Wicked Legends: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by hamilton, rebecca

  It’s hard to focus on what he’s saying with him holding my hand like this. Gentle, yet protective. I take in a deep breath.

  “I’m used to girls like her.”

  “What did she say to you?”

  “The usual. I’m fat, as if that’s news.”

  He laughs and shakes his head.

  “What?” The instinct to pull my hand away from his rises up then falls away just as quickly as it came.

  “You think you’re fat?”

  I glance sidelong at him. His eyes shift to find mine, one eyebrow raised in a question. I don’t say anything, and his eyes flicker behind me then back to my face. He flashes a wicked little grin.

  “You don’t have to say anything, but may I just say… That ass? Phenomenal.”

  I drop my gaze and blush something furious. Heat pulses in my ears. “Whatever.”

  Charming chuckles. “You’re even more beautiful when you blush.”

  If he doesn’t stop, smoke is going to blow out of my ears accompanied by a cartoonish whistle.

  “So, you want to see something else cool?”

  My thoughts drift to the once dead toad, and I wrinkle my nose. “You’re not going to kill something again, are you?”

  He laughs. “No.”

  “Then, okay.”

  His fingers tighten around mine, and he steps down into the water. I stare down at him. He’s beautiful, ragged clothing and all, standing against the backdrop of this incredible waterfall with its greenish glow. With another smile, he tugs at my hands.

  “Oh, no,” I say, trying to back up. “I’m not going in there.”

  His eyebrows waggle, and he waves a hand in the air. My purse shoots off my shoulders and hits the ground. “You are so coming in here.”

  I jerk away from him harder, but his grip is too tight. The look in his eyes is that of a child with a plan to hit up an ice cream truck and steal all the goods. My eyes widen.

  “Don’t you dare.”

  “Come of your own free will, Kinsley.”

  “No. No way.” I grab his wrist with my other hand and try to pry his fingers open. No dice. Damn, he’s strong.

  “One…”

  “Charming! I’m telling you, don’t.”

  “Two…”

  He’s serious.

  “Three.” He tugs me forward, and I splash face-down in the water. I try to find footing, but there is none. My arms propel at my sides, and I come to the surface, kicking my feet under me to keep afloat. I swipe my hair out of my face and wipe the water out of my eyes. Then I shoot him a glare. His body shakes with laughter. My eyes narrow, and I splash him in the face. That stops his laughing. I cover my mouth and peer at him. His hair is flattened over his eyes, and he stands there with his mouth wide open and his arms at his sides.

  I can’t help it. I giggle.

  Charming slicks his hair back and half smiles. “You think that’s funny.”

  “I do.”

  Then he splashes me back. I let out one of the most girlish squeals any girl has ever let out and fire back. For the next two minutes, it’s all out war. He’s even nice enough to keep any magic out of it. I don’t think I could compete with that. Finally, he grabs my arms and holds them at my sides.

  With his eyes closed and water dripping from his thick eyelashes he says, “Okay, truce. Truce!”

  I giggle. “I warned you.”

  He runs a hand down his face and smiles. “Got it. Don’t mess with Kinsley.”

  “That’s right.”

  His hands travel down my arms and wrap around my waist. The smug smile dissolves from my lips. My breath hitches in my throat.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” he says in a husky voice.

  I swallow down a phantom lump.

  “You look beautiful wet.” He sweeps the hair off my neck.

  I’m suddenly helpless, unable to do anything but stare up at him.

  Slowly, he lowers his face toward mine. Oh, my god, my heart screams. He’s going to kiss me. He’s going to kiss me.

  Only he doesn’t. Pressing his lips against my ear, he whispers, “Hold on to me.”

  Then he turns around and pulls my arms around his neck. Somehow this is better. I listen to him and hold on. He starts forward. I close my eyes as he leads me under the downpour of the waterfall. For a second, there is great pressure pressing down on top of my head, then it is gone.

