Yet Silver trembled in his arms.
Sparkles swirling around them gradually faded, and Hawk’s once heated skin cooled in the ocean breeze. Vaguely he heard the crash of the ocean, the sound of a foghorn.
And the cry of the D’Danann.
Still holding Silver, Hawk turned to look at the sky. His mouth curved into a smile when he saw several of his brethren circling above them. At once he recognized Sheridan, Keir, and Garrett. As the D’Danann came closer, he saw that Kirra, Aideen, Cael, Braeden, Fallon, Tiernan, and Wynne accompanied them.
The ten warriors drifted to the beach, landing gracefully in the sand just yards away, all wearing leather clothing similar to Hawk’s. Sher ruffled her feathered wings and began the change at once, folding away her blue wings that matched the color of her eyes.
Garrett smiled at Hawk, his wings in shades of browns and tans. He drew in his wings. He was a tall, blonde, lanky man with warm brown eyes.
Keir didn’t bother to change. Hawk’s fosterling brother was a rogue with a scar across one cheek, piercing black eyes, a powerful build. He gave a wicked look at Hawk and his teeth flashed white in the moonlight as he gave an irritated flap of his wings.
Silver glanced at Hawk and he caught her small smile. Concern for her flashed through his consciousness. She looked so weak and fragile.
With effort he turned his attention to the D’Danann. “Sher, Garrett, Keir,” Hawk called as he looked to each warrior. He was pleased to see friends—and even his rival. Keir could be a bastard, but he fought like a maddened dragon.
Sher tossed her wheat-brown hair from her face and shook her head. “You shouldn’t have come alone, Hawk.”
“Rash and foolhardy as always.” With a harrumph, Keir folded his arms across his chest. “I see you have sprouted horns in your absence.”
Hawk nearly groaned, imagining how he must look, naked and wearing antlers. But when he saw Keir’s open appreciation of Silver’s naked form, Hawk was ready to smash his bastard brother’s face.
Garrett shook his head and gave Hawk a crooked smile. “It’s good to see you, friend.”
While the D’Danann greeted one another, Silver took off her crown, said a quick chant, and removed the consecrated circle from around her and Hawk. Even the sand of the circle smoothed, and the candles extinguished with her magic.
Just as Hawk tossed aside the antler crown and started to turn to reach for his clothing, he glanced at Silver.
Her face paled and she swayed.
Hawk shouted her name, his gut twisting. Before he could catch her in his arms, Silver collapsed in a heap on the sand.
18
Jaw tense. Hawk knelt, wrapped Silver in his embrace, and held her tight to his chest. Her naked body was cold. Too cold.
He stood and said in the ancient language of the D’Danann, “I need to get Silver to her home, back to the other witches.”
Sher moved to his side and pressed her hand to Silver’s forehead. “She is strong. She will survive. But she needs warmth.”
Hawk nodded and went to where Silver’s robe lay discarded on the ground. He knelt and laid her on the sand and grabbed his tunic from his pile of clothing. With Sher’s help, he eased his tunic over Silver’s cold body and then added her robe, cinching it around her waist with the tie.
Hawk yanked on the rest of his clothing as fast as he could. At his instruction, Garrett and Keir collected Silver’s candles, chalice, altar, and other tools of her Craft and put them into the wooden chest as quickly as they could.
“What in the gods’ names happened?” Keir folded his arms across his broad chest as Hawk scooped Silver into his embrace again and stood.
Hawk returned Keir’s glare, then started toward the footpath. “Apparently it is difficult for her to perform this ceremony.”
Keir’s lips curled into a snarl. “Then you should have been better prepared. This could have been avoided. As always, you are too rash. You do not think situations through.”
Hawk clenched his fists even as he grasped Silver. He shifted her in his arms. “I don’t answer to you, Keir. You had best remember that.”
A muscle worked in Keir’s jaw and his stare pierced Hawk. “You answer to no one but your own foolish whims.”
Hawk gave a low growl. “Say that again when I am not carrying an injured woman in my arms.”
