by Kiki Howell
Minutes later, she struggled to open her eyes as if she’d slept for days. A heavy weight of fatigue blanketed her body, made even lifting her head a chore.
“Kyna,” a deep voice whispered her name just as Darcaryn’s face came into view hovering over her, his mouth pulled tight, eyes squinted.
“Stay still, my sweet,” he gave the command in a soft growl.
She felt his hand, warm and large, trail down over her cheek before he cupped the back of her head in his palm, forcing her to remain still.
“What- happened? Where? Why am I—” she stammered.
“The magic overwhelmed you is all. You’re safe with me,” he insisted, cutting off her inquiries.
Somehow, she doubted that. Her skin crawled. The need to curl into a defensive ball, protect herself from some unseen element, overwhelmed her and tightened each and every muscle. In the arms of the enemy, some sixth sense washed over her like a great wind in a storm, told her she’d fallen into the wrong arms. She inhaled deep, closing her eyes against the sight before her, forcing herself to suppress the scream that waited in her throat. Her aunt trusted Darcaryn. So, why couldn’t she? Thing was, could she even trust her aunt?
She opened her eyes again, tried to see this man with his long ponytail falling down over his shoulder as an ally. She shivered, feeling an iciness rush up her spine. A screech escaped her as he suddenly scooped her up in his arms, pinning her against his large, firm chest.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you, but, you’re cold on the ground.”
He carried her to a chair, a soft leather recliner she hadn’t seen tucked into the far corner on the opposite wall from the fireplace. A little reading nook, she assumed, with a side table full of books.
“Thank—” was the only word she got out before she shrieked. The place had fallen dark again, save for the pitiful glow of the dying fire across the room. Only this time, her eyes had remained open.
Small flickers of light gave eerie warmth to half the room as the red-orange embers gasped for the elusive oxygen, but left her and Darcaryn bound in the shadows.
“It’s okay." he soothed. "Must be the storm your aunt spoke of. Ice or heavy snow probably messed with the power.”
He scooted to her side, pressing tightly against her from where he knelt on the floor. Wrapping his arm around her back, he pulled her against his warm chest as much as he could while leaving her remaining seated on the chair.
Her breathing, already labored, only filled her lungs to half-capacity with rapid pants. Her mind swirled around on thoughts she couldn’t comprehend.
“You’re safe with me,” he attempted to reassure her again. “I can’t get over you. The power that flows through you, it’s addictive. I crave the way it intermingles with mine, makes me feel strong, more of a man.”
She tried to wrap her mind around the inappropriate innuendo of the words. Instead, calmness washed over her, even as she found her pulse multiplying. For the first time since coming into this room she felt safe in his arms, rather than apprehensive and off balance. The dimly lit room took on romantic overtones that layered over the dark, mysterious shadows it had possessed just moments ago. Her ability to think muffled, her mind hazy, she relaxed into him.
Warmth built in her stomach again. She felt drawn to Darcaryn’s strong body, to the heat he gave off. What seemed like invisible fingers created a fluttering feeling inside her.
“Our magic together. That’s what you feel. Me inside you, I guess you could say,” he whispered in a purely seductive toned voice.
She trembled, ached to have him pull her into his arms further. With a fluttering sensation building deeper in her core, a womanly desire crept warm between her legs, seduced by the sexual suggestion of his words. Her breasts felt full, heavy, and tingled to be touched.
He pulled her body onto his lap and crushed her chest to his, soft against hard. His lips came over hers, soft, persistent, as his fingers raked through her hair with just enough roughness to entice her.
She moved until her legs embraced his torso. Desire, passionate and intense, flooded her.
Energy, a force intermingled with panic and lust all at once, swirled within. She pressed herself into him. As much as she wanted to fight this, the thought passed quickly. Soon, all she felt was a need to give into her sudden urges.
