by Cherry Adair
“I let the prick keep the powers,” the man beside the fireplace told them. “Hell,” yet another Culver said with relish, “I didn’t give a shit who won this last round. You, Gabriel or Verdine.” The man on the chandelier dropped lightly to the floor. “I knew I was going to be the sole survivor and assimilate those powers too.”
“You try to kill Serena that night at the warehouse in Schpotistan?” Duncan demanded dangerously. He kept his eye on the prize. There might be upward of twenty Trey Culver’s wandering about the large room, but only one had a heat signature.
“Not me personally. I told you she was nothing more than a filler, Edge.” Each piece of the sentence was uttered by one of his clones. Made no fucking difference to Duncan who was speaking. He knew which one he wanted, and he didn’t take his eyes off the dirtwad for a second.
“The easiest way on earth was to let you win the Tests, then sit back while you almost killed yourself,” he chuckled. “I get all the payoff with none of the work. And once I’ve dispatched the three of you, I’ll assimilate your powers, too. I’ll have it all.”
“And what is all going to get you, Culver?” Duncan asked as he walked toward him. The man’s insane overconfidence was going to be his undoing. That and messing with the Edge brothers!
“You’re questioning my career plan, Dunc, old pal? How about this for a reason? Nobody is ever going to be able to stop me. I’m gonna rule the world!”
Culver levitated across to the bank of windows high above their heads. “Stupid fuckers. Thanks for making this so God damned easy. Sayonara, suckers!” He had to shout to be heard as he dropped a hailstorm of boulders on top of them.
His doppelgängers disappeared like soap bubbles.
Duncan, Gabriel, and Caleb instantly shimmered out of the way, then turned the huge, heavy stones back on Culver. Collectively they held the weight high in the air, bouncing them repeatedly against Culver’s shield until they broke through.
With a scream of surprise and rage, Culver shimmered out of range. “That’s impossible!” he cried, incensed and red in the face. “You can’t beat me.”
Gabriel morphed into a black panther, his body lean and low to the ground as he crept up on Culver’s left flank. Invisible, Caleb skirted to his right.
Duncan’s powers were intensified to the point that he could anticipate Trey’s every action. Amazing, he thought, seeing the shadow image move seconds before Trey did. Anticipating where he’d be in the next second, Duncan blasted a powerful bolt of fire up Culver’s ass. Trey shot ten feet in the air, screaming like a girl, his butt on fire. Caleb’s laughter came out of thin air.
“Stop dicking around, Duncan,” Gabriel growled, the muscles in his haunches tensing to spring, his sharp claws gleaming in the dusty sunlight streaming through the high windows. “Finish it.”
Yeah. Got it. While flexing his newfound powers was a thrill, the bottom line was death, not entertainment.
Duncan gathered every last ounce of his powers into one intense sheet of white-hot fire. He sent it spinning, end over end, at Culver’s throat. The cut was so clean that Culver’s body was still prepping to send more magic their way as his decapitated head rolled on the floor. His death mask was his stunned expression.
“Finished enough for you?” Duncan asked his brothers as he incinerated what was left of Culver. Jesus. MacBain was going to have a coronary. Gabriel and Caleb came to stand beside him, looking down at the small pile of ash that had been Trey Culver.
“Good job.” Gabriel slapped him on the back.
Caleb grabbed him around the neck. “Awesome.”
Duncan shoved his brothers aside as he looked up to see the door standing wide open, and framing three women. “Come on, you two, there’s someone you need to say hello to.”
Gabriel turned his head, his face wreathed in a smile. “Your someone is standing over there with my someone.”
“And mine,” Caleb said, grinning from ear to ear.
“No shit?!” Duncan started running toward his future.
Duncan teleported them to his flat in London, only to find Lark lounging on the sofa waiting for them.
“Damn it. Not now, Lark.”
“I’ll be quick, I promise.”
“Time’s up,” he growled.
Serena elbowed him in the side. “Duncan!” She gave the other woman an inquiring look. “What can we do for you?”
