by Bonnie Lamer
I smile – hopefully a sexy smile. “And I don’t want you to act gentlemanly.”
With a loud groan, he rolls away from me to the other side of the bed and closes his eyes. “You are not helping,” he complains. “My restraint is precarious at best right this moment. I prefer not to have your father find us in a compromising position.”
“Fine.” I roll onto my side and prop myself up on my elbow again. With my other hand, I trace soft circles on his chest. “And you thought you were the only one who’s irresistible,” I tease.
He opens one eye and raises his eyebrow. “No, I did not. I am fully aware of how irresistible you are. Otherwise, I would be back in my realm being adored instead of here where you do not do nearly enough of that.”
I pinch him hard on his chest and he opens both eyes now and flattens my hand against his chest so I can’t do it again. “Ouch, why would you do something so mean?” he asks in mock outrage as if he didn’t just try to make me jealous.
“I’ve heard enough about your Fairy groupies for the day.”
He chuckles. “You are even more beautiful when you are jealous.”
A simpering smile plasters itself on my face. “You know, I haven’t given the whole groupie thing a try. Maybe after we take care of Grandpa, I should explore that option. You do make it sound appealing.”
With a feral growl, he’s back on top of me in a flash. “I prefer your adoring crowd to be limited to one.”
I laugh. “Oh, so it’s okay for you to make me jealous, but you can’t take it?”
“I am not jealous,” he says haughtily. “I simply believe you have too much on your plate right now to think about locating and keeping the interest of a male harem.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Harem? I like the sound of that.”
With a low growl, he kisses me again. Deeply and thoroughly. Apparently, all thought of Dad floating in lost from his mind. When he finally lets me come up for air, I grin against his lips and say, “Okay, maybe I don’t need a harem after all.”
Rolling back to the other side of the bed with his eyes closed and a satisfied smile on his face, he says, “I thought you would see it my way.”
I take one of the pillows and hit him in the face with it. “You’re still a pompous jerk.”
He takes the pillow and places it under his head. “Yet you still hold me in your heart.”
Okay, I’m really tempted to pinch him again. “You were awfully sure of that when I performed that spell earlier, weren’t you?”
He opens his eyes again and turns his head towards me. “I hoped that was the case. I was happy to have it confirmed.”
Lying on my back again, I take his hand in mine. “What am I going to do if I can’t control my magic when Grandpa comes?”
“You gained control of it this afternoon.”
I snort. “Barely.”
Kallen gives my hand a squeeze. “Neither barely nor heartily changes the fact that you did gain control.”
I shrug. “I guess not.”
We’re silent for a few minutes and then I hear his soft even breathing. He has fallen asleep.
Chapter 6
Kallen only sleeps for about twenty minutes. I take the opportunity to take a quick shower and then pull on some jeans and a red turtle neck sweater. I might as well be clean if this ends up being my last day on earth. I pull my long black hair back into a ponytail to keep it out of the way. Who knows what I’m going to have to do today, I don’t want any distractions.
As I look in the mirror, I’m still amazed that I didn’t figure out that I couldn’t have come from both Mom and Dad. Mom has beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes. Dad has sandy brown hair and blue eyes. They could not have made a black haired, green eyed daughter.
By the time I’m back in my room, Kallen has used his magic to make himself some new clothes. He looks great in jeans and a tight black tee shirt. He doesn’t get as cold as I do. Lucky me, because I like the view. I walk over to him and wrap my arms around his waist, laying my cheek against his chest. His arms curl around me and he holds me for a few precious minutes.
He shifts back a little and kisses the top of my head. Our moment came to an end all too soon for me, but he’s right. “I guess we have to get back out there, huh?”
“It would be wise.”
I groan. “Fine. You should kiss me first, though. Then at least I’ll have something good to think about.”
He doesn’t have to be told twice. He closes the gap between us again and swoops down to give me a slow, gentle kiss. When he releases my lips reluctantly and stands back with his hands on my shoulders, he says, “I believe it is time we spoke with your grandmother about who we are up against. Knowing their strengths will help us determine their weaknesses.”
“I hope so.” With a heavy heart and mind, I open my bedroom door and mentally prepare myself to face the next couple of days without going insane. Or killing anyone. Or getting killed.
Boy, and I thought the tension was thick between Kallen and my parents this morning. The kitchen reeks with it now, like a tension skunk was attacked by a wolf and let loose its stench. We’re going to have to scrub the walls with tomato juice to get it all out.
Mom looks miserable, and I’m pretty sure Dad still wants to punch Grandma in the face if the steely look in his eyes means anything. Grandma looks stoic but she seems to be unraveling some around the edges. I wonder what’s been happening in here while Kallen and I took our little break. On second thought, I don’t want to know.
