted eyes and his pupils were tiny pinpoints of black.
His face was a ghastly green, his lips
cracked and pale red.
Jagged teeth hung
from blackened gums and when he leaned in close enough, Emily caught the
horrific scent of his breath.
“You don’t know anything?
Not
even what your mother did to me?
She made
me like this.
She changed me.”
His lengthy nails bit into Emily’s skin and
his breath huffed out of nostrils over an inch in width.
“That’s right.
Your dear, sweet, mother used her magic to
create this.
Don’t you think she should
be proud of her abilities?”
Emily tried to look away but morbid fascination kept her eyes glued
to his face.
“You’re lying.”
“Oh no, sweetness.
I’m not
lying about this.
Just like I’m not
lying when I tell you your sister will die by my hand before Ostara.”
He patted her cheek softly.
“And if you’re nice enough to me, I’ll kill
you first so you won’t have to watch her die.”
***
Rane slung the towel around his neck and left the shower, his long
strides carrying him back to the bedroom down the hall from Skye’s.
His thoughts ran ahead of him and he pictured
her golden skin and felt the soft texture of her lips beneath his.
He tried to rein in his self-control, but it
eluded him, damning him to cold showers in the middle of the day.
He stepped into his bedroom and slammed the door behind him.
Whipping the towel from around his hips, he
spun around and froze.
Lying on his bed wearing nothing more than a scrap of lace, which
barely covered her breasts, Skye waited for him.
One hand held the pillow above her and she crossed
her legs at the ankles.
She beckoned him
with a smile, a smile which turned his insides to mush.
Rane kicked his door shut and stood there staring at her.
He couldn’t think.
The blood had rushed from his brain at the
first sight of her.
“Skye?”
He said her name with a hoarse croak.
“Don’t tell me you love me, Rane.
Show me.”
The huskiness of her voice washed over him, bathing him in the need
to taste her.
He took a step toward her
and was surprised to find his legs weak.
Wizards didn’t get weak knees.
But Skye moved slightly atop the burgundy comforter and his knees
responded in the same manner.
Shakily.
Knocking.
He managed to take another step.
“Skye, we’ve already been over this.”
She climbed to her knees.
“Then let’s go over it again, but this time, let’s change the ending,
shall we?”
In four steps he could reach her.
She’d be in his arms, her lithe body pressed to his.
Rane made it in two.
Sweet surrender.
Rane
couldn’t think why he’d fought this, why he believed nobility required him to
wait when Skye was in his arms, eager, willing and giving.
He held her at arm’s length to drink in the
image of her beauty.
The scent of her
hair captured him and as her lips drew closer to his, his blood ignited.
One arm wrapped around her waist, he dragged her down to the
mattress, tasting, touching and learning her body with each twist and
turn.
Lifting
the edge of her hair, Rane kissed behind her ear and Skye shivered in delight.
Skye brushed his lips with her fingertips.
She wasn’t so sure she could promise him she
wouldn’t think this was a bad idea at dawn, but for now, the sun was down and
with darkness came a certain recklessness, a capitulation to forbidden
desires.
Her breath caught in her throat
until her lungs ached with the need for air.
Her hands fluttered against his chest, the desire to push him away
battling with the want to pull him closer, to cave in to the overwhelming draw
of the passion, which had built inside her.
She’d wanted this more than she’d wanted the return of her magic and
when she’d come to Rane’s room to talk to him and heard the sound of his
shower, she couldn’t stop herself.
It
was like a scene playing out in her mind.
Rane’s lips rested against her shoulder, barely moving and she was dying
inside, the demand almost painful.