“How is it different?” Ethan asks.
Lainey doesn’t see it, but I notice the tension in his face as she says, “Well, it looks like it started out like the one Nara has inside the locket, but the way Matt’s drawing it, you realize that the one black bird was never a bird at all but thousands of smaller black birds that had formed the larger shape. It gave me a sense that it’s crumbling, or falling apart…” Straightening her shoulders, she offers a shaky smile. “He plans to get it tattooed on his arm, so I’m glad it means good luck.”
What does Matt’s drawing mean? How is he seeing the Corvus symbol? I clasp Ethan’s hand and ask Lainey in a calm voice even though my insides are tense with worry. “His parents are going to let him get it?”
She nods. “Yeah, his dad thought it was cool.”
I shake my head and nod toward her bracelet. “Tell him I said to get the tattoo like the one in your charm if he has to get one.”
“And for God’s sake, tell him to get it where he can cover it up, like on his hip or something.”
“Why?” Lainey asks, eyes wide at Ethan’s brusque comment.
I squeeze his hand to calm him down. “Depending on the job Matt plans to go into, certain ones won’t allow tattoos to be seen. Why limit his options?”
When Lainey cocks an eyebrow, her gaze shifting to the ink on both of Ethan’s arms, he raises our clasped hands, a wolfish smile tilting his lips. “I don’t plan on having a career that’ll keep me from showing mine.”
“But it’s definitely something Matt should consider,” I jump in. “I hear removing tattoos is more time consuming and costly than getting them.”
“Oh crap.” Eyes wide, Lainey moves to pick up her coat. “Matt wants to be a doctor. I’d better get going.” Shrugging into it, she continues, “He was looking up a friend’s name, an artist who does tattoos, when I spoke to him earlier.”
“Thank you for my earrings, Lainey,” I say as I walk her to my doorway. “If Matt has any questions about the symbol, tell him to call me or Ethan.”
“Will do.” Lainey nods, then glances at Ethan over my shoulder. “Merry Christmas, you two. See you after the snowpocalypse is over.”
Once Lainey leaves, I turn to say to Ethan, “That was interesting,” but I bump into him instead. His chest is flush with mine as he cups my jaw. I shake my head and chuckle. “I’ll never get used to your speed—”
Ethan kisses me, cutting off my comment. I smile against his mouth and press my hands to his hard chest, kissing him back. His fingers slide along my jaw, just before he deepens our kiss.
My heart pounds and I surrender to the magnetic pull of his mouth moving over mine while his other hand applies pressure against the small of my back, tugging me closer, aligning my hips with his.
Just when our breathing starts to elevate and his hand slides to my rear, Ethan breaks our kiss and presses his forehead to mine. I sigh quietly, loving his intensity so much my heart aches. Touching his cheek, I say, “What was that for?”
He lifts his head, his thumb moving along my jaw in a rhythmic caress. “It just feels like something new is always being thrown at us.” Cupping my face in a tender hold, he continues, “But you and I—this—it’s the one thing I know is real. It’s not sand shifting under our feet. We’re rock solid.”
I feel the tension in his hold even if he doesn’t realize it. Clasping his wrists, I squeeze gently. “I’m here, Ethan. I’m not going anywhere. Yes, there seems to be constant changes and things tugging us in many directions, but I’m not running away.”
He kisses my forehead and murmurs, “I refuse to be kept away from you.”
Kept away? What is he talking about? I start to ask, but he pulls me close and wraps his arms tight around me like he’s afraid I’ll disappear.
I lay my head on his chest and hug him back. No one’s trying to keep us apart. Why would he think— I quickly lift my head. “Did my mom say something to you about us downstairs?”
He looks down at me, confused. “No, why? Is something going on?”
“I’m just wondering why you’re suddenly so worried someone’s going to try to keep me from you.” I pat his jaw. “No one has the power to do that. Not even my parents.”
“Parents?” His brows pull together. “Did your dad say something?”
