Obsessed

by Cheyenne McCray

  Ranelle unwrapped the bar and discarded the covering onto the krstn. The strange foodstuff appeared to be a stick of birdseed glued together with a clear paste, and she cast Jalen a doubtful look.

  He was already devouring his own birdseed bar. “Try it. ’Tis most delicious.”

  Taking a tentative bite, Ranelle was pleasantly surprised at the rich flavor that rolled over her tongue. “Mmmmm.” She closed her eyes as she enjoyed the Elvin treat. “It tastes like spiced cakes, only better.” Nuts, cinnamon, cloves, and other spices she couldn’t identify.

  Energetic warmth coursed her body as she savored the gorni, and she felt as though she could scale the cliff to the shore below with no help from her Elvin god. She finished the bar and opened her eyes to see Jalen watching her and smiling.

  “’Tis a shame to cover such a beautiful body with clothing.” He held up the tunic and trousers she had ‘borrowed’ from Zanden’s fortress. “Alas, you need the protection from rocks and the elements.”

  For a moment she pictured herself descending the cliff naked, clinging to Jalen’s equally nude body. Heat rose to her cheeks at the grin that spread across his face, and she was afraid that this time he had read her mind.

  He began pulling on his own tunic and breeches, and she furrowed her brow as she watched him. She could swear that last night he had worn black, but today his clothing looked as gray as the cave’s walls. In Fiorn, the first time she saw him, she thought he had worn brown. Or had it been blue?

  “It changes,” he said, startling Ranelle from her contemplation. “The color shifts depending on what surrounds me.”

  “No wonder I could never see you when you followed me in Fiorn.” Ranelle stood and slid the tunic over her head and pulled the bottom down over her hips. “I sensed you, but no matter how I tried, I could never see you.”

  “You sensed me because I permitted you to.” Jalen shoved one foot into a boot, and then his other. “You didn’t see me because that I did not allow.”

  Ranelle stepped into her breeches and drew them tight around her waist. “Why did you let me sense you?”

  She caught her breath as he moved to her, and cupped her face in his palms. He brushed his lips across hers. “You bewitched me the very moment I laid eyes upon you.”

  By the gods’ gifts, she wanted to melt into this man every time he touched her.

  His lips met hers again, and his tongue slid into her mouth. He tasted sweet, of the gorni and his own elemental male flavor.

  “Again you distract me.” He kissed the corner of her mouth and moved to her ear. “I fear we shall never leave this cave.”

  She sighed. “Would that be such a bad fate?”

  Jalen’s soft laughter sent a thrill through her, straight to her nether regions. “Nay. With you it would be the best of destinies.”

  He scooped up her makeshift belt that he had discarded last night, brought it around her waist and tied it. “I have something important to tell you.” His face grew solemn and her stomach teetered as she sensed that what he had to say was serious.

  “Have you ever wondered from where you came?” Jalen brushed hair from her face with a gentle hand as Ranelle nodded. “Did you ever feel as though you yearned to fly, to be one with the ravens?”

  She widened her eyes as Jalen spoke aloud her fondest desire. “How do you know this? Did you read it in my thoughts?”

  “Nay.” He grasped a handful of her hair and smiled. “You are Nordain, my fair Ranelle. Taken as a babe from Phoenicia and brought to Fiorn to be raised with two other stolen children. You are all orphans, yet not.”

  Ranelle’s body vibrated with tremors as she tried to digest what he had just said. She was not human—she was Nordain?

  She shook her head. “It cannot be. I do not take raven form and fly.”

  “But you can.” He pressed his forehead to hers, enrli to enrli and he filled her senses with warmth and assurance…and trust.

  Yet the magnitude of his statements overwhelmed her, rattling around in her brain like pebbles in a box. “What do you mean I was taken?”

  He pulled back and sighed, but did not release his hold upon her tresses. “When you were only a toddler, you were stolen from your family by one of your own blood.” Tremors wracked Ranelle’s body as he continued, “The young man who kidnapped you learned of your destiny through the Seraphine Chronicles and his own twisted visions. He brought you to the house you were raised in, and arranged for Tierra and Liana to be delivered there as well.”