His lips, full on hers, became more persistent. She opened her mouth to submit to his tongue. Their breaths moved in an opposing rhythm, created a dizzying sensation of him stealing her breath away for real. Her energy, all of which had built to ignite a fire inside her under his instruction, started to slip away. Darcaryn's touch felt warmer by the minute. As if his sudden scorching heat had burned her, she pushed back away from him, her palms flat against his rock hard chest.
“Stop,” she growled out. “What the hell was that? I felt myself, my power, slipping into you. I may be a novice here, I may even be still skeptical of the whole magic thing, but I felt that loss.”
“It’s just the feeling of giving and receiving, my dear. When two powerful people share their bodies, they share their magic as well. You just don’t have control over yours yet, so it was easy for me to take too much from you. I apologize. It wasn’t intentional. When you want, truly want, and are stronger, when we kiss, you will feel my energy slip into you, too.”
He shook his head and squared his shoulders before standing up.
“Here, just sit. It’s been too much for one day, and I apologize for my part in it.”
The overhead light flickered back on.
“Damn,” he exclaimed, as he paced to the table.
He slammed his hands down on the wooden surface. Bottles and bowls rattled. A book fell from the table, slammed into the ground with a noise resembling a gunshot.
Seconds later, a statue in the image of a man dying, his sword hanging by his side, fell to the ground. Darcaryn didn’t even turn, let alone appear startled by the sound. Instead, he curled his curled into fists, seemingly lost in thought. The energy in the room changed again. Kyna swore she sucked in a lung full of dense smoke, though the air remained clear. The pervasive feeling of evil hung thick in the atmosphere.
“It’s not possible. I don’t know how they got access to here,” he exclaimed a little too loudly, as if his words were forced, fake.
“Who? What are you talking about?” she questioned as her stomach sank.
“The group, these dark sorcerers your aunt hired me to help protect you from,” he answered briefly with great anger muffling his words.
“I thought Aedan was hired to protect me?”
She wished for Aedan right now.
“He’s just muscles. I’m to teach and train you to protect yourself with your gifts. Much more important!” He practically yelled the words at her before turning away on a rush, as if he intended to hide his face from her view. “The group, the one your aunt fears, they’ve somehow infiltrated this room. It shouldn’t be possible with the wards your aunt and I placed on it. But somehow they’ve managed.”
“How do you know they infiltrated this room? What did they do? Do you know about this group? She can’t seem to even give me a name.”
“Only what I feel of them. They’ve left a paper trail without titles all these years. Her father did her a great disservice in keeping her in the dark as far as who they are. I could more easily fight them if I knew more about them than what I feel. I can only assume how dangerous they are that he thought his family safer for the not knowing,” Darcaryn added as if reading from a book in front of him.
“So, they are here you said, infiltrated, the word you used? What do you mean by that? Are they upstairs in the castle? Is my aunt okay?” she breathed out the questions despite her constricted lungs.
“No, they’re not physically here. They’re throwing garbage attacks, creating illusory manifestations. They must’ve blocked the electricity to the lights. The atmosphere changed then. I should have been more in tune, but you distracted me.”
“I distracte
d you?” she questioned. “This is my fault? How? What? I don’t understand what you’re saying. They just attacked us? How?”
“You, your beauty, and your intoxicating powers, so strong, so innocent, and so unused...” he stumbled over his words. “I’ve been attracted to you from the second I first saw you last night. So, with the intimacy between us while teaching you today, I failed to recognize when the feeling of lust, of pure want, took on baser tones, were no longer purely mine, but a magical exaggeration of what I felt. They intruded, created pseudo-thoughts in my head, and, I’m sure your mind as well. They introduced sexual arousal. I’m embarrassed that you felt the intrusion first. It feels like chaos, thoughts both yours and ones they forced you to feel, believe in, confuse the mind. Depending upon how strong you are, you can fight for your own reality, act on those feelings instead of what is being forced upon you.