I start to say no, then realize it’s probably best to give him a heads up. “Um, I meant to tell you that while my dad was in my room this morning he used the bathroom and happened to see the wastebasket I hadn’t cleaned out yet.”
It takes a second for Ethan to make the connection, but when he does, his hold on me tightens. “What did he say?”
I shrug. “He tried to play the parent card. I called him on it and told him he didn’t know me well enough to judge me or my choices. Mom knows I’m on the pill; she’s the one who asked me about it a while back after she first met you, so…” I trail off and shrug. Ethan doesn’t need to know that my conversation with my dad was about his concerns over him being so darkly layered on top of the sexually active part.
Ethan’s blue eyes never leave mine. “So what’d he say to that?”
I roll my eyes. “Of course he’s not thrilled. He still sees me as a little girl. Anyway, I just thought it would be better to warn you so you’re not blind-sided if my dad tries to corner or intimidate you.”
Ethan shakes his head. “You’re the only one who can intimidate me.”
Snickering, I hook my arms around his neck. “Well, I think you’re pretty awesome and I have no intention of getting rid of you any time soon.”
His eyes widen and he grips my waist. “Any time soon?”
I nod. “You know…until things start to get boring—Ethan,” I shriek, squirming between gasps of laughter as his fingers dig into my sides.
“Boring?” he says, tickling me mercilessly. “I can’t imagine that ever happening. But just in case…” He pauses and grasps my waist, lifting me in the air until my eyes are level with his. “I promise you this, Nara Collins. If the Corvus stuff disappeared tomorrow, I love you enough to do whatever it takes to keep it interesting between us. Boring will never be a word you will use to describe what happens in our relationship. That, I can guarantee.”
The sensation of his hands touching my skin under my shirt makes me tingle all over, needing more. When my eyes meet his, I feel the want and need, the intense pull of his emotions, just as much as I did earlier today in the backseat of his car.
Sobering, I set my hands on his shoulders, then slide my legs around his trim hips. Ethan doesn’t resist a second, he settles me against his body like I’m made to fit there. While I skip my fingers along his skin, then twine them in his hair, his hungry gaze searches my features.
“I love you back just as much,” I say. “Nothing about you bores me, even watching you sleep.”
A dark eyebrow shoots up, and his hands flex along my hips. “You watched me sleep?”
I nod and run a finger down his nose. “You looked very peaceful.”
“That’s only because I’d spent the night with you, Sunshine.” His lips curl in a smirk when my finger starts to slide past them.
I gasp in surprise when he quickly clamps his teeth around my finger, then closes his lips around it and sucks the tip deeper into his mouth. His intense eyes hold mine as he slides his tongue sensually over and around my skin, soothing away the slight pain he’d inflicted.
“Torturer,” I say, breathlessly, my body screaming for so much more.
“Nara,” Mom calls from downstairs. “Can you and Ethan come take care of breaking down all these boxes from the Christmas stuff I bought? Trash pickup’s in the morning, and I want all this out of the way before guests arrive tomorrow.”
“Okay, we’ll be right down.”
Ethan’s eyes spark with heat as I regretfully slide my finger from his mouth. Kissing my knuckle, he says, “My sweet lollypop,” then sets me down and rasps in a low, husky voice against my ear, “Never, ever boring.”
His seductive promise makes my stomach flutter and my body tingle all the way down the stairs.
Chapter Eight
Nara
After we’d taken care of the boxes for Mom, Ethan and I return to my room to look over Freddie’s book.
As I sit on my bed with the blue book in hand, I raise an eyebrow when Ethan pulls the chair close to my bed and sits on it backward once more. “Come sit over here with me.”
He slowly shakes his head. “Not a good idea.”
“What? Why?”
He slides his attention from me to the pillows, his lips quirking. “Sitting with you will give me too many ideas that have nothing to do with studying a book.”
“Oh.” I giggle, my face turning warm. “Um, good point.”
Ethan leans over the back of the chair and slowly runs his finger down my cheek, amusement flashing in his eyes. “You’re blushing.”