  “I do not understand.” Her mind whirled and the cramps in her stomach grew more fierce. “My blood stole me. What does that mean?”

  Jalen’s jaw tightened and his expression grew almost fierce. “One of your brothers.”

  Numbness crept into her limbs and her hair all but stood on end. “I have brothers?”

  “Three.” Jalen began rubbing her shoulders in a manner meant to comfort her, but the numbness continued to seep through her body. “The youngest of the three is Renn. The eldest brothers are twins. One is Aric, King of the Nordain.”

  “And the other twin,” she said slowly, “the one who took me is…”

  His throat worked, and she knew it was difficult for him to say. The anger in his voice was apparent, as he replied, “The Sorcerer Zanden.”

  Ranelle’s eyes widened and her hands flew to her mouth as horror filled her being. Her knees gave out and she would have dropped to the floor had it not been for Jalen’s strong grasp.

  “No.” She shook her head vehemently. “No, no, no, no!”

  Jalen pressed her tight against him. “I am sorry. I wish it were not, but ’tis the truth.”

  “He—he…” A sob tore from her throat and she wanted to pummel something, anything. “He was going to—to touch me. My own brother!”

  “It was a prophecy made long ago, and he is attempting to bring it to light. He is a man filled with greed for power. A being who wishes to have total and complete rule over our world. If he possessed the three of you, his desires would come to light.” Jalen rubbed her back as he spoke, his strong presence lending her strength. “But do not fear, for I shall never allow his foul hands upon you.”

  “I—I cannot believe it.” Ranelle pulled away and she fought the tears that wanted to burst from within her. “You are trying to make me believe that I am Nordain, and that I am of the same blood as that vile creature who wishes to defile me?”

  Jalen sighed. “Elves never lie, as I have told you.”

  “I need time.” She placed her hands against his chest and pushed at him. “Let me be.”

  Jalen could not believe how difficult it was to release Ranelle from his embrace. He wanted to hold her, comfort her, but she was pushing him away.

  With great reluctance he allowed her to withdraw from his grasp. An odd sense of helplessness bled through him while he watched her walk away, toward the rear of the cave. Her head was bowed, her arms wrapped tight around her belly.

  Why would she not let him give her solace? Why had she pushed him away?

  Loving this creature had already caused so many strange emotions within him. Fierce protectiveness, incredible desire, undying love… And even odder, for the first time in his long life he was experiencing doubt and confusion—questioning his own judgment.

  Ranelle stood in the shadows, her back to him. Clenching his fists, he fought for control over the tumult. Heartmate or no, he could not allow himself such doubts. He had made the right decision in telling her about her past. Armed with such knowledge she would better understand her peril.

  For the briefest instant he even questioned his decision to bond her to him without discussing it with her beforehand.

  Jalen shook his head. Such thoughts were ludicrous. This enchantress had certainly bewitched him and addled his mind in the process.

  He turned his mind to his plans for their escape from the Sorcerer as he folded the krstn and placed it into his waist pouch. Once Jalen and Ranelle left the cave and reached the
shore, they would skirt Wilding Wood as he took her to Seraphine. There he would present her to the Council as his heartmate and ask for Queen Yanea’s blessing.

  A small sob interrupted Jalen’s musings. He snapped his head up and looked to see Ranelle’s shoulders trembling. Again indecision flickered within him, but he shoved it away.

  Goddess damn Ranelle’s request to be left alone.

  For so long Ranelle had wondered who her parents were, and whether or not she had any family alive. Now she suddenly had three brothers—one of which was the vilest being on all of Dair. Her arms tightened around her belly and she shook her head in disbelief.

  And what was it that Jalen had said? Zanden’s twin was Aric, King of the Nordain. Then did that mean that she had been born of royalty?