“You did that, I assume. You stopped the kiss. Maybe my attraction to you is one-sided, so only I was blindsided by their magic. You have my apologies for even letting things go as far as they did. We must maintain a professional, working relationship. I didn’t expect to feel so much...and so immediately. There’s always an amount of intimacy to magic, but with you, the attraction, intense and instantaneous, surfaced last night the moment you opened your door.”
He turned to her then. His eyes looked like a stormy sea, a much darker blue than before. Most of his coppery locks had fallen free of his ponytail by now, making him appear wild and reckless, as if the storm had already tossed him about. The absolute savage beauty of the sight halted her attempt for words. Fear. Lust. She couldn’t discern which emotions were truly hers.
“We must go. Your aunt must know of this,” he demanded.
He opened the door, and she followed, her legs feeling unbalanced and shaky. She still attempted to decipher all he'd said. It seemed so confusing. She paused for only moment to flash a quick glance back at the dying man of stone on the floor. Something in the reflection of his eyes sent a chill through her body, as if ice water coursed through her veins.
Looking back to follow Darcaryn, the sensation increased until her entire body trembled violently. What was wrong with this man? She couldn’t put her finger on what was off about him. Yet, sure as shit, she knew in her heart some sort of darkness dwelled within him. Him and her aunt seemed cut of some similar cloth in that way. She never believed in either of their presence she was getting the full truth, if she’d gotten any at all. If that constituted love and protection, she wanted no part of it. Playing along took on more dangerous overtones.
Chapter Six
LEFT ALONE IN her room for the remainder of the day, with even dinner brought up with apologies from her aunt, she’d taken the time to try to search for this mysterious group. With all she’d heard, a pointless attempt, but the idea of her aunt and Darcaryn lying bothered her. An itch she’d be damned if she wouldn’t scratch. She’d had it with the magical crap, the revenge crap, and all the other crap. Still feeling unhinged from her time with Darcaryn, unsettled, and maybe even horny, she paced her room, aching to have a run.
Several times she’d become uneasy during her fruitless searches. So, she’d stomped to Aedan’s room and demanded to be taken to her aunt. She wanted answers about her mother, the woman people barely spoke of as if she’d never existed. In fact, this whole place, this entire situation, didn’t sit right. Truth had been withheld. Beyond that, now she believed lies were being shed.
She no longer believed her aunt or Darcaryn were telling her the whole truth about this society either. Surely they knew who they fought, just didn’t want to let her in on the information yet, for whatever twisted reason they had. Maybe they thought her and her so-called magic were too innocent, or her mind was too fragile. They couldn’t be more wrong. They obviously didn’t know her at all and hadn’t given her enough credit. Maybe she didn’t have the magical training, but she could handle whatever they threw her way. What she couldn’t handle was being under informed.
Whatever the case, Aedan had fought her tooth and nail to keep her in her room.
“You must’ve been a fantastic SEAL,” Kyna spat on her umpteenth trip to his room.
Night had come and brought with it an ice storm that pelted her window like tiny stones striking her last nerve as well.
“I’ve recently read in my forced isolation this afternoon, that SEALs are trained to be experts in everything, yet they don’t ask questions. The politicians deliberate, and you’re called to do what is necessary without questions,” she spat a line she’d found on the Internet, having researched SEALs as well.
Aedan interested her. What could she say?
“Yes. Though we train to be experts in whatever’s thrown our way, we take orders, and we react,” he confirmed. “There’s a perfect scenario for SEAL mentality. A sergeant tells the SEALs they were never there. And, the SEALs answer they are never anywhere. Even the laws don’t pertain to what they do. They can be anywhere, anytime, do anything they’re told to do. I follow the same rules here under the employment of your aunt. I’m paid to believe she knows best and to protect you no matter what, with my life if need be.
“Look, I know you’re going stir crazy, and I’m sure you had a hellish morning with Darcaryn. All I’ve been told is there’ve been magical attacks. I deal in the physical, though, and my instructions are to keep you in your room,” he finished by pointing to their adjoining wall. “Case closed. You’re right, no questions asked.”