Body stiff with fury at Keir and with concern for Silver, Hawk carried her to the car. He stopped and stared at it for a moment. What in the gods’ names was he going to do? How was he going to get her home? Hawk could fly and carry her, but the cold would no doubt be too much on her fragile body, even with what covering he had been able to provide. The inside of the car would be much warmer.
His mind told him what he needed to do, but his gut rebelled. He ignored the feeling, opened the passenger door, and gently set Silver upon the seat. She moaned and started to slide sideways. Hawk fumbled with the seat’s belt and managed to keep her upright once he figured out how to buckle the damnable thing again.
When he rose and shut the door, he turned to see the other D’Danann with expressions ranging from amusement to curiosity to doubt.
“Ah, Hawk,” Garrett said, rubbing stubble that shadowed his jaw. “How do you expect to get the witch back to her home?”
Sher tossed her hair over her shoulder and reached out to run her fingers along the car’s yellow hood. “A mode of transportation for this world.” Her eyes met Hawk’s. “Certainly you do not believe you can operate it.”
“I will drive this contraption.” Hawk hated the inflection of doubt in his own voice. “It’s too far to her home to walk, and I certainly cannot carry her with the heights as cold as they are. It will be much warmer in the car with its heater.”
Sher sighed. “He’s right. Slip of a thing that she is, the air would be too cold for her.”
Hawk picked up Silver’s chest of items and stowed them in the still open back compartment. After he slammed the lid shut, he strode around to the driver’s side door and glanced one more time at his ten comrades. “Follow.”
While he folded his body into the cramped front seat of the vehicle, his comrades spread their wings and waited nearby. Hunched over, knees pressed against the steering wheel, Hawk stared at the odd gadgets and controls, and ignored the D’Danann now watching him with mirth in their eyes.
Hawk took a deep breath. Thought about what Silver had done when he’d studied how she had driven the car. He had an excellent memory.
Hopefully that memory was fully functioning.
First thing, he had to scoot the seat back so that his long legs could work the pedals. Secondly he needed to use keys. Thirdly he needed to push in the far pedal on the left with his left foot.
Hawk fumbled around beneath the seat until he finally found a lever that shot the seat back so fast it jarred his teeth. But it had moved far enough that his booted feet easily reached the pedals, even though he was still hunched over.
Next, keys. He leaned to the right and looked at the steering column, where he remembered Silver inserting them. He squinted in the dark car and found the keys dangling from the column with the wheel, glittering in the moonlight. Silver was careless with her safety, he decided. She left her apartment door unlocked, and now her keys in the car.
He turned his attention back to the car and hesitantly pressed in the pedal on the left, as he had seen Silver do. Steeling himself, he turned the key and nearly jumped out of his skin when the car came to life with a shudder, then a purr, and then a screech as he kept turning the key. He let go of the keys and the vehicle went back to a low purr and heat started to come out of the heating vents.
So far so good.
He gripped the steering wheel and stared out into the darkness. Light. He needed light. Again he fumbled in the dark interior. He turned one knob and water squirted on the glass. Clicked another and long black sticks began moving back and forth across the pane, wiping away the water.
So much for an excellen
t memory.
His comrades chuckled loudly enough to break his concentration and he scowled at them.
Once he managed to turn the black sticks off, he finally found the light switch and breathed a sigh of relief when the small area outside was illuminated so that he could see trees in front of him. A drop-off to the right. The road behind.
Thankfully warm air was coming from the heater, and he hoped it would take away the chill from Silver.
She moaned again and Hawk’s pulse quickened. He had to get her to Cassia and Rhiannon. Silver had been through far too much in a short amount of time, and fear for her coursed his veins like liquid fire.
His fear motivated him to hurry to move the vehicle. He followed his memories, finding the stick with the knob on it. With a bit of effort he shoved it to the “R” position, then let out the pedal with his left foot and pressed the far right pedal with his right foot. The car jerked backward, hard enough to rattle Hawk’s composure. The vehicle stalled, leaving only silence, then squawks of laughter from his comrades.