  When she was a child, she had often dreamed that she was a Princess in a castle amongst the clouds. As she had grown older, she had pushed away the fantasies, believing that her reality was Fiorn and escaping the Sorcerer with her halias.

  In a matter of days, all her realities had crumbled to dust, and even she wasn’t who she had believed herself to be for the first twenty seasons of her life.

  What now?

  Gods, but she wished that Liana and Tierra were there with her. She needed to talk to them, needed help deciding what to do next. She needed their strength and their sisterly comfort. For they had been the only family she had known as long as she could remember.

  So now was she supposed to pop into a raven and fly the skies? No matter that she had often wished it—at the moment it seemed absurd, and nothing more than an Elvin tale.

  All that had happened within the past couple of days rushed through her in hot gusts and her eyes flushed with wet heat. Moisture crept onto her cheeks and she almost stomped her foot with anger at her own weakness. She was furious with herself for crying, but once they started the tears wouldn’t stop.

  A sob escaped her throat, and her shoulders shook with the force of her emotions.

  Hands grasped her from behind as she realized that Jalen had come to comfort her despite her request to leave her alone. She did not need his comfort, did not need him at all. But when she tried to wrench herself from his grasp, he refused to let her go.

  Instead he forcefully turned her around and wrapped his powerful arms around her. “’Tis all right to cry,” he murmured and drew her down to the floor where he cradled her in his lap. “’Tis the goddess’s way of cleansing the soul and healing the heart.”

  Ranelle gave into the warmth of his embrace, allowing herself to melt against his massive chest and draw strength from him.

  She cried ’til every last tear had left her and soaked Jalen’s tunic front. And when she finished crying, she drifted into a deep and black sleep.

  * * * * *

  According to Jalen it was the following evening when she had finally woken, still cuddled in his arms. She had slept for a day, and he had sat and held her in his strong embrace the entire time. Yet he now appeared as fresh as though he himself had rested.

  They had eaten another gorni, and were preparing to leave the safety of the cave.

  Would the Sorcerer and his minions be waiting for them? Still searching for her? If she was fortunate, perhaps Zanden thought she had fallen to her death in the storm, and her body washed out to sea.

  Jalen raised his hand, his palm facing the darkened cave mouth. A shimmer wavered across the opening, and then a golden glow came from it, as though returning to his palm and absorbing into his body.

  Stars glittered in the black sky in between patches of clouds, and the moon peeked out high above. The air smelled fresh, of rain and the briny odor of the sea.

  Her gaze returned to Jalen, who held his hand out, his palm toward the ceiling. The ball of light in the rock above disengaged. It floated back toward his palm where it too seeped into his skin. The cave grew dark again, the only light from the moon and stars.

  “We never discard the goddess’s gifts,” he explained as he fastened his waist pouch. After he gathered the magical rope and secured it to a boulder at the back of the cave, he slung his bow and quiver over his shoulder.

  Jalen took both her hands within his. “Come, fledgling. ’Tis time for you to learn to fly.”

  Chapter Seven

  Ranelle worried her lower lip with her teeth as she looked into Jalen’s sapphire eyes. She gestured toward the dark sky outside the cave. “What if I cannot fly? What if I fall to the shore below?”

  “I can carry you, if you would rather not attempt it.” He squeezed her fingers and smiled. “However, I do have something that will aid you in learning the task quickly.”

  Jalen dug in his waist pouch. After a moment he withdrew a small crystal bottle, and pulled out its stopper. “The yeroi will release the knowledge you were born with,” he said. “It will enable you to make the transformation easily.”

  Flutters filled Ranelle’s belly, as though a throng of pixies had invaded and started a small war. Yet despite her nervousness, she realized she already trusted Jalen so much that she was willing to risk what he asked of her.

  She tilted her head up as he raised the bottle to her lips.

  The thick elixir rolled over her tongue, rich and sweet, a flavor unlike any she had ever tasted. It was smooth and intoxicating, causing warmth to flow through her body from limb to limb, settling the nervousness in her belly. A weightless sensation came over her and she felt as though she could float down the cliff side.