“I’m not a teenager you, or she, can lock in a room!” she hissed, and felt immature for doing so.
“I know that, but where would you go anyway with the weather the way it is? I know you want answers, but the only woman to give them to you is working on other matters to keep you safe. So, please, find the patience. You want to talk? I mean not sit in your room alone at least?”
“That’s okay. I’m fine. Been searching the Internet for this group, though I’ve nothing to go on other than to search terms like Ireland and secret society. That only gets you a lot of craziness about the Freemasons, the Illuminati, and the Knights of Templar for starters. Wasn’t aware they were a secret, but guess they mean what they do is a secret. Sorry, just stating the obvious. I’m angry and want to rant. No, I want to run.”
“I understand. You’re entitled. But, yes, old and shadowy groups of elites who try to control every aspect of life on the planet,” he quoted as if he’d read the very pages she had this afternoon. “I’ve read all about them, too.”
“I see we’ve stumbled upon some of the same sites. Although, I trust nothing of all the horrendous conspiracy theories of mind control and satanic worship, along with the whole link to the church thing. While I believe less than half the stuff I find online, they do seem to work in world affairs apparently. And, I doubt my family and me are important enough to fall under their radar, whatever it is they actually do. I did read some creepy stuff, though. Some along a magical level, I guess you could say. A few sites claimed they had programmers, trained through a blood baptism just downright too disgusting to be easily forgotten. But, they talked about circles, channeling, and use of demons like I think my aunt said, messing with minds through spells, and all that. I don’t know.”
“I can’t help you there. Never had dealings with any of them.”
“That you know of, and even if you did, wouldn’t your information be classified?” she teased.
“Guess.”
“Big help there. Maybe I’ll go drown myself in my large tub!” she joked.
“Do what?” he stormed.
“Joking. How about I just take a swim in it then?”
“Okay. Remember I can hear you over there,” he grumbled.
“Yeah. Great.”
“I meant, I can hear you if you need anything. Just call for help.”
“I can wash my own back, thank you very much.” She huffed out before he saw the blush that crept up her cheeks as images of that scenario formed in her all too vivid imaginat
ion.
On the other hand, reverse the situation, him naked and dripping wet. Now that had to be an unbelievable sight. She slammed her door closed behind her, shutting herself in her room. It had begun to feel more like a prison with each passing hour, no matter how beautifully decorated. She wanted to explore this castle of a house, but that had been forbidden for her safety as well.
She started the water pouring into the tub, gave Aedan something to hear. Her tub sat in three stone walls, in one of the turrets, each with a deep set window filled with plants, candles, and towels. Once in the water, the jets bubbling away the stress of her day, her mind flowed back to her time in training with Darcaryn. Warmth stirred in her stomach, under her skin, very different from the heat provided by the water. Even with physical proof, her mind still doubted the whole magical aspect of their connection. She didn’t believe some group had spelled them into attraction either. Yet, what other explanation worked? Could she be having lustful thoughts for both men? If so, what she felt for Aedan bordered on the romance novel dream of love at first sight her mother had told her about. What she experienced with Darcaryn, she could only describe as some base physical urge. Lust, plain and simple. Magically induced or not.
She pushed thoughts of the men away and let these ideas about magic they’d fed her swarm in. Concentrating on seeing the warmth as light, she tried to push the negative away. With her arms above the surface of the water, her skin still tingled, warmed despite the chilled difference of the air. An intense prickle of electricity fired through her arms. The need to take control and to let it go at the same time overwhelmed her.
With anger still brewing, white flames shot from her fingertips and into the water. A sudden small wave formed, blew the water right out of the tub onto the windowsill. Not relenting, but reveling in the exhilaration, the high, she let the stream grow, bank off the window, and then flow back into the tub. Addictive, she let the rush of emotions that had churned within her all day go until the water moved at such a speed it splashed her face. She bit her lip not to scream with excitement.