  When my eyes open, I take in my surroundings with a huge gasp. Behind the water fall is a cave made out of black and purple rocks that shine from a light I can’t locate. Carved into the walls are all sorts of symbols and lettering. It reminds me of glitzy cave art.

  “Wow. What is this place?” I ask as he leads me forward.

  He steps out of the water and up onto a walkway then reaches in and pulls me out with one arm. I look at him in shock, but before I can ask him how the hell he lifted my big ass out of the water like that, he starts talking.

  “This is the source,” he says. He flicks his hand out, and a dim, yellow light shines from the center of his palm. It throws light into every corner of the cave.

  I inch toward the wall closest to me and trace the outline of a symbol with my fingertip. “The source?”

  “Yes,” he says from behind me. “All these symbols you see, they’re a form of magic. The magic that created this place.”

  Hearing that, I pull my fingers away.

  Charming laughs. “Don’t worry. The witch that initiated this magic is the only person that can tamper with it. And by now, she’s long dead.” He raises his hand and drenches the symbols on the wall I was just touching in light. “This is one of the coolest kinds of magic. Started by one witch and added to by others as time passes by.” He smiles at me. “And what you see on the other side of that waterfall is the culmination of all that magic.”

  I stare at the symbols on the cave walls, trying to figure out which symbol was carved into this rock first.

  “It’s incredible,” I whisper.

  “Yeah, this is one of my favorite places of magic.”

  I turn to him. “You’ve been here before?”

  He nods. “When I was much younger.”

  I stare at him with a look that prompts him to keep going.

  “When my mother found out what I was, naturally she needed help. And since the Harkers are one of the most public covens out here, she came here for it.”

  I frown. “If you have a history with the Harkers, then why didn’t they grant you passage?”

  Dark feelings twist his face into a pained and bitter mask. Right away, I regret asking the question.

  “I’m sorry,” I say.

  He holds up his hand. “Don’t be silly.” He clears his throat. “Let’s just say that we had a falling out, and the Harker family isn’t quick to forgive.”

  I nod. “Fair enough.”

  The darkness slides off his face, and he smiles at me. God, that smile. I’m starting to think I’d do anything just to stare at it forever. Sauntering toward me, he points to a symbol on the wall. It’s two wavy lines on top of each other.

  “I did this one.”

  My eyes widen. “You did?”

  “When I was eight.”

  I stare at it, and my eyes widen farther. “That’s the symbol for water, right?”

  “You know your stuff.”

  Pure awe races through me as I realize what that means. “You mean you created that waterfall when you were eight years old?”

  He nods again, his face a neutral mask. Clearly, I’m a lot more impressed with him than he is. Either that, or he’s trying to play it cool.

  “That’s so fucking…”

  Don’t say cool. Don’t say cool.

  “Cool,” I finish.

  I really need to expand my vocabulary.

  “Thank you.” He inches toward me and balls his hand into a fist, extinguishing the light. “You know what I think is cool?”

  His sudden closeness steals my breath. “What?” I ask when h
e doesn’t finish.

  His head tilts to the side. “Damnit.”

  “What?”

  He looks down at me. “I’ll find you.”

  I stare at him, mouth agape.

  Then a voice behind me says, “Kinsley?”

  Fuck.

  Mac.

  I spin around.

  “What are you doing here?” he asks, walking toward me completely dry.

  I frown. How the hell did he manage that? I roll my eyes. Right, magic.

  I raise my hands and drop them, making a slapping noise against my thighs. “I just needed some time to myself, and I ran into…” I turn and gesture with a thumb behind me.

  Only Charming, or whatever his real name is, is gone.

  Great. Now I look crazy. I turn back to Mac with a sheepish grin to find him practically on top of me. I jump and press my hand against his chest.

  “Geez, you scared me.”

  His eyes bear down on me. “You ran into who?”