  Jalen moved behind her. His breath tickled her neck as he murmured in her ear, “You are a raven, Ranelle. Feel it. Believe it.”

  Ranelle’s brain battled with her senses.

  She was human. Woman.

  And yet she could be bird.

  She could be raven.

  It was in her. The changing. To a creature with bones as light as air, and feathers to hold the breeze like a lover’s fingers.

  Hunger burned in her belly, like desire only cooler. Like arousal, only more focused.

  Sparkles flashed around her as the thrilling sensation coursed through her being. The thundering of her heart echoed in her ears as the knowledge of her heritage expanded within her very lifeforce.

  She was Nordain.

  She could fly.

  Stretching her arms wide, Ranelle took a step forward and then another. In an instant her clothing turned into feathers, her arms becoming wings, as she transformed into a raven. She flapped her wings and her bird’s feet lifted from the cave floor.

  Delight filled her as she flew from the cave and into the night, and Ranelle felt more alive than she had ever felt in her life.

  She was meant for this. She had been born to soar the skies.

  Cool wind raced through her feathers as she glided out from the cliff and over the Mairi Sea. Below her moonlight glittered across the water’s surface, waves cresting and crashing against the sandy shore. The night smelled clean and fresh and pure.

  Her senses seemed sharper than ever, her hearing so keen that the sound of the sea was almost overwhelming.

  Do not stray too far, Jalen warned in her mind. The irani and Zanden’s Nordain minions are nearby.

  In the joy of the moment Ranelle had unconsciously dropped the block to her thoughts. She allowed Jalen continued entrance into her mind, realizing it would be the best form of communication for them ’til they were safe from Zanden.

  Ranelle circled back toward the cliff. Moonlight illuminated Jalen’s large form as he quickly descended from the cave, sliding down the same rope he had used the night prior. His muscles flexed with every movement, and as she watched him she couldn’t help but visualize his powerful body naked and between her thighs.

  Remain focused, fledgling, Jalen cautioned her, lest you lose your raven’s form. You lack the experience you would have had if you had grown up in Phoenicia.

  A slight chill ran through her as she glided on the wind, realizing that she was already taking her newfound abilities for granted. She increased her concent
ration and promised herself she would not be so foolish again.

  Tingling erupted throughout her being, her senses screamed at her, and a distant motion caught her eye. The irani were close. Heart skittering, she dove toward the base of the cliff where Jalen was just about to alight.

  Stay in raven form and land upon my shoulder, he urged her. You will be safer as a nordai. The irani will not be able to detect you from one of Zanden’s Nordain minions.

  Ranelle skimmed lower, heading straight toward the location where Jalen waited in the shadows. If it were not for the sapphire glitter of his enrli, she would not have been able to see him. Slowing her flight, she brought her bird’s legs down and thrust them toward his shoulder. She landed hard, burying her claws in his tunic. For a second she teetered, only her talons keeping her from toppling over his back.

  She would have to work on her landings, to be certain.

  Her tail feathers brushed Jalen’s neck as she pivoted to face the sea. He whispered an odd word and then gave a light tug on the rope. It dropped to land in a shimmering pile at his feet, all but blending into the sand.

  Remain still, fledgling. He pressed back into the shadows and seemed to vanish before her very eyes. She felt odd, like she was sitting on an invisible perch.

  A familiar and horrible screech rent the air. Two irani appeared above, flying from over the cliff behind Jalen and Ranelle. The pair circled high, then moved lower. They came closer and closer to the shore, as though seeking something—or someone.

  They sought her, she had no doubt.

  A strange feeling rose up within her, the desire to shriek as loud as she could for help. As if she could call other Nordain to her aid.

  It seemed that she waited in the darkness with Jalen for time on end. The only sounds were waves crashing against the shore and the irani cries. Ranelle did not even hear Jalen’s breathing, although she could smell his unique masculine scent.