I smack his hand away. “Am not.”
“It’s adorable.” He chuckles, his lips twisting wickedly.
My hands shake as I clutch the book. “If you don’t stop looking at me like that, we’ll never get this done.”
He straightens and spreads his hands, eyebrows raised in innocence. “Like what?”
“Like you—”
“Want to devour you?” Resting his muscular arm on the back of the chair once more, his voice lowers to a toe-curling resonance. “I do. Very much, Sunshine.”
As my face flames, I laugh at myself. He’s so deliciously irresistible, I can’t help it. “At least you’re honest.”
He dips his head, eyeing me. “Always with you.”
We exchange a charged look, but when I drop my gaze to open the book in my hands, he says, “So are we going to talk about it, or are we just going to ignore the bomb Lainey dropped on us earlier about Matt?”
“You mean unknowingly dropped,” I say, my eyes snapping to his.
“Do you think Matt is having some kind of premonition?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I’m not sure, but why else would his mind be filled with the Corvus symbol in the process of exploding? It’s not like he just happened to run across it somewhere. I searched many resources, from the web to books, and I never found anything close.”
Ethan frowns. “Exploding? That’s not what Lainey said. She said hundreds of birds are coming off the black raven in the symbol. That could just as well represent every single Corvus out there that has a piece of the Master Corvus inside them.” He shrugs. “The image Matt keeps seeing could be the symbolic representation of the Corvus’ overall existence.”
I pick up the pen from my nightstand and tap it on the book. “Or it could represent something that happened in the past.”
Ethan’s brow furrows. “What happened in the past?”
“Remember when Mr. Wicklow told me about that day thirty years ago when the Master Corvus killed the Order’s leader and decimated the sanctuary?” When he nods, I continue, “Well, the day that happened, Mr. Wicklow said that all the existing Corvus collapsed and the raven spirit left their bodies.”
Ethan’s brows elevate. “So all the Corvus the Order had found and helped up to that point, suddenly ceased to exist?”
“Yes. Drystan’s uncle also said that the Order has been running blind since that day in their quest to find any new Corvus that came into existence after that. I’m pretty sure the Corvus medallion that had always helped the Order locate newly formed Corvus stopped working that day too.”
“It could mean that, I suppose.” Ethan rubs his hands over his face. “Or it could mean something entirely different.”
I sigh and nod. “One thing we know for sure. It means something. Why else would Matt keep seeing it?”
“Agreed.”
“I think you should try to talk to Matt and see if you can get anything more out of him than what he’s told Lainey.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “You think he’s not telling her everything?”
“This is Lainey we’re talking about. I’m sure Matt has figured out what I already know about my friend. If she ever finds out that all her friends have some unique ability that we didn’t tell her about, I’m pretty sure she’d stop talking to all of us. I half wonder if she knows about mine. She’s always fussing at me about keeping things to myself.”
Ethan smiles and rests his chin on his arms. “When I realized you had some kind of ability, but I didn’t know what it was, I was surprised that Lainey hadn’t picked up on it.”
“Don’t be all that surprised,” I say in a dry tone. “I just found out Mom has known about mine and Dad’s gift all along.”
“Are you serious?” He sits up, expelling a disbelieving laugh. “She knows?”
“Just that we have some kind of intuitiveness, but not exactly what it is. I got really mad at her about the fact she never asked Dad about it...or me for that matter. She says she tried to tell me I was special when I was little, but I didn’t want to hear it.” Shrugging, I force myself to calm down. “The only good thing that came out of it is that I got her to agree to invite you and Dad to dinner tomorrow night.”
“Uh, wait…isn’t David coming too?”
I nod, then grimace. “I didn’t think that one through so well. I was so focused on the fact Mom wouldn’t even acknowledge Dad’s presence in the same room. At least she’ll have to talk to him some at dinner.”
Ethan raises his eyebrows. “Dinner should be interesting.”
