Cimmerian Shade: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Collection

by Kiki Howell

  She straightened her spine at his praise. Stood tall, commanding the objects before her, a smile crossing her features from ear to ear,.

  The stones fell into the flow. She let the power spill from her and seep back in at the same time. Kyna witnessed the proof that energy could be neither created nor destroyed. Best science experiment ever provided by magic, she mused. Indestructible, like the flame burning in the center. She lifted her chin and admired the cycle she’d created and protected.

  “Good. Good. But, don’t get cocky. That won’t be good for anyone. Be strong. Know you are. Have faith in yourself, but above all, respect the magic. Just as those elements have a creation cycle, so have they a destructive cycle. No, don’t slouch. You have this. Remain standing strong. Just don’t think you’re better than it. It’s a fine line, a humbled pride fed by confidence and a huge amount of gratitude that makes the great even better. And, you, Kyna, are great. Now, return each element to its original place, and extinguish the flame, so all is as it was before you began,” Darcaryn instructed.

  With everything back in its place, she felt she would fly from the ground and soar above it all with her triumph. She turned, then, to see the look in Darcaryn’s eyes. Though shifty, the gleam in them blinded her with his approval, his own excitement. Pushing her doubts aside, she threw her arms around him in celebration.

  “Thank you,” she breathed. “You are a great teacher. Your instruction is so simple, and your praise is so motivating. My mother was the same, and it always brought out the best in me.”

  “I’m sure she did,” he spoke with a sly smile.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “She was trained to take care of you and your powers, to, let’s say, help you when needed.”

  “She loves me, and I know in my heart she did what she had to in order to do what’s best for me. She’s proven that time and again throughout my life,” Kyna countered, her voice firm, leaving no room for discussion.

  “I wasn’t criticizing her. What she did for you was honorable.”

  He nodded. For a second, he held her tight, pulled her into him, into a full body hug. But, when the tingle of more tickled her senses her, he pushed her away.

  “No. I want you on your own terms. Someday, I think you’ll be able to separate it all. I hope then that you come for me, want me. Everything in me wants you. You will find there is an intimacy in all magic. When we share energy, we become tangled in each other even more. But, if there is a time, a fully human time, that you decide you want me, then, and only then, could we give in completely to the magical time. Making love to another witch, well, it’s something like flying, soaring through a starlit sky and never having to come back down. I’d love to share it all with you someday. But, for now, you’ve done enough. You need rest and nourishment. We can begin again fresh tomorrow.”

  “I don’t know if I can wait that long with my aunt out there, somewhere,” she sighed.

  “You have to. At this point, if we train to exhaustion, nothing good could come of it. It would make you even more vulnerable to them. Have faith. She’s safe. I can promise you that. They want you both alive. Dead, you would both be useless to their desires.”

  “That makes me feel so much better,” Kyna added with a sigh.

  She stood tall, though, wouldn’t let the weight of fatigue and fear take her down. Hearing her mother preach in her memory made it easier to stand strong.

  “She can handle it. I’ve seen her handle a lot in my years with this family. She’ll make herself strong for you, just as I see you doing for her,” he soothed.

  She just nodded and followed his lead back upstairs. His backside remained a constant distraction negotiating the rises and turns of the twisted stairs until the door to the main floor opened, liberating her from the lusty pull of the spell.

  Chapter Nine

  DAYS PASSED, EACH in much the same way. Darcaryn continued Kyna’s training at her insistence, almost to the point of exhaustion most days. His protests, sometimes for their safety, often fell on stubborn, deaf ears.

  Aedan had been working drudgingly, following every lead, no matter how slight, to find this secret society that didn’t seem to really exist. All the while, he made plans with former SEAL friends to travel to Ireland. Since, unfortunately, there’d been no word of Kyna’s aunt, everyone just kept on as best they could.

  Aedan had been there to soothe her as she felt the aches in each part of her body at night, both physically and mentally.