Lark spread her arms on the back of the sofa cushions looking as though she was there for the long haul. Duncan decided he’d nip that idea in the bud. Soon. “I just came to tell you that you and your brothers have broken Nairne’s Curse. It’s over.”
“I know. And I didn’t lose my powers.” Thank God. From what he’d seen, Serena was handling her lack of powers with equanimity. Duncan wasn’t sure he would have been able to under the same circumstances.
“Nobody said you would.” Lark’s lips twitched. “An erroneous presumption on your part, Hot Edge.” She glanced at Serena standing next to him. “You, however, are powerless. Sorry.”
Serena shrugged, not looking too concerned about the prospect. “Because I negated the Curse.”
Lark played with the jet necklace at her white throat. “That, too. But Gabriel and Caleb had to do their share.
“Each of them received the gift of one of Nairne’s discarded pieces of jewelry. ‘Only freely given will this curse be done/To break the spell, three must work as one.’”
“Great,” Duncan said impatiently. “Got it. Thanks.” While the damned Curse had been with him like another fucking appendage all his life, now that it was gone he wanted to hold Serena in his arms. He wanted to—
“Since you’re here,” Serena said, engaging Lark in conversation when Duncan was doing his best to get her to shut up and leave. He liked Lark. A great deal. But he wanted to be alone with Serena. Now, damn it. “Could you explain what earthly purpose those Tests had? As far as I could see, they didn’t do a damn thing.”
“The Tests served their purpose very well.” Lark crossed her legs, leaning back against the plush cushions.
“Don’t get comfortable,” Duncan told her shortly. “You won’t be staying.”
“Serena overcame a debilitating fear. You, Duncan, learned to chose lo—Learned to overcome your need for violence,” she corrected smoothly. “And Trey was punished for his evil deeds by death. All in all the Tests did exactly what the Elders wanted them to do. Don’t you think?”
Serena hadn’t moved since their arrival, but now she stepped forward, her beautiful eyes narrowed. “You wanted Trey to die?”
“There was no other way for it to end,” Lark said simply.
“No. What you wanted was for Duncan to kill him.”
“That was written. Yes.”
“Written where?” Serena demanded so aggressively Duncan put a quick restraining spell on her telekinesis, but of course it was unnecessary. She had no powers, thanks to her gift to him.
Lark rose, her nose ring glinting in the lamplight. “Written where these things are written,” she said enigmatically before disappearing.
“Well, hell. That didn’t tell us much of anything, did it?”
“Oh, I think it told us a great deal,” he said softly, as he started stalking her around the mammoth stone coffee table.
“Hmmm,” Serena said, walking backward as she met his glare with limpid gray eyes. “Shimmer us naked.”
“No.” Duncan told her firmly. “Don’t muddy the water because you know I want you. You may remove your coat.”
She gave him a sultry look from heavy lidded eyes. “I can talk very well when I’m prone and naked.”
“That may well be.” Duncan felt his lips twitch. “But I can’t concentrate when you’re naked.” Hell, he could barely concentrate with her sitting there fully dressed, her bright hair falling like a copper curtain around her slender shoulders.
Serena shrugged out of her coat, then went and curled up in his favorite chair. “Naked would be more fun
, but if we’re playing twenty questions, let me ask you this first, then. Why did you share your knowledge of the Curse with me that night after Trey’s sixteenth birthday party?”
He closed his eyes for a brief second, remembering the sharpness of feeling Serena had always brought, even then. “Because I would have done anything to keep you with me for a few more minutes outside Henry’s place. Because I knew I’d missed my opportunity with you, and I was just borrowing you for the evening. And I was right. The next day you went back to Trey.”
“He Charmed me.” She still sounded annoyed by it.
“I should have dispatched him then and saved us all a hell of a lot of freaking trouble. Except you and I are absolute trouble together, thanks to Nairne and my ancestor.”
