Hidden Mage

by Sophie Stern

  She was probably exhausted, which meant she’d need time to sleep, rest, and regroup. Whatever she did, it wasn’t going to be today. She was going to need some time on the island before she went back out to sea.

  “I’m not,” she whispered, insistently.

  “Darling, I don’t know what your name is, but I guarantee it’s not Yvette.”

  “Fine,” she whispered. She licked her lips, and his eyes went to her tongue as it darted out, swiping softly.

  “What are you called?”

  “My name is Tabitha.”

  “Tabitha.”

  He’d never heard that name before. Then again, he’d grown up on this rock. There were a lot of names Felix had never heard. His only exposure to the rest of the world had been through Ursula, her visitors, and the few books he’d been able to pilfer when nobody had been looking.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  Again, arousal flooded his nose. She liked him, he realized. He wasn’t really sure why she liked him, or what it was about himself that she found appealing. All he knew was that it was a nice realization. He liked knowing that she found him acceptable.

  He found her acceptable, too.

  Well, he found her much more than acceptable.

  She was gorgeous.

  “What do you want, Tabitha?”

  “That’s a bit of a blunt question,” she said.

  Suddenly, there was a meow, and Maple Syrup appeared again.

  “A cat!” Tabitha cried out, dropping to her knees. “Here, kitty, kitty,” she held her hand out, speaking in a sharp, high-pitched voice.

  Maple Syrup looked up at Felix, as though he couldn’t believe what was happening. Felix choked back a laugh, but nodded at the cat, letting her know that this woman, Tabitha, was harmless.

  Maple Syrup seemed appeased, and she made her way over to Tabitha.

  “That’s a good kitty,” Tabitha murmured. She started petting Maple Syrup on the head and then scratched behind her ears.

  Felix stared at her, appalled.

  He’d never seen anyone else touch Maple Syrup. He’d never seen anyone just walk up to a stranger’s cat and start talking to it. What an interesting person Tabitha was turning out to be.

  “How old is she?” Tabitha asked, looking up at Felix.”

  “The cat?”

  “Yes.”

  “Um...”

  He stared, looking at her.

  “Five.”

  “She seems sweet,” Tabitha commented.

  You seem sweet.

  The words were on the tip of his tongue, but something told him not to say them. Something caused him to hold them back, and he wasn’t really sure what. Perhaps it was that he’d never been around a girl like Tabitha before. He wasn’t really sure what was appropriate or expected of him.

  “Thank you.”

  “So, it’s just the two of you, then?” Tabitha looked up.

  Felix tensed right away. Was she trying to figure out how many people lived on the island? Was she planning to attack?

  “Woah,” she said, standing up and taking a step back. Maple Sugar ran off into the woods. Felix wasn’t too worried. He knew she’d be back soon. Tabitha, however, was looking at him like she’d just seen a ghost.

  “What?”

  “Your eyes.”

  Felix frowned.

  “What about my eyes?”

  “They changed color,” she whispered.

  “They’re blue.”

  “No,” she shook her head. “They flashed black. I saw.”

  “They did not,” he said.

  “Look, I don’t know what you’re playing at,” she said, “but that frightened me.”

  “Somehow, I have the feeling that not much scares you,” he pointed out.

  “Fine,” she shrugged, “I don’t really care if your eyes change color or not. What are you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He’d never been asked such a question before. What was he? What he was was slightly pissed off. He’d just been on his normal, ordinary walk around the island. He hadn’t planned on running into anyone. He certainly hadn’t planned on running into a woman who seemed intent on bothering him and his cat.

  “Are you a demon?”

  “No.”

  “Fallen angel?”

  “No.”

  “Mage?”

  “No.”

  “What are you, then?”

  “I’m human.”

  “I don’t think so,” she crossed her arms over her chest, but the gesture pushed her breasts up, and Felix’s eyes went straight to them.

  “Nice,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.

  “I’m sorry.”

  He wasn’t sure what he was apologizing for. He hadn’t asked for today. He hadn’t asked for her. He hadn’t done anything to be intriguing to her. He certainly didn’t need someone like this bothering him or invading his space.

  “It’s fine. Look, I can tell you don’t really want me here.”

  The scent of hurt washed over his nostrils.

  He’d wounded her, and he hadn’t meant to.

  Well, shit.

  “Is there something I can do for you?” Felix asked her.

  She probably needed a place to stay.

  “Yeah, I’m looking for a witch.”

  Felix stilled. His entire body suddenly felt like it was iced over.

  A witch.

  No, the witch.

  This woman was a witch, and she’d come here looking for Ursula.

  Why?

  What could she possibly want with the witch?

  And what was he going to do about it?

  Chapter 5

  Felix was the hottest fucking guy Tabitha had ever laid eyes on.

  She was kind of starting to hate that about him.

  Seriously.

  Shouldn’t there be some kind of rule that said strange men on islands shouldn’t get to be hot?

  He was hot.

  So hot.

