To Catch a Witch [Spells of Seduction 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Jessica Frost

  Merlin walked to the storage box to retrieve an apple and set it in a wide cloth, along with what Jacob gave him. Then he tied it closed and placed it in the sack.

  Taking a deep breath, he took out a brass hand mirror and offered it to Jacob. “I want you to use this.”

  Jacob stared at his reflection. His blond hair was messy because of the wind when he went out searching for his brother. He combed his fingers through it, straightening it somewhat, and smiled, laughing. “Thank you. But I’m not the vain twin, remember? You are.”

  Merlin frowned. “Why am I vain?”

  Jacob placed the mirror on the table and crossed his arms frowning. “I didn’t use a youth spell on myself to look ten years younger. You did.”

  Merlin laughed. “I didn’t do it for vanity, dear brother. I did it so I could be in disguise. I could have used an aging spell instead, but I realized it would hinder my situation rather than help it. And I was right, and the mission I worked on was a success.”

  “So then why didn’t you reverse the spell after you completed your mission?”

  Merlin’s laugh deepened. “Because I found it had other advantages.”

  Jacob frowned. “What was that?”

  Merlin lifted a brow, looking quite mischievous. “Seducing women, of course.”

  Jacob scoffed. “See, I rest my case.”

  Tears began to stream down Merlin’s cheeks for how hard he had been laughing. “Ah, dear brother, I was only jesting.” He inhaled deeply to catch his breath, and then his face took on a sad look. “The truth is someone else helped me with the spell. It was a spell of two. An enchantress I knew very well was my partner in the incantation. Her name was Floral.”

  He walked over to the window and stared out. He looked like he was a million miles away. Sighing, he continued gazing out at the countryside. “Something went wrong with our plan back then. Something happened to Floral. I saw it happening, and yet I couldn’t stop it. I was too far away from her when the attack came. But even though I was too far to help her, I wasn’t too far to see it all happen, every damn second of it. She suffered so much...I never had a chance to tell her the truth before...” His low voice trailed off, and there was silence.

  Jacob’s heart went out to Merlin. He walked over to his brother and put a soothing hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. She must have been very special to you.”

  Merlin nodded, still not looking at him. “Yes, only I never got the chance to tell her how much.” He remained silent for a few seconds more, and then he coughed, clearing his throat, and walked back to the table. “That was the past, and it cannot be changed.”

  Jacob followed him to where he stood. “I can now be your second in that spell of two, Merlin. I can help you reverse it.”

  Merlin forced a smile. “Thank you, but I don’t want to reverse it. It is the only thing of her that is left. I don’t think I’ll ever want to lose that.”

  Jacob bowed. “Of course, I understand.”

  “And besides, this youthful disguise is perfect for our ploy.”

  “I don’t follow your logic.” Jacob shook his head.

  “Pondora has taken a liking to the younger me. Add to that I am acting like a bumbling idiot, and she will never guess I am one of the sorcerers who brought her here. She’ll keep thinking the Sorceress Serona is behind it all and that I am her innocent, naive, and powerless servant.”

  Jacob smiled. “Ah, I see. She’ll let her guard down and sooner or later...”

  Merlin nodded. “She’ll reveal to me her Achilles’ heel, and then we’ll have her right where we want her.”

  “When you said sleeping with the devil, you actually meant...”

  “Exactly that.”

  Jacob shook his head. “No. No, you can find her vulnerability another way.” Disgust came over Jacob when he imagined his brother having to subject himself to sexual contact with that evil monster.

  Merlin lifted his brow, grinning. “No, it’s the only way. It’ll be for the greater good.” He picked up the mirror and rehanded it to Jacob. “I want you to use this.”

  “Bloody hell! I told you I don’t need it.” Jacob refused to touch it.

  Merlin forced it into his hands. “It’s not for you to gaze upon your reflection, you fool. I enchanted the mirror so we can spy on Pondora through it.”