“I knew that night as you were kissing me, that you were a descendant of Magnus Edridge. I always knew. Like you, I was brought up on the story of Magnus and Nairne. Fireworks, fire and water, we create powerful energy. I’m a direct line descendant of Nairne. And I wanted you to kiss me so badly that night I wasn’t going to spoil that moment, even though I knew I’d be in so much trouble if my family found out. Henry knew. Don’t be mad at him for not telling you. He helped me keep a family promise passed down through generations. Even when I desperately wanted to break it, he kept me honest. I’ve been fighting my feelings for you ever since the night of Trey’s birthday party when you kissed me.”
“Jesus,” he whispered dropping onto the coffee table in front of her and taking her slender hand in his. “How wild is that?”
“Pretty damn wild all right,” Serena said softly, turning her palm so that their fingers could entwine. “I grew up knowing that I had the power to lift the Curse. Each generation is taught Nairne’s righteous anger, and we’re shown the Edges’ lack of commitment throughout history.”
“How can we commit when our lovers will die the second we do?”
Nodding, Serena agreed. “You have a point. But I hardly think that a five-hundred-year-old Curse is going to take in the finer points of your sensibilities.”
“Curse. More like a grudge.”
Lips twitching, she said, “Let’s not fight about it, okay? So, each generation is told about the Curse and then we’re told that if we were to help break the Curse, we’d lose our powers. As you know, Nairne was a strong witch.”
“True,” he said dryly.
She pulled a face. “We’d have no powers. Or worse.”
“Worse?” He couldn’t imagine anything worse. She’d given away her powers to help him defeat Trey. Duncan would never forget the sacrifice she’d made. “I’ll never forget what you’ve done. Now what can I do for you?” he asked, bringing her fingers up to his mouth.
She batted her lashes. “Later. Seriously? I want you to be the best Head of Council ever, Duncan. You’ve always wanted it, you worked hard toward it. You’ll be terrific.” She put her feet on the floor so that their knees bracketed one another. He could see the darker rim around her pupils, and count the freckles across her nose. The urge to kiss her was overwhelming.
“Everyone knew,” she reminded him softly. “You made no bones about it. Truthfully, I took a big risk without your permission. I risked breaking the Curse. I couldn’t give you extra powers I knew you’d need to defeat Trey, unless I gave you the Medallion, and I know that by doing so I stood a good chance of also breaking the Curse. I didn’t want to give you the chance to talk me out of my decision.”
“How so?”
“I wasn’t sure if my forfeiting the Head of Council position would work if your original powers were stripped.”
“Doesn’t matter now.” He kissed her fingertips.
“But I couldn’t let you go against Trey without the power boost afforded by the position. He had the power of at least four wizards assimilated. Even if your brothers could have helped you, the Curse prevented the three of you from working together.”
“Also true.” His heart swelled with love for this woman and the way she was trying so hard to qualify what she had done.
“That meant the only course I had left open to me was to give you the Medallion of Office. I’ve always known that Nairne had turned down the three pieces of betrothal jewelry when she Cursed Magnus.
“Family lore says that the necklace had been remelted, and cast into the Medallion worn by every Master Wizard for the past five centuries. I knew that if you had that, you would have the collective strength and power of all wizards—giving you the opportunity to beat Trey on a fairer battlefield.” She stared into his eyes. “But I also knew that there was a chance that you would lose all your powers once the Curse was finally broken. Can you forgive me?”
“There is nothing to forgive. It worked the way you intended. I just can’t get over how you chose your love for me, instead of your duty to the Council.”
She didn’t even blink. “Without a qualm.”
“I feel like we’re being given the chance to put history to rest.”
“I hope so. It’s time to end the fighting between our families.”
“I have the strength of all the wizards. I thought I would be different, really different,” he pointed out, stunned that he felt so calm about the choice he knew he would make. He never could have imagined it, not without watching how brave Serena had been.
It had taken a while, but he’d finally learned that rushing in with a hot head sometimes backfires and that taking the extra time to research all angles has its benefits.
She put her hand over his, her head bowed. “I know. But I would have done anything to prevent Trey from hurting you.”