I shrug. “So now you see why I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s perfectly possible Lainey might know about me, but she doesn’t want to acknowledge it. And I’m fine with keeping things status quo. Lainey’s life will be far less worrisome if she doesn’t know.” Shrugging, I glance at the ring on my hand decorated with the same symbols of protection Ethan has on the dragon tattoo on his arm, including the Corvus symbol. “Anyway, since I’m never taking this ring off, I’m just like any ordinary girl with regular dreams now, so there’s nothing to tell.”
Ethan laughs hard, his blue eyes sparkling. “There’s nothing ordinary about you.”
I grin and lower my head in a mock bow. “That’s a high compliment, oh Master Corvus, sir.”
Ethan tenses, his face turning somber. “I’m not the Master Corvus.”
I instantly regret saying anything, even teasingly. When I start to change the subject, Ethan flashes a cocky grin. “But you can call me Master all you want, Sunshine.”
Rolling my eyes, I pick up my hot pink pillow and hit him with it. “Just make sure you talk to Matt. Now let’s get back to Freddie’s book.
“What exactly did Fate say about it?”
I close my eyes and try to remember his exact words—words he hadn’t wanted to tell me but was bound to do so once I’d answered his question honestly and sincerely. “He said, ‘The answers start and end with the raven book. Go back to its creation.’”
“Hmm, starts and ends, huh?” Ethan takes the book and turns it around in his hands, inspecting the unique metal findings that pop open to reveal a hidden compartment behind the bound pages and the book’s spine. Well, the findings only open once the triskele necklace my grandmother left for me is aligned with the same Celtic symbol stamped on the book’s spine.
“I remember you saying that Madeline was given exact instructions for everything on this book.” Ethan glances up at me. “That makes me think that whatever clues we’re hoping to find must somehow have something to do with the cover.”
“Okay, that makes sense.” Taking the book from him, I inspect the front, the spine and then the back, looking for inspiration. Then I do the same on the inside of the cover, running my finger down the area where it adheres to the book. When I flip to the end to do the same with the inside of the back cover, the library’s checkout card holder falls out of the book.
Ethan catches it before it hits the floor. His eyebrows lift as he hands it back to me. “I didn’t realize this book came from a library in London.”
I shrug
and tuck the holder back inside the book, planning to glue it back later. “That’s where Madeline lives, so it makes sense that’s where it must’ve resided at one time.”
“Has anyone checked it out?” he asks, leaning forward to check out the due date stamp.
I tap on the blank card. “Apparently not.”
Ethan’s eyebrows shoot up. “Since Freddie had this book for more than a couple of decades, can you imagine the astronomical fine if it had been?”
I start to laugh, then something Madeline said hits me. I quickly flip the book to look at the filing code stamped on the spine. “Let’s see if it’s still in the library’s system.”
I hand Ethan the book, then move over to my laptop to type in The Library of London.
A few keystrokes later, I glance up from my laptop. “Hmm, it shows there’s a book there.”
“Why does that surprise you?” He lifts it up. “I’m sure they replaced it once this one went missing.”
“That’s just it.” I nod to the book. “I’m pretty sure that it’s supposed to be one of a kind.”
“Are you saying there isn’t another one out there like this?”
I quickly search the Internet, looking for the title. “Nope. There’s not another one listed anywhere else. Tell me the book’s ISBN number.”
Once Ethan reads it off, I type that in. I shake my head. “There aren’t any other books out there. That’s the only one.”
Ethan frowns. “Then why is it showing that the book is checked in at that library?”
I bite my lip. “I don’t know. Maybe they just never updated their system.”
“Is it possible that Madeline might’ve created two books?”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
“But what if she did?”
“You mean like a backup copy?”
He nods. “She created this one to Michael’s specifications, so he has to be the one who put that hidden scroll in this book. If she did make a copy, maybe he put another one in that version too.”
Hope fills my heart. I quickly fire off an email to Madeline to confirm his theory. “If it’s there, maybe its secret isn’t lost.”
Desire Page 9