So, I guess I’ll just plunge right in. I don’t think I can make it any worse. “What can you tell us about the Witan?”
Grandma actually looks relieved to be able to talk about something other than what they were talking about before we came in. “Quite a bit.”
“Great.” I pull out a chair and sit across from her at the kitchen table. Dad rises from the chair that he was appearing to sit in so Kallen can sit down as well. Dad moves to the corner of the room where he can observe and still glower at Grandma. She pretends not to notice.
“I’ll start with his Derwydd. She’s the King’s advisor, and when the King is not available, she acts as judge and jury to Witches who have become too visible to the Cowans or have broken any other magical law.”
I can’t help rolling my eyes at the term. “They’re humans, okay? And until last week, I thought I was one, too. And my brother is half human.”
“Brother?” The shock on her face as her head swings to Mom is palpable. “You have a son?”
Oh, god. Mom and Dad must have been keeping that a secret. Kallen shoots me an ‘are you insane’ look. What did I just do? “Um, he was adopted,” I try lamely but Grandma obviously knows the cat, or the brother, is out of the bag. I’ll try diversion, instead. “You were saying something about Grandpa’s Derwydd?”
Grandma visibly shakes herself. “Yes, of course.” Smart woman, she knows when to drop a subject. “Maeva is your grandfather’s Derwydd. She is…intoxicating.” Is that bitterness in her voice? Or jealousy? I wonder if Grandpa has a wandering eye. Or wandering other parts. Eew. But then again, they have supposedly lived apart for the last eighteen years. I would imagine that Grandpa is free to have other women in his life. The thought of my sixty some year old grandfather dating isn’t a pleasant one and I grimace from the mental image.
“She is a seductress?” Kallen asks.
“Yes,” Grandma says between tight lips.
Great. This is going to be another one of those conversations where I’m completely ignorant about everything we discuss. If Kallen mocks me, I swear I’m going to kick him under the table. “What’s a Seductress?”
Kallen has what I’m pretty sure is a mocking gleam in his eye, despite the sober expression on his face, when he says, “She has the ability to seduce. She can persuade others to do her bidding by making it seem seductive.”
I narrow my eyes. “You’re just a walking dictionary, aren’t you? Thanks for clearing that up for me.�
��
“A Seductress is someone who can use her magic to persuade others to do things against their will – no matter how desperately they fight against her. She taps into a person’s deepest desires,” Mom explains.
No wonder Grandma doesn’t like the woman. Who would want someone like that around her husband? “That sounds wrong. Why would Grandpa want someone like that around?” Other than the obvious reasons, I guess. Probably best not to say that out loud.
Grandma pulls herself together but her jaw is still tight. “A Seductress is a powerful ally. Many challengers to your Grandfather’s throne have been settled by Maeva without bloodshed. And when someone has broken one of our laws, a little time with Maeva will make them confess to everything and more easily comply with their sentencing.”
“And let me guess, they’re sentenced to death.”
Grandma looks shocked. “Good heavens, no! We’re not barbarians. Their power is bound one to three times, depending on how powerful they are, and then their sentence is to live magic free and incarcerated anywhere from thirty days to life.”
“So the death penalty never comes into play?”
She shakes her head emphatically. “No.” And then her face starts to turn pink. Now she’s getting it.
I lean back in my chair and cross my arms over my chest. “So, let me get this straight, then. Even though I have not committed any magical crimes, I have not used my magic to intentionally inflict harm on another Witch or human, and I saved this realm from the Fairies coming back to wreak revenge, I am somehow evil enough to be put down like a dog.” Turning to Kallen, I add, “It’s a good thing I didn’t hurt my leg up in the mountains, you would have had to shoot me to put me out of my misery.”
“I probably would have tried splinting it first.”
I nod appreciatively. “Very considerate of you. And you’re not even a blood relative.” I turn back to Grandma and she is beet red now. Good, she should be embarrassed about what her kind, as she likes to say, are trying to do to me.
“Of course it is wrong what your grandfather and his Witan want to do. That is why I’m here.”
I’m about to say something else when I feel an icy cold hand on my shoulder. I look up at Dad. “I’m right there with you hating these…” I think he’s trying really hard not to swear. “…Witches. But we need to find out as much as possible before they get here.”
I slump a little in my chair. “Fine. So, how do you fight against a Seductress?” If Grandma and Grandpa have lived apart for eighteen years, I wonder again just how close Grandpa is to his Seductress advisor – and who’s in charge of whom. I bet Grandma wonders that, too.