“Without the strength of the Medallion he would have killed me,” Duncan acknowledged, tilting her chin up. “Thank you.”
Her gray eyes grew charcoal. “What will you do if your powers are stripped, Duncan? What if the lifting of the Curse takes time to come into effect? What if you do end up losing all powers? Would you have chosen what I chose for you?”
He’d wondered that same question himself. Honestly, he wasn’t sure he knew the answer.
“I have to report to the Elders in half an hour. And I already know that whatever happens, I will choose whatever will keep me with you. I love you, Serena.”
“Duncan,” she whispered, cupping his face.
“I’d choose love with you, over duty to the Council, or my country, every time. I finally get why my parents couldn’t stay away from one another, even though they sure tried. You are my Lifemate. You, Serena Brightman Campbell, are my love. Without you my life is meaningless. You’ve had my heart from the time you scarred me with your pencil.”
She laughed and traced a fingertip over his brow. “You could have had Caleb get rid of this for you at any time. Hey, if we both end up powerless, I’ll even shell out the cash for a great plastic surgeon.”
He tackled her back into the chair, pinning her arms over her head. “This scar is a visible reminder of you. Leave it alone.”
She clasped his fingers tightly, leaning in to brush her mouth over his. “I love you, Duncan Edge. No matter what happens.”
“No matter what,” he whispered against her soft mouth. “We’re in this together.”
She gave him a troubled look. “Even if you lose your powers?”
“Even then,” he assured her with a tender smile, using a finger to rub away the frown between her pretty eyes. He drew her into his arms, and their mouths met in a kiss filled with promise.
NINE MONTHS LATER
Lark Orela strolled into the vast kitchen of Edridge Castle, high-heeled boots clicking on the stone floor, black lace skirts swirling around her ankles. She smiled to see the white-haired old man sitting at the enormous kitchen table. He had a glass of Gabriel’s best Scotch in his hand and an expectant look on his face as he rose to greet her.
“It’s done, then?”
She grinned. Serena, Heather, and Eden had all just delivered their babies with the assistance of three midwives. Mothers, babies, and Edge boys were all in fine fe
ttle, and over the moon. “Aye. Three bonnie wee lasses.”
“Took you long enough,” he groused. But he was smiling beneath his white moustache. Even ancient, he was still a handsome man, she thought. The white hair didn’t detract from the strength in his face, or the intelligence in his blue eyes as he looked at her.
He lifted the cut-crystal decanter. When she nodded he filled the glass with three fingers and handed it to her. “Are ye gonna sit, or must ye go haring back upstairs any minute to check on your handiwork?”
“They don’t need me anymore.”
Duncan, of course, had never lost his powers. And he’d gifted back Serena’s as an engagement present. And a good thing, too. They’d need their combined powers to deal with their first daughter, Lark thought with an inner smile.
She pulled out a chair and sat down, enjoying the swish of her taffeta-lined skirts drifting on the floor around her. She was going to miss these clothes, she thought, sipping Gabriel’s fine whiskey and enjoying the smoky heat of it sliding down her throat.
“Five hundred years was a powerful long time to be bearing a grudge.” MacBain scowled.
“Aye.” She looked at him over the rim of her glass. “It was a powerful hurt.”
He walked painfully to her side, then sank to his haunches in front of her, his bones and joints creaking. He took her hand in his. “The lesson, long and painful as it was, was learned. And learned well.”
She touched his weathered cheek. “Aye. I know. ’Tis done now.” Nairne morphed back into herself, half reluctant and half excited. She’d liked the clothes, and the shoes, of this century. The freedom. The energy. Still, Curse lifted, she felt lighter, freer than she had in five hundred years. “I miss my lover.”
“Aye. As have I, my dearest heart.” Magnus’s snowy hair returned to his familiar black, the lines left his face, and his eyes, those hot Edridge blue eyes, blazed up at her. He rose, tall and straight, broad shouldered and handsome. Dressed now in his feilidhmhor, his Highland belted plaid, gathered into folds and belted around his strong, young body. A white linen leine, and leather trews.