  His brow rose. Jacob took the offering with curiousness. “Really.” He gazed into the mirror and saw his own eyes staring back at him. Sneering, he said, “Well, it doesn’t work.”

  “Yes, it does.”

  Jacob turned the mirror so Merlin could peer into it. “See for yourself.”

  Merlin raised his eyes and huffed in frustration. “Of course it’s not working now, Jacob. She’s alone. I’m not in the room with her yet.”

  “You enchanted it so it would only work when you’re in the room with her. Why on Earth did you do that?”

  “It only works when either of us is in the tower with her,” Merlin corrected. “And my reasoning is logical.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you know as well as I do that with an enchanting spell, the subject being spied on can sense eyes upon her.”

  “I’m not getting the gist of this. And how is that different if you or I are in the tower with her?”

  “Sometimes, I really need to spell things out to you, Jacob,” Merlin cursed.

  “We may be twins, but I cannot read your mind. I’m sorry that you thought I could.” Jacob’s voice rose with his frustrations.

  “We can distract her so that she cannot sense spying eyes on her. She’ll think it is whoever is with her in the room who is watching her, not some faraway sorcerer who can see her via a spying glass.”

  “That may be the case or it may not. You know, from all we’ve heard about her, she is unbelievably cunning and astute. She may figure out someone else is looking.”

  Merlin raised his hands over his head in a gesture to show he didn’t care. “And if that happens, she’ll think it is the Sorceress Serona spying, not you or I. That’s all.”

  Jacob nodded. “True, but then she’ll be on alert, and her guard will come up once again. And we’ll never uncover her weaknesses.”

  Merlin groaned and picked up the sack. He turned to the door and said loudly so his voice could carry to Jacob, “So then we have to work hard to keep her constantly distracted, and then she’ll never detect the spying spell.”

  Just before Merlin closed the door behind him, Jacob asked, “And what exactly will you be doing to Pondora to distract her when I’m spying, Merlin?”

  Merlin peeked back in and quickly said, “In the hour, you’ll see for yourself.”

  Chapter Five

  The image of her delectable ass came back to haunt Merlin as he climbed the stairs to the tower. It had been haunting him ever since he left her less than an hour ago. He hadn’t expected her to let him touch her there, or let his hands caress her soft skin on her long, shapely legs. But she had, and he wanted to do much more, like spread her legs farther apart than he had and touch her cunt and maybe bring his lips to kiss her pussy and clit and then slide his tongue into her. His body began to react with anticipation of seeing her and being close to her again.

  A feeling, a puissant attraction to her, possessed him the moment he saw her in the tower and still controlled him now. For some reason, he couldn’t fathom why he needed her, needed to be close to her, be in physical contact with her.

  It was as if a powerful spell of seduction had been cast on him. A fleeting thought that she still had her powers and was the cause of his obsession crossed his mind, but then he thought better of it. If she did have her powers, she would have done more than cast a lust or love spell on him.

  He hoped that soon the reason for his desires would come to him, so that he could understand it and his yearnings. By understanding them, he could control them. But until then, he needed to get on with his plan, his plan of seduction.

  When he got to the top of the stairw
ell, he pushed the door open with a chant since his hands were full. He carried the sack in one hand and in the other a wooden pail filled with hot water. He saw her lying on the ground, her eyes closed. She was sleeping.

  Walking slowly to where she lay on the stone floor under the window, he gently put down the pail and sack so as not to wake her and sat down next to her, observing her. He hadn’t had a chance to actually look closely at her beautiful face when they first met earlier. Her thin, sculpted black eyebrows and her long black eyelashes accentuated her beauty and her eyes, even if they were closed. Her perfect turned-up nose and full, rosy lips beckoned for his kisses. He leaned in closer to kiss her lips softly, when she turned and her hand hit his knee. Her eyes fluttered open once, then twice. His breath caught in his throat when he realized he could get caught any second. But she still wasn’t awake when she lifted her head and rested it on his knee. Sighing, her eyes closed, she slid her hands together under her head for further comfort. She stayed like that for a few minutes while he continued to stare at her, unmoving.