  Storms blew in, bringing sleet mixed with snow. A few inches of snow was nothing to Kyna, but something that only happened a handful of days, if that, in these parts each year. Each mild blizzard never lasted long. Still, Kyna welcomed having someone to always guard over her as the winds howled outside, rattling the windows.

  There’d been a constant barrage of attacks, too. These included moaning sounds, shadowy images, and visions in dreams. Each one had proven more disturbing, more realistic, and more gothic, than the last. One to take care of herself, she’d genuinely welcomed never being alone since her aunt had been taken. Having Aedan protect her, she told herself, wasn’t failure, but a way she took care of herself by playing it smart.

  On the other hand, Darcaryn, well aware of Aedan bunking with Kyna, had become a more vicious taskmaster. With an angry vigilance, he made a grand show of resistance against whatever sparked between them, magical or otherwise.

  She’d had little sleep but lots of training and talk. All the mystical and magical hauntings around her caused a strain, made her a victim of habitual assault. Add to this what felt like the loss of the mother who’d raised her, and now her aunt, she even forgave herself for breaking down in tears during a training session. She’d nearly choked the life out of both her and Darcaryn during a spell just before lunch. Why shouldn’t she be allowed the luxury of showing a crack in her armor? She’d earned the right to a moment or two, or three, and then she’d push on.

  When the purplish color had faded from his face, Darcaryn insisted she go upstairs to eat a proper lunch, get out of the training room.

  Tears, something she’d kept a tight hold on all her life, fell like a waterfall in between huge sobs that ripped from her tight chest, pulled air from her burning lungs, and made her feel like she’d faint to the floor at any minute.

  Darcaryn held her tight then, but with an invisible shield between them.

  Held at arm’s length even, if physically surrounded by his arms, she let herself sob for only a moment or two. With her throat tight and her heart pounding, she forced herself upright and pushed away from him.

  He met her challenge and pulled her back.

  With his arms wound around her again, she let him lead her upstairs. With him supporting most of her weight without her realizing it, they walked into the office where Aedan worked. Soon she found Aedan’s hands on her arms. The large male bodies fought against each other for control of her frame. Not slight of build, she felt frail, as if she’d break in their tug of war. So, that had been enough of that. Her moment of grief passed.

  “Please, just let me sit,” she managed, as she wiggled free of them both.

  She made her way to the soft, plush, couch of shamrock green in the corner. With her arms out in front of her, palms up to ward them way, she kept them both a foot or so away.

  “I just need a minute here. Please, give me some space. I appreciate how you both watch over me, but, I’m suffocating just the same Not under just your watch, but the weight of all that is here, the hole left by my aunt, the magic that seems to attack me every second of every day even as I have to learn to manage my own—" A deep breath put a stop to her barrage of words.

  “I just need a damn minute,” she hissed, using all the air she had available to her.

  “She needs a break from your training, Darcaryn,” Aedan spat. “She needs some time off. Weakening her to this state, surely even you can see won’t help anyone.”

  “I’m well aware. I just insist
ed she stop training and come up here,” Darcaryn hissed.

  “I know I can’t, but I just want to run away from it all, if even just for an hour, a damn, blessed hour. Go shopping at a damn mall. Catch a movie. Guess that would be two hours. Whatever! Anyone ever do anything normal like that here?” she grumped. “I know, I’m mad at myself for even suggesting such a thing with my aunt still missing, but how much can one former human be expected to take?” she practically yelled, would have if she’d been able to come up with enough lung power to pull it off.

  “You’re right,” Darcaryn countered. “You need some time to refresh. As I said, you’re no good to your aunt in this state. Maybe you need some fresh air. Looks like the sleet has finally given way to snow out there today. You should see the countryside. It’s amazing in this state.”

  The wizard looked to Aedan and huffed. “I need to get back to the room and try to improve upon another locator spell. I hope Kyna and I can do it together soon. Why don’t you guys go explore the grounds? Let the chill in the air cleanse your minds. I’ll put a temporary sort of invisibility spell over you both to keep you safe.”