Their hilarity only made him angrier and more determined to master the vehicle. He paid greater attention to his memories of Silver’s driving. After a few more starts and stalls he figured out how to back up the car—and came just short of tumbling over the low cliff to the shore below.
Heart pounding, Hawk put the car into the “1” position on the stick with the knob. He let out the left pedal and pressed down on the thing that accelerated the vehicle. The car lurched, bucking like an untrained horse as Hawk urged the damnable car onward.
It shot forward.
And slammed into a tree.
The sound of crunching metal echoed through the night.
Hawk’s head struck the front window and sparks flashed in his head like Silver’s spellfire. His chest hit the steering wheel hard enough to bruise his ribs.
The car stalled.
Laughter from the D’Danann outside nearly drove him to climb out of the vehicle and wring each of their necks.
He glanced at Silver to see her flopped forward like one of Shayla’s stuffed poppets.
He gently moved Silver so that she was sitting back in the seat, her head drooping to the side. At the same time thoughts of his daughter made his throat ache. He missed her on these missions to Otherworlds, but it was his job, his responsibility to care for all beings who needed him. But godsdamn, his daughter needed him, too.
He gently cupped Silver’s chin and stroked hair from her face.
And Silver needed him right now.
With renewed determination, he started the vehicle and backed the car away from the tree. He winced at the sound of metal creaking and the sight of the splintered wood of the tree and the damage to the car. Once he pulled out into the moonlight, with his keen vision, he saw the front of the car was crumpled and deep scratches lined the metal. The right light no longer functioned, obviously smashed.
Hawk managed to get the vehicle in motion. He clenched the steering wheel and clenched his teeth just as hard, while the car bucked down the tree-shaded road. The D’Danann had taken to the air and circled above, following the car and probably still laughing. Soon they could not be seen as they cloaked themselves with their magic.
A warrior of the most powerful Fae race in Otherworld, and I’m reduced to this.
Hawk used his own recall to find his way back to Silver’s apartment On the way he weaved the car up and down steep hills, lurched around sharp turns, and ran right through three four-way stops. He nearly smashed into two other vehicles, scraped the passenger side door against a fire hydrant drove up on a sidewalk, barely missed a light pole, and almost slammed into Silver’s garage door.
When he brought the car within a hairsbreadth of the wooden garage door, he shut off the engine. He banged his head against the steering wheel in relief and let out a low groan.
Silver groaned, too.
He forgot everything but getting her out of the car and to Cassia and Rhiannon. It took him a few frustrating moments to find the door handle, but finally he was able to unfold himself from the vehicle and hurry to Silver’s side. His ribs ached and his head throbbed, but that was nothing, mere inconveniences compared to what Silver had tolerated.
Sher, Garrett, and Keir landed beside the car and folded their wings away. Hawk ignored them as he unbuckled Silver’s seat belt, and gently took her out of the battered car. He brushed past the other D’Danann as he carried her to the back door leading to the kitchen. He fumbled with the doorknob.
Locked.
Heat roared through him and he almost slammed his shoulder against the wood when it suddenly opened. Cassia stood on the other side, a black robe cinched tight around her waist.
“Up to her room,” Cassia ordered Hawk. She barely spared a glance for the other warriors who followed Hawk in. “If you’re hungry,” she said to them, “there’s food in the fridge and the pantry. Otherwise stay out of my way.”
Hawk raised an eyebrow at Cassia’s change in demeanor, and the fact that she had apparently been waiting for them. Her sudden take-charge attitude and intuitiveness only confirmed what he’d suspected all along. That she was something other.
He laid Silver on her bed for the second time in less than twenty-four hours. This time, though—this time she looked so much more wan, so much more fragile, that he was afraid he’d break her if he wasn’t careful.
When her head rested on soft pillows, a comfortable covering pulled up to her chest, Hawk allowed a lump to form at the back of his throat. He’d never permitted himself to feel such genuine emotion for anyone since his wife Davina’s death. The only person in his life he truly loved now was his daughter.