  She found it nearly impossible to hold herself together as she looked at him. He definitely had that brooding bad-boy thing down perfectly. One second he was warm and the next he was cold. She liked that. She almost craved it.

  And he had a soft spot for cats.

  Awesome.

  She was in deep shit, really, when it came to this guy. She knew that much. She also knew that if she wasn’t careful, she was going to get her heart broken. She wasn’t on the island for love.

  She was here for revenge.

  She had to find Ursula.

  “The witch,” Tabitha repeated.

  “There’s no witch here,” Felix said.

  “Yeah, there is,” Tabitha told him. “She lives over there.” Tabitha pointed to the mountain in the center of the island. Most of the terrain was covered with trees and hills, but that mountain was unmistakable. She knew there was a castle nestled right at the base of it, and that was where Ursula lived.

  She’d memorized the map, and she knew a lot of things. She hadn’t spent a lot of time planning her trip to the island. She’d left town almost as soon as she’d gotten the map, but then it had taken her three days to sail here. To some, that might not seem like a long trip, but to her, it was an eternity.

  She spent most of her travel time staring at the map of the island and trying to figure out the exact layout. It had been easy to figure out where the witch lived. She had a castle, from what Tabitha could gather, and it was probably completely gaudy and hideous.

  The witch didn’t just live on the island. She was kind of a social bitch. Plenty of people came and went, which was part of the reason that it was so strange that it was still so hidden.

  Apparently, she usually had someone ferry her guests, and everyone was given some sort of potion after their visit, so they couldn’t find the island on their own again.

  Rumor was that even the ferry master had been drugged or killed.

  Wahoo.

  “How do you know that?”


  “I know a lot of stuff,” Tabitha told Felix.

  “What do you want with the witch?”

  “Do you know her?”

  He was silent for a moment. She wondered if he was going to lie to her, or if his eyes were going to do that weird flashing thing again. That had been cool: cool and sexy. She’d liked it a lot, and she wasn’t going to complain if he did it again.

  “Perhaps,” he finally said.

  “I heard she has a lot of friends. Are you friends?”

  “No.”

  “She’s got a monster,” Tabitha said casually, looking around. Her eyes roamed for any clue that the witch had something watching this beach. She assumed it was safe. She had to. After all, this hunk of man meat was standing on the beach. If she were Ursula, she wouldn’t be letting this guy out of her sight. Not for a second.

  Oh, Felix was hot, all right, but he was probably deadly, too. Tabitha couldn’t quite pinpoint why she suspected that. She just had the feeling that this was the kind of guy who didn’t mess around. He was the kind of guy who consistently kept his promises, and he was the type of predator who didn’t strike his prey until he was certain he could claim it without an issue.

  Was she going to be his prey?

  Was he going to go after her?

  She wasn’t sure.

  Felix didn’t blink when she mentioned the monster, though.

  Why hadn’t he blinked?

  “A monster?” Felix raised an eyebrow, but it was too late, and his reaction was too telling.

  “You already knew,” she said, accusing.

  “There’s no monster.”

  “There is.”

  She was certain. There was no doubt that Ursula kept a monster in her employ. From what she had gathered, it was a dragon of some sort. She’d heard all about it, and she’d read as much as she could. Besides, she knew more than anyone else what kind of person Ursula was.

  Tabitha was the only one who had survived the slaughter of the mages.

  Ursula had done her part to ensure no more mages survived. She’d done whatever it took to ensure that the mages had nothing left, including their lives, but she hadn’t been good enough. Tabitha was a sneaky bitch, and she was cunning.

  Now she was going to make Ursula pay.

  “I’m quite certain that there is not.”

  Felix seemed neither scared nor upset about this.

  “Whatever,” Tabitha said. She looked back at the little boat and started walking toward it. Her bare feet sank into the sand as she walked, but she didn’t care. She needed to pull the boat up a bit more, so it didn’t blow away. Not that being stuck on a deserted island with someone like Felix would be a hardship, she reasoned, but she needed to keep her options open.

  Unless she could find a way to recharge her magic, and soon, she was going to be fighting Ursula by hand, and that wasn’t going to go very well for her.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Pulling the boat up.”

  “Let me help.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Really,” Felix sprinted past her, grabbed the boat, and yanked like it was nothing. He pulled it all the way up on the beach.

  Tabitha just stared at him.

  “How the fuck did you just do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Move my little boat.”

  It really wasn’t much to look at. Perhaps it was disrespectful to call it a boat when it was really more like a miniature ship, but she wasn’t sure.

  “It wasn’t heavy.”

  “It’s pretty heavy, Felix. Are you a wizard?”

  Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. Most of the wizards she’d met had been hairier than he was. They’d been tall, scrawny creatures who used magic as a cover for their other, lamer hobbies.

  “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Then how’d you get to be so strong?” Tabitha crossed her arms over her chest. This time, she was well aware of Felix staring at her breasts, but she didn’t care.

  She liked that he was looking.