  The desperate urge to kiss her lips hadn’t dissipated. He wanted to touch them now with his own and see if they felt as hot and passionate as he surmised they’d be. But unfortunately in the position he now was in with her head on his knee, he would move his leg when he’d bend to kiss her and chance her waking. So he remained as still as possible and just continued to observe her.

  She hardly looked like the evil and powerful sorceress everyone feared. She looked more like a vulnerable young woman who he wanted to protect and hold in his arms.

  He wondered if she had cast a youth spell on herself, like he had. If that were the case, then she could very well be decades older than her twenty-something years, maybe even much older than that.

  “How could you have done those awful things to those innocent people?” he whispered to himself while he gently moved her hair away from her face.

  Suddenly, her eyes shot open, and she stared at him in shock.

  Damn!

  A second after that, fear overtook her features. She jolted to a sitting position and then tried to get up to run away. She obviously forgot her sprained ankle and fell backward when she attempted to put the weight of her body on it. She landed halfway in his lap on the floor.

  “Don’t be afraid.” He put his hands on her waist to balance her to a more secure position on his lap.

  “What were you doing?” she asked as she tried to push herself away from him.

  He didn’t stop her but simply lifted his hands in the air to show her his gesture and intentions were quite harmless. “Nothing. I was only observing you.”

  She glared at him through squinting eyes but said not a word.

  “It’s the truth. I came in with these”—he pointed to the pail and bag beside him—“and I found you asleep, so I came to sit beside you.”

  “Why?”

  “Why did I sit beside you?”

  “Yes, why did you sit beside me, so close?”

  He laughed. “It wasn’t to give you a poison or slit your throat, if that is what you’re thinking.”

  “Then why did you sit so closely to me?”

  He leaned forward as much as he could while he stared at her luscious lips. Now they seemed like a beacon beaming, coaxing his lips to touch them. She did not move, nor did she breathe. Merlin was positive from her reaction to their closeness that the attraction he felt for her was as potent for her, as well. Why was this?

  He dipped even farther until his lips were just half an inch from hers, and he stayed like this for a few more seconds as his eyes fixed on her deep blue ones. He could see speckles of brown swimming in the blueness. So enchanting.

  “Does my being close to you bother you, my lady?”

  She gulped and, in a quivering voice, said while she stared at him, “Yes, very much so.”

  “Why, my lady?”

  She broke their piercing stare and looked at the door. “Because your Mistress is Serona. And you will do exactly what she asks of you, including harming me if she wants that.”

  “True. I must obey her orders always.”

  “Even if it means killing me?” She had fear in her eyes, though she tried to hide it.

  Merlin attempted to put himself in her shoes. It was a tactic he used often. It helped him understand his enemy and how to fight him or her. What if he were the powerful sorceress Pondora? What if he had been using magic for decades, or centuries if he were immortal? How would he feel now? Pretty damn scared, that’s how. And if Serona was a formidable enemy of Pondora’s, then this Serona must be just as powerful as she, maybe even more.

  He needed to find out more about this Serona. Could she be the key in controlling Pondora? Perhaps.

  It was time to push the limits and see what he could uncover.

  “Yes, my lady. If my Mistress commanded that of me, then yes. I would have no choice but to kill you.”

  Her eyes widened, and she gulped. “I knew that would be your answer.” She paused, waiting for him to say something else. When he didn’t, she asked, “Well, did she?”

  He shook his head. “No, my lady.”

  “Then what did she ask you to do to me?”

  Ah, now the fun began as his test went a daring step further. It was time he entered the lioness’s den. Or was it time for the lioness to enter his den?

  He lifted his brow and sported a sly grin. “As I had said earlier, I am to wash you and tend to your injuries. I must also clothe you. Then have you eat something.”