  I bite my lip. The look on Charming’s face when he told me he had a falling out with the Harkers runs across my mind. Wherever he had managed to hide in that short amount of time, I wasn’t about to out him.

  “No one,” I say in a lame voice.

  Mac raises an eyebrow. From the look on his face, I can tell he doesn’t believe me. Not for a second. Great. My skills of deception are as great as my vocabulary.

  “I heard voices.”

  “Yeah, I talk to myself when I’m alone.” I rub my arms. “Helps calm my nerves.”

  His lips turn into a frown. “One of them was male.”

  Uh oh.

  I shake my head. “I’m sure you were just hearing things.”

  His frown deepens, creating adorable little folds on the sides of his mouth. “How did you even get back here?”

  I shrug. “I just… came through the waterfall.”

  He places his hands on his hip like a stern grandfather. “I doubt that, seeing as how you need to be a witch, or with a witch, to breach the magic line behind the falls.”

  Oops.

  It takes all my willpower not to call to Charming so that he can bail me out.

  What looks like concern sets deep wrinkles into Mac’s forehead. “I need you to come with me.”

  I nod. “Okay. Just give me a minute?”

  “No, now.” And with that, he wraps an arm tightly around my waist.

  Before I can try and pull away, an enormous pressure bears down on me. It steals the air from my lungs. It flattens the skin against my bones. Then a sense of weightlessness fills my body, and a flash of yellow light fills my vision. It widens until it’s all I can see. It feels like being set in the middle of the sun without the fuckedupness of being burned.

  For a second, everything goes blank. There is no color. There is no space. There is only nothing. Then we are no longer in the cave. We are in Mac’s room, and I’m lying on his bed, hyperventilating. Three witches and my mother stare down at me.

  8

  “I THINK SOMETHING is wrong with her,” Mac says over the bed to his mother.

  “You performed the cleansing?” she asks in a stiff voice, staring down at me like I’m a thorn in her rosebush.

  “Of course I did,” Mac answers with a huff.

  She raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at him. “Properly?”

  His jaw tenses. “I may have been… a little distracted.”

  She scoffs. “You can’t be serious.”

  I sit up, my head swimming. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here.” My hand searches for my temples, and I try to massage the pounding out of my skull. “How did we get back here?”

  “I teleported you,” Mac says, looking at me in concern. “The process can be jarring, especially if it’s your first time.”

  The room starts spinning as if to prove his claim. I blink once, twice, three times, trying to get it to stop. “No kidding.”

  “Tell me, Kinsley. How is it you were able to breach a magical line?” Gemma asks, hands on her hips.

  I shrug. “I’m not sure. I just… kinda walked back there.”

  Victoria snorts. “It isn’t possible.”

  “There has to be some explanation,” Mac hisses.

  “There is.” Victoria tilts her head to the side. “She’s possessed by something… again.”

  I shake my head. “What the hell are you guys talking about?”

  My mother gasps, and tears roll down her face. “Oh, God. Not again. I can’t go through that again.”

  I scowl at her. She can’t go through that again.

  “What are you even doing here?” I ask.

  Her eyes widen as if she’s surprised by the question.

  Here we go.

  “How can you even ask that, Kinsley?” She rubs her hands up and down her arms like she’s cold. “I was concerned about you! Am concerned about you!”

  I bite my lip to keep what I want to say to her on my tongue. She always does this around other people. Acts super motherly. It’s infuriating.

  Gemma clears her throat. “Do you feel another presence in there with you, Kinsley?”

  “Of course not!”

  “She might not even be aware of it,” Victoria says, examining her black, polished fingernails.

  “That’s true,” Gemma says.

  I wave my hands in front of both of them. “Hello, I’m right here. And not possessed.”

  Victoria and Gemma give me matching stares of disdain. I’m starting to think the bitch gene runs rampant in this family. Victoria sends me a look that I’m sure will set me on fire. At first, I’m afraid she might be in my head somehow, but I’ve never heard of witches being able to do that. Besides, if she could be inside my head, she’d know exactly how I crossed that magical barrier. She would have seen Charming, and that would be the end of this.