  Felix was hot, and she was suddenly horny. Maybe staying here wasn’t going to be such a bad idea. She could spend a few days on the island, right? It wasn’t like she’d be able to reach Ursula’s place before nightfall, and besides, Felix was hot.

  H-O-T.

  “You keep looking at my tits.”

  “You keep pushing them up.”

  “I want you to look,” she said.

  “You like men looking at you?”

  “Everyone likes to know they’re attractive,” she said.

  “You find me attractive.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Your breathing.”

  Tabitha bit her lip. Usually, she was the one who point out how others felt. Apparently, this guy had talents he wasn’t ready to talk about. If she didn’t know better, she would have assumed he was definitely a wizard of some type.

  There were other things about him that made her assume he wasn’t, though. His eyes changed color, so despite what he said, he probably wasn’t human. Could he be a shapeshifter? A fallen angel? Maybe he was under some sort of spell or something. He might not even know. He was intent and watchful, though.

  And he knew the island.

  He wasn’t wearing a shirt, so Tabitha had a perfect view of this guy’s abs and shoulders. He was tan, but not California-boys-the-summer-tan. No, he was tan like he’d spent his life outdoors and working hard, and he had the muscles to match.

  “What about my breathing?”

  “It’s changed.”

  “Maybe,” she said nonchalantly. “Anyway, I won’t go to her house tonight.”

  “Oh, you won’t?”

  “I won’t.”

  Was it just her, or did Felix seem amused with her?

  “Well, then, what will you do?”

  “I think I need to find a place to stay. Any ideas?”

  “Do you have a tent?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’d suggest a tent.”

  “What about you?” Tabitha wanted to know.

  “What about me?”

  “Don’t you have a place to stay?”

  His eyes flashed again. This time, the color was different. What the hell was going on? She tried to remember her training when it came to understanding different species, but she couldn’t remember anything that had eyes like that.

  “No.”

  “You’re lying,” she pointed out.

  “I don’t have a place where you can stay.”

  “So, you have a place, but you don’t want company?”

  Perfect.

  Just perfect.

  Even on a deserted island, she couldn’t get a guy to invite her over. What the hell was wrong with her? Was she so unlikable? Tabitha knew she could come across as a bitch. Maybe she even was a bitch sometimes. That was a fair assessment. Most people were, at least from time to time, but Felix didn’t know that.

  He didn’t know anything about her.

  He just didn’t want to help her.

  “You know what? Fine. I don’t need your help. Fuck off.”

  Tabitha waved him away, gesturing for him to leave, and she turned back to the boat. A tent. She definitely had one. Where it was in her pile of crap was another story, but she had one. She turned back around to see that he hadn’t actually left at all.

  “What are you doing?” Tabitha yelled.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I sent you away. Why are you still standing there?”

  “I don’t answer to you,” he said firmly.

  Okay, so that’s how it was going to be.

  Suddenly, there was a crack of thunder, and rain instantly started pouring.

  Fuck.

  Luckily, she had the map tucked away in a special case where it wouldn’t be damaged by the water, but everything else on the boat was fair game. Tabitha rushed to the boat and yanked, pulling out a tarp. Then she sta
rted to cover the boat.

  “We need to seek shelter,” Felix said.

  “I thought you said I was on my own.”

  “This isn’t the kind of storm we should mess with,” he pointed out.

  When Tabitha looked at him, he looked worried. Something in his eyes told her not to argue, so she found herself nodding. She grabbed the map and her bag that held her most important possessions, but everything else she left safely tucked beneath the tarp. Felix grabbed her hand and pulled, hauling her off of the beach and toward a large group of trees.

  “Trees aren’t going to keep us dry,” she pointed out as they ran.

  “We need to get to higher ground,” he told her.

  “Okay,” she yelled. Tabitha ran, hurrying along after him, but she had forgotten to grab her shoes, and she found herself aching and jumping as she moved. The Earth was covered with plenty of things that weren’t exactly foot-friendly.

  Felix stopped running and turned back to look at her.

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Tabitha had to yell because the wind was picking up, and her voice didn’t carry very well. It was hard to get her words out and across. Could he hear her?

  “You’re walking strangely.”

  Felix looked down at her feet.

  “You aren’t wearing anything on your feet,” he pointed out.

  “I know.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because my people are opposed to shoes,” she said drily.

  “Really?”

  “No!” Tabitha slapped him lightly on the shoulder. Although she was just being sarcastic with him, the touch was electric. Shit. She shouldn’t have touched him.

  She was soaked to the bone now, and she knew he was, too. They were both going to catch colds if they didn’t find a way to get out of the wind and water.

  “I left them in the boat,” she yelled.

  It had been a long ride, and she’d gotten tired of wearing them. Tabitha had spent most of her childhood growing up completely barefoot, and even now as an adult, she found the idea of wearing shoes to be difficult, to say the least.

  “I’ll carry you.”

  Felix seemed to think this was the easiest answer to their problem, and before Tabitha could properly protest, he picked her up, lifting her, and carried her deeper into the trees.