  “That’s a great idea, Darcaryn,” Aedan growled at the man, his brows furrowed as if he looked for some sinister motive in the suggestion. “In fact, I insist. Would love to get more of a feel for the lay of the land other than what I was provided upon hire. And, it will be good to get you some fresh air, Kyna.”

  She relented and agreed, nodding. Under different circumstances, she would’ve wanted to explore the beautiful grounds she could see from the windows. She wished to see the small glistening lake she saw from the dining room window in its entirety.

  Once bundled, she set off with Aedan. He’d grabbed for her hand the minute they were out the back door and walking through the gardens. They’d kept a distance between them these past days. Even though he shared her room, her bed basically, to keep the magical monsters under the bed and all over the walls at bay, they’d done nothing more than kiss and hold each other. A part of her felt guilty entertaining any thought of more. She desperately wanted the connection with him, to get lost in what she imagined his body to be. Yet, with the odd, unexplainable attraction to Darcaryn, fighting it spell by spell, she held back. She wasn’t one to date two guys at once, and she hoped it wasn’t what she was doing now. No, she was being cursed, protected and trained. However, in many ways, it sure felt like it. She definitely had an intimacy with them both, as different as each relationship remained. She had to keep sex out of the equation.

  She allowed the scenery to dazzle her as they walked out of the gardens and gazed over the rolling landscape. A thick, heavy snow coated every surface. Just enough to be a cosmetic coating adding true magic to an already beautiful countryside. She found a strange moment of serenity in the strings of hues cast by the cloud-covered sun, an almost magical ray from a muted, grayish copper to a moss green in the sky. She felt mind boggled, standing on Irish land so far away from her small, West Virginia, town. She’d seen nowhere else. There had never been money for real vacations, but they’d taken day trips into the woods for hikes. She wouldn’t give up a single one of them for any trip to a beach. She wished she could share this with her adopted mom, and she wished she could have shared it with her blood mother before she’d died. To think the woman had grown up here, walked this very patch of land herself, as a girl and as a woman, though, was the closest Kyna could come to feeling her.

  In fact, she stopped, flashed a brief smile at Aedan, and dropped his hand as she let her eyes drift closed.

  She mentally connected with the ground beneath her, absorbing the energy, reading from it just as Darcaryn had been training. No image of a woman similar to her came though. Frustration at not having encountered even so much as a photograph of her biological mother in her days here, threatened to stop her progress. She forced the thought aside. So far, she hadn't felt safe enough to dare explore the house, to maybe find some elusive room with a memento of her mother’s in it.

  Focus, she prompted herself. With concentration back, she let the earth fuel her energy. A spirit swirled through her, familiar, though she’d never been here before. Images rose in her mind, but only of her aunt, happy, carefree, and laughing. Then, just as suddenly as they came, they vanished, replaced by images of her aunt running and afraid. The weather dark and stormy in her mental vision, her aunt raced into the trees. Something unknown and dark, ominous, chased her. Kyna felt the power and sinister intent of this thing chasing her aunt in the vision, and she cringed.

  At the same time, seemingly of their own accord, her limbs moved her stiffly to a tree. Touching the trunk no longer an option as an unseen force possessed her, her hand pressed into the bark until painful.

  “If they have me, they’ll leave you alone for a time,” her aunt’s voice echoed through her mind, as if the tree had spoken for her. “This spirit you feel, it’s them. They practically own the whole house now. So strong. Maybe if I let them take me, I’ll finally learn who they are, what they truly want. I will sacrifice myself willingly for your safety. Aedan and Darcaryn will keep you safe. I have no doubt of that. Don’t come looking for me. Just stay with Darcaryn and Aedan until I can get back to you.”

  “Kyna. Kyna, Snap out of it,” she heard Aedan’s voice, heightened with angst, even as she felt him trying to bundle her to him.

  The cold from the ground seeped through her pants. She’d fallen at some point, and now sat upon the snow.