Kallen answers me. “You have to see her for what she really is. A Seductress’s power is in her ability to make you see what your heart wants to see. If you favor thin blonds, then that’s what she looks like to you. If you like rugged men, then that’s what she looks like to you. She becomes one’s physical dream. Once she has caught your interest, she wheedles her way into your mind and convinces you that you are living in a fantasy world with your dream lover and she can get you to do almost anything.”
My brows come together as I ponder that. “Okay, but what if you’re already with your dream lover?”
A small, smug smile touches his lips because he knows I’m talking about him. Great, just what he needed - another ego boost. “Then she will become that person; confusing you, so you don’t know who is real and who the illusion is. She is a master of nuance and can easily discern from body language, speech, and facial expressions whether or not she is projecting correctly. Any subtle change in how you respond, she picks up on it and alters her behavior until you are so confused you become clay in her hands.”
“So, can’t we just use Seductress magic against her?”
Mom shakes her head. “I’m so sorry I haven’t taught all of this to you. Each Witch has an affinity for a type of magic. We can all dabble in this or that, but we all have our specialties. Seduction is an extremely difficult magic to produce. If you don’t have an affinity for it, it is almost impossible to perform.”
Hmm, I wonder what my affinity is. Other than blowing things up. “If she’s that good, then how do you fight against her?”
Grandma’s lips form a grim line. “Most can’t. That is why she’s so powerful. It takes a strong talisman to shield you from Seductress magic.”
“Okay, then how do I make a talisman like that?” Kallen raises his brows as a reminder of what happened the last time I tried to work a spell. It’s going to be a long day.
“There is an ancient way, a way that requires a lot of power.” Grandma looks pointedly at me.
I hope she knows I’m not a mind reader. “And that would be…” I prompt.
“It is similar to the Fairy trap your mother has set up outside.”
“You know about that?”
She smiles slightly and inclines her head. “A Witch can most often feel the magic of another. I felt it as I passed through it. I didn’t know specifically what it was meant to trap, but I reasoned that out.” She glances quickly at Kallen and then back to me.
“Okay, how do I do this?”
“You use tree magic.”
What am I, a druid? “What do you mean tree magic?”
“Interesting,” Kallen says and he and Grandma lock eyes again. Secrets, secrets, secrets. I wonder if I could reach to kick them both under the table.
“What’s so interesting?” I ask the same time Mom says, “I’ve never heard of this before.”
Grandma responds to Mom first. “Tree magic is for the most part a lost art with Witches.”
A shadow touches her eyes and she looks away from Mom too quickly. Is she lying? I turn to see what Kallen is thinking of this but he’s still looking at Grandma as if she’s about to grow another head, or turn over another clue as to what her big secret is.
“Can Fairies do tree magic?”
Kallen drags his eyes to me. “No.”
My brows come together in a scowl. He could have elaborated. “Do you know what tree magic is?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think you could use multiple syllables?”
“No.” This time he looks like he’s just trying to annoy me. Which he does successfully.
Ignoring him now, I turn back to Grandma. “How does it work?”
“In a forest such as this, the roots of the trees interlace themselves.” She laces her fingers together as an example. “Where these roots touch each other, the trees share their energy with each other, working together to maintain equilibrium within the forest. It is possible to use this woven network to communicate a spell amongst the trees.”
“So, it spreads like a virus?”
“That would be an apt description, yes.”
I purse my lips as I think about how this would work. “How do you define which trees you want the spell to travel to?”
Grandma smiles as if I’ve just gotten an A on a test. “That can be tricky. Each tree must be precisely marked. If the circuit is not kept intact, the magic will escape its boundaries. That mustn’t happen.”
Ominous. “What happens then?”
“There are guardians of tree magic and we do not want to anger them. Nor harm their trees with magic.”
Double ominous. “So, because our situation isn’t dire enough, you want to teach the person who sets air on fire, a magic that involves trees.” I’m not Smoky the Bear, but even I can figure out that fire and trees are not a good combination.
Grandma smiles again, but this time it’s a sad smile. “You have it within you to perform this magic. I am confident.”
“Glad you are,” I mutter which makes Grandma’s smile a little less sad. “What do I have to do?”
“Perhaps we should learn of the other Witan members before we begin to prepare,” Kallen says. He’s right, I’m being too impatient.
“There are six other members of the Witan. Three of them are the binders – Annika, Louhi and Midar
.”
“Do any of you have normal names? How am I supposed to remember all this?”
Kallen cocks his head to the side. “I did not know that Xandra was such a common name amongst this realm.” Point taken. I give him a slightly nasty look and gesture for Grandma to continue.
“Witches take great pride in their names, my dear. And I’m afraid that it has become a way to stand apart from the Cow…Humans.”
I shake my head. Name pomposity, how inane. Wanting to move this conversation along again, I ask, “Do the binders have different affinities?”