Yet, after knowing Silver only days, he felt her seeping into his soul, into his body like the fluid running through his veins. He didn’t understand it, didn’t want to at that moment. He simply needed to know she would recover.
Hawk gently stroked Silver’s cool cheek with his knuckles, shivering himself at how cold she was.
He trailed the back of his hand down the curve of her neck and paused at her throat where the pentagram lay against her soft skin. The amber eye was dark.
Cassia bustled into the room, her blonde hair in wild ringlets around her face, practically standing on end and making her look like a demented Medusa. And Medusa was a being he’d rather not be reminded of.
If she was other, what in the hells’ names was she?
The smell of peppermint and lemon accompanying Cassia was so strong Hawk nearly reeled from its intensity. She set aside a small pot and a couple of vials on the nightstand. She leaned over Silver. While closing her own eyes, Cassia held her hands over Silver’s chest.
When she opened them she turned her gaze on Hawk. “She’s nearly drained of her magical essence, her life force. What happened to her?”
Hawk explained and Cassia’s frown deepened. “After all she’s been through, you should have made her stay here. Should have insisted she wait at least until Rhiannon recovered. And you should have taken me.”
Hawk’s guilt increased as she confirmed his gut feeling. But telling Silver what to do—she was perhaps more stubborn than he. If that was possible.
After opening Silver’s robe and Hawk’s tunic, Cassia removed a cork from a vial of powder and began sprinkling it over Silver from head to toe. It smelled of apples and honeysuckle. Sparkles floated around her body, like Faerie dust. The glow grew and grew, then visibly began to seep into her body.
“What’s happening?” Hawk’s voice was gruff, his words sharp and dominating. “What are you doing to her?”
Cassia turned her sharp blue eyes on Hawk. “Saving her, you big dumbass.”
After Cassia tended to Silver, and he was certain she would be all right, Hawk made his way downstairs to where his fellow D’Danann were feasting on whatever they had scrounged out of the refrigerator. The kitchen was so crowded with the ten D’Danann warriors that it was hard to move in the confined space.
The table was
littered with empty casserole dishes, salad bowls, and crumpled bags that had been filled with rolls and bread. Hawk frowned when he saw that the jar of chocolate chip cookies had been emptied.
Only three of the D’Danann would be housed in the small apartments above as the place was too small to hold all of them. The other seven would stay aboard a houseboat belonging to Rhiannon’s foster parents, who were fortunately on vacation.
For now all ten of the warriors were taking up every available space in the café’s kitchen.
“Is the witch all right?” Garrett asked, a smear of chocolate on his cheek.
“Silver.” Hawk tried not to be irritated with his friend as he rubbed his hand over his face. “Her name is Silver.”
“Well, how is she?” Sher had a cluster of purple grapes in one hand, a glass of water in the other.
“She’ll be fine.” Cassia came up beside Hawk. “No thanks to you.”
Hawk had no response to that. He simply eyed her steadily. “Thank you for your assistance in helping Silver.”
Keir sat in one of the chairs at the table, his arms folded across his chest, his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, and a fearsome look on his harsh features. “Hawk knows nothing of restraint.”
Hawk’s temper snapped. He made it to Keir in four strides. The warrior jumped to his feet in a flash. Garrett planted himself between the two men before Hawk could slam his fist into Keir’s jaw.
“Enough.” Garrett placed his hand on Keir’s shoulder and with a firm grip encouraged Keir to take his seat. His bastard brother’s glare would have blasted a hole through a lesser man than Hawk.
When Keir was sitting, Garrett put both hands on Hawk’s shoulders. “No fighting among ourselves. Focus on the Fomorii.”
Hawk took a deep breath and gave his friend a nod. With a glare of his own at Keir, he took a seat at the table beside Sher. Other warriors lounged around the table or propped themselves against the walls, their arms folded across their chests.
The Forbidden Page 20