  “I felt her. I heard her. My aunt,” she cried as she stood and wiped the wet snow from her long jacket. “She came through this way. Something chased her. I think one of the mystical spirits that keeps haunting my room at night. She ran from it. I had to touch this tree, and then I could hear or sense her thoughts somehow. She let them take her. She willingly sacrificed herself. She thinks she can learn more about them that way. All of this to keep me safe.”

  Aedan scratched his temple. “Guess that would account for the lack of clues as to someone physically breaking in and taking her. That never made sense to me. No one is that good that I, with my training, can’t find any clue. Plus, she had a security team watching over her room. From their account, she simply vanished into thin air. Maybe she put an invisibility spell on herself so she could just walk out of the house.”

  “We have to keep going, into the woods, see if I can’t pick up more of her thoughts. It’s like I can track her somehow, in the residual energy left here. I saw her enter the woods right over there. Let’s go the same way, see if I get anything else,” she exclaimed, excitement making her voice raise an octave.

  “What a skill. Would’ve come in useful when I was a SEAL. Can you imagine a witch as a SEAL, say Darcaryn, with not only his powers, but the training I had as well.” Aedan shuddered.

  “He would be undefeatable,” she added.

  “Yeah, scary thought. You know, I read about this sort of thing, you reading the ground, seeing what happened there. Also, about the magical message from your aunt, bound to the tree. It’s some kind of magical residue she left there just for you.”

  “What? Why do you know all of this? And why leave it on a tree? What if I’d never come out here?”

  “Guess she figured you would, that it would call to you perhaps. I’m not sure. Although I’m trained to become an expert in almost anything overnight, this is too out there, even for me. I’ll admit some measure of defeat, although it pains me to no end to do so. I’ve done my research on magic since I've been here. Your aunt provided me grimoires, too, ones from your ancestors, to help me learn what you’ve been learning.”

  “Really? I’d like to read those sometime. Seems you know more about this than I do.”

  “Doubtful. You have practical experience. I’ve just read a few books,” he countered.

  “You know, I’ve done some research on you as well. Well, on SEALs. Sorry, but you fascinate me. Never before have I met someone so strong, so confident, so smart, and so on,” she continued despite the heat
that crept up her neck to her face. “Anyway, the Internet claims SEALs are born, not made. Type-A personalities, dedicated and cocky, highly self-motivated, but who also follow a professional code of conduct. You were part of the nation’s 911 Force, and you never quit,” she ticked off the list of descriptions she’d read.

  “You lived in the shadows, killed anything that got in your way,” she continued, her voice filled with excitement. “You weren’t just the smartest or strongest, though, but a breed beyond. You played with high tech toys on an unlimited budget. You endured kill house training and torture training, and yet twenty-five percent of you don’t see your thirtieth birthday. Impressive, all of it, I have to say.”

  “Impressive? You’re impressive. What, you have an eidetic memory as well? And, you’re so cute when you get like this. You know how amazing of a woman you are, right?”

  She shook her head, lowered her eyes. The complement unsettled her like none ever had before.

  “I don’t know about all of that. I’ve never felt so weak before, so unknowledgeable, so out of control,” she confessed, and then dared a glimpse at his face.

  “You’re wrong. You don’t give yourself nearly enough credit. But, you know, maybe part of your strength here will come from allowing some weakness. You are human, and you’re dealing with an inhuman amount of challenges.”

  He paused to touch her shoulder briefly, to rub, to catch a smile.

  She granted him one despite the flush spreading over her cheeks again.

  “Let’s get going,” he encouraged, patting her back, then stroking the fall of hair over her hood. “We won’t be able to be out here too long. The sky looks threatening, even though only a little snow falls at the moment.”

  They moved along. With each step, she felt nothing more than what she already had as far as her aunt was concerned. She stopped at another tree, one half-covered in a blanket of clingy, wet snow. The trunk clung to the ground in a suspended half fall to the earth. The pull of gravity and weather had nearly won the battle to stay upright. She touched where the snow gave way to a rugged, wet bark. Brown and silver, it didn’t even look real, but like someone had painted it into existence. The faint presence left of her aunt disappeared completely, as if a blanket of black had just covered her.