by Casey Hagen
Belen flipped him over onto the couch and braced his hand across Leander’s throat, cutting off any chance at a breath.
“Easy, Cleona. Remember what I told you,” Orion said from behind her.
Cleona’s eyes narrowed. She turned and shared a look with Maeve before they lunged, each locking their jaws on Belen’s shoulders and dragging him to the ground.
“No! He’s the one you want!” Belen shouted from the floor as Cleona and Maeve shook their heads with their teeth sunk into his flesh.
Orion reached between them, snatched the cuff from Belen’s wrist, and reached a hand out to Leander. “Get this back on your wrist.”
Leander coughed while he tied the cuff back into place. Rising over Belen, Orion raised Leander’s arm, touching his moonstone to Orion’s as he chanted. “From smoke to flesh through clandestine tricks, I banish you back to the place betwixt.”
Heat surged through Leander’s blood, and his brand on his back burned.
Smoke rose from Orion’s back, in much the way Leander figured it did from his own as Belen’s human form faded into a haze and slid away into the floor.
Cleona circled him, sniffing, and nuzzling his hand. Tucked on the other side of him, she stood on hind legs, and shifted back into human form.
Naked.
And glorious.
He wrapped his arms around her, absorbing her heat, and protecting her privacy as sirens wailed in the distance. “Normally, I would be bothered by your saving me, but that was pretty damn hot,” he said into her hair as she clung to him.
“Yeah, well, it didn’t feel so hot.” She tipped her face up to his. “If Orion hadn’t told me what Belen could do with the cuff, I would have attacked you. Do you have any idea how close—”
“Shhh,” he said, and pressed his lips to hers. “We were lucky.”
“Damn right you were,” Orion said over his shoulder, keeping Maeve in his grip.
Lucy stumbled out of the kitchen holding her bleeding head. “Reanne?”
“Down here,” she said from where she had pushed herself up on her elbow and surveyed the room.
Her cheeks had pinked back up, and she reached for the afghan on the chair next to her and handed it to Cleona. “Cover yourself and give your mother a hug.”
Epilogue
“You’re picking up the craft fast,” Orion said from the porch as he watched over Leander while he practiced executing spells from the family tomes.
“Yeah, well, good thing since I can feel Belen hovering.”
“You noticed that, huh?”
“Yeah, it’s like a frigidness that seeps into the bones,” Leander said, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing toward the door to see Lucy and Reanne playing cards.
“He’s waiting…I need to use my energy to train you, so hopefully the PI Cleona knew from high school was able to find something on Mylas, and the next sister so I don’t have to cast to find her.”
“How long can you guys stay?” Leander asked.
“As long as it takes. I have a team I can count on at home to run my construction company and anything they need can be handled through the phone or Skype. Maeve has a partner who has things under control,” Orion said, squinting toward the sun.
“Did they say when they would be back?” Leander asked, aiming his moonstone and drawing the heat from it with his mind. A thrill moved through him every time he managed to get the stone to bend to his will.
He’d never go into a fight again without being prepared, and the cuff was never leaving his wrist again.
Orion nodded toward the main road. “I think that’s them coming now.”
Leander shielded his eyes as they rolled down the lane, their tires kicking up dust. Maeve parked next to the trailer and the minute she stopped, Cleona jumped out.
“We found her!” she cried excitedly as she circled the car and jumped into Leander’s arms.
“Why aren’t you more excited?” Orion said to Maeve who dragged behind.
She stopped and dropped her hands to her hips. “Because she’s in jail.”
Orion whistled low. “For what?”
“It’s nothing,” Cleona said, giving Leander a smacking kiss.
“I wouldn’t call it nothing,” Maeve said with a sardonic glance toward her sister. She turned to Orion. “Drunk and disorderly.”
He slid his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”
“Maybe she’s just misunderstood,” Cleona said with a sharp glance at Maeve.
“I guess we’re about to find out,” Maeve said with a shrug.
“What did you do?” Orion asked, narrowing his eyes when Maeve stopped before him, but didn’t meet his eyes.
She tipped her face up to him. “We gave Andy the money for her bail. He’ll be bringing her to us as soon as he bails her out.”
“Yeah, I’m sure she’ll be willing to just hop in a car with a stranger,” Orion said with a scoff.
“By this time tomorrow, we’ll be meeting Sorcha Tierney in person!” Cleona said, clapping her hands.
Maeve glanced between Orion and Leander. “She either comes with him or Cleona here is going to show up on her doorstep and hijack her.”
“Hey, I’m excited,” Cleona said pursing her lips.
“You’re a felony waiting to happen in order to get your hands on her,” Maeve said.
“I’ve never had much for family. This is exciting for me,” Cleona said.
Maeve took her hand. “You’re going to have all the family you can stand soon enough and we’re not going anywhere.”
I hope you loved Leander and Cleona’s story!
Curious about Sorcha? She’s the next to fall in Enchanting Sass coming Late Summer 2018
Available on Kindle, Amazon, and Audible…
Falling in Fiji
A Falling in Paradise Novel
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Falling in Angels Falls
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Available on Kindle, Amazon, and Audible…
Sunset at Lake Crane
A Livingston Valley Novel
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Other Kindle World novellas by Casey Hagen…
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ABOUT CASEY HAGEN
Casey Hagen pens her snarky, passionate stories from the salty air of Kennebunk, Maine. She’s a born and raised Vermont native, a New England girl to the core, with Ben & Jerry’s in her heart and real Vermont maple syrup pumping through her veins.
She’s the proud mother of three girls and a soon-to-be first-time grandma with an insatiable addiction to Fall Out Boy, and a new, rather concerning obsession with tattoos and piercings. Can you say “cool grandma?”
The inked and pierced grandma spends her time tucked away in her office, coated in cat hair, alternating between tearing her hair out trying to find the perfect words and being one step ahead of her three scheming fur babies she is positive are plotting her demise with every swirl around her ankles at the top of her office stairs.
She loves writing stories about real people, with complicated histories, relatable everyday problems, and giving them the hard-won happily-ever-afters they deserve.
And she thanks every last one of you who picks up one of her stories.
Casey is done talking about herself in the third person.
*Casey out*
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