  “We can cast a spell,” Gemma finally says, peering over at Mac with a look that says the decision is final.

  He nods. “A banishing?”

  “Do you think you can manage one?” she asks with a half-smirk that reminds me of my mother.

  I really don’t like this witch.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Mac snarls.

  I raise my hand. “Yeah, hi. Still here. Don’t you need my permission to cast a spell on me?”

  Four sets of eyes stare at me like I’m speaking in tongues.

  “I haven’t been possessed.”

  Mac smiles at me. “We just need to be sure. The dead can’t be allowed to breach these walls. It’s for your protection, as well as everyone else’s.”

  Victoria scoffs. “Like you care about anyone else,” she says under her breath.

  Mac shoots her a look. “Can you cease being insufferable for one moment?”

  Before she can shoot another insult back at him, my mother comes rushing up to me, eyes wild. Guess that wine wore off.

  “Kinsley, you need to listen to these people. Please, don’t ruin this.”

  Mac sighs and points to the door. “Everybody out.”

  “Excuse me?” Gemma demands in a voice as hard as her expression.

  “I said everyone out,” Mac says loudly. “No one is helping, and I’d like to speak to Kinsley in private.”

  “No way, we’re doing the banishing,” Victoria spits. “Or she can leave and take her chances out there.”

  Mac’s mouth twists into a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “I asked nicely.” He snaps his finger and the room fills with blinding, white light. I cover my face with the bend of my elbow. Seconds later, the light starts to flicker away. I remove my arm as the light streams back into the tips of his fingers.

  We are now the only two people in the room.

  I smile. “Badass.”

  He grins, but it’s a tired, cautious thing. “I’m glad you approve.” He sighs and sits on the bed next to me.

  “What did you do with them?”

  “Moved them somewhere else temporarily.” He clicks his tongue. “I’m going to
pay for it in some way later.”

  In that moment, I like Mac. A lot.

  I bite my lip. “Well, I appreciate it.”

  “It’s my pleasure.” He sighs again and cups his hands together on top of his knee. “Kinsley…”

  “I’m not possessed.”

  “Kinsley…” He sounds like a scolding father.

  “I’m not!” I repeat, throwing my hands in the air.

  “How else do you explain a mundane breaching a magical line that has been up for centuries?”

  I frown at the word mundane. It sounds like I’m some homeless person who’s missing teeth and covered in mud.

  “I don’t know. What I do know is that I know what it feels like to be possessed, and I’m not.”

  “Then to placate my sister and mother.”

  I shake my head.

  “Kinsley.” He takes my hand, eyes burning down into my own. “My mother will escort you off the property. And I won’t be able to stop her. Please.” He squeezes my hand. “Do this. For me.”

  The look of defeat on his face softens me. He’s been so nice to me tonight. And he looks so worried.

  I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”

  “The fact that you might be possessed, or channeling death energy, which is likely because people that were possessed are easily…”

  “No.” I hold up a hand to stop him. “I mean, I don’t understand why you care so much. You just met me.”

  His eyes almost spark with light. Like the magic in his blood wants to burst out through them.

  “I don’t understand, either.” He takes my hand and brings it to his lips.

  His full, beautiful lips. He drags his lips across my knuckles. Not a kiss but a caress. It sparks something in me.

  “I just do,” he tells me in a barely audible voice.

  My heart does air kicks in my chest, and my mind swirls with confusion. Thoughts of Charming flash in my head then drop away when Mac plants a soft kiss on the top of my hand. Then he holds it and gazes over at me.

  “So please, just do this.”

  With a shiver, I pull my hand away and rub them together. “What does a banishment do?”

  “It’s a very simple spell. If there is something in you that isn’t you, it will drive it out.”

  So, it won’t do anything.