  Alarm flashed in her eyes. She pushed herself farther away from him. “I can do all that alone, Merlin.” She motioned with her hand he should leave. “Go now and come back in half an hour to get the pail and tidy up.”

  He wanted to laugh at her prudence. He shook his head, vigorously acting as though he was scared. “No! No, I cannot do that, my lady. My Mistress would be quite displeased and would punish me.”

  A frown formed on her face, and her brow furrowed as anger followed. He wondered what she would do next.

  * * * *

  Damn Serona to hell!

  Velona wanted to scream her thoughts aloud, but what good would that do her? If anything, if Serona were watching, it would give her nemesis great pleasure in knowing the game she played with her through Merlin, her pawn, angered Velona. And knowing Serona for over a century and having been tormented and controlled by her for almost as long, she knew Serona was most likely spying and waiting to see her squirm and be humiliated. She’d die before she’d give the sorceress that pleasure.

  A long time ago, Serona was her mentor and her kin. Velona saw and believed all of what her evil sister, the demon sorceress, told and showed her. But the day the veil finally fell from Velona’s eyes was the day she witnessed firsthand the devastation she and Serona had inflicted on a village. When Velona saw the pain and agony of the people who had lost their homes and loved ones through a fire, something deep inside her heart broke.

  Perhaps it was a sign from up above, or her conscience finally waking up, but then and there Velona truly realized the horrible errors of her ways and who exactly Serona was. Suppressing and ultimately vanquishing her own demonic powers, Velona vowed to change and fix all the wrongs she had committed. Left only with her sorcery powers, she started her new life far, far away from the evil world she grew up in. Now it seemed her past life had caught up with her, much to her dismay.

  Steeling herself for what she had to do next, she took a deep breath and said, “Very well.” Then she slowly got up, making sure not to put too much weight on her injured foot, and began pulling up the tunic over her head.

  When she tossed the tunic on the ground and stood completely naked before Merlin, she looked at him, her brow lifted, tempting him. His eyes had opened wide in shock at her actions.

  “If those are your orders, then let’s get on with it.” She sighed for effect.

  His lips broke into a smile, and his jovial eyes ogled her bare breasts and cunt for several minu
tes. He obviously admired what he saw. His appraisal excited her. His hunger and lust in his eyes drew her in. Her nipples became taut as the cool air, and his hungry stare caressed them. Wetness slipped out of her pussy lips with the pleasure of having him look at her in such a desirable way.

  He cleared his throat and said, “Yes, it is best we do as Serona wishes, or we will both suffer the consequences.”

  Merlin couldn’t have spoken truer words, Velona thought. In her past experiences with the mighty and evil sorceress, Velona had seen how Serona punished those who disobeyed her. Death would have been a kinder dealing than what she inflicted on the disobedient.

  She gazed at Merlin as he bent down to search in his sack, and wondered how he had suffered by her wrath. Did his scars run as deep as hers did? Although he seemed unaffected by Serona’s control and abuse, he could very well be suffering deep inside. And that reason alone made what Velona planned next very difficult to do. But she had no choice. She must escape and find a means of reclaiming her powers. Nothing and no one must stand in her way.

  When Merlin took out a bulky bar of soap and a wide cloth and dipped it into the water, he turned to gaze at her body. His half-closed, sultry eyes made her legs weak. He stood and brought the soapy cloth to her neck.

  Right before he touched her skin, he looked into her eyes. “I’m sorry, my lady, but the water is now cold.”

  On contact of the icy cloth, Velona took a deep breath. A high moan escaped her lips as she closed her eyes and let the cold seep into her flesh to her bones. He slowly and gently moved the cloth over her skin across her collarbone and continued to go back and forth, inching lower with every stoke until he came to where she anticipated. And right when she expected the cloth to make contact with her right mound, he removed it.

  She opened one eye and saw him beaming a wicked smile as he languidly took the cloth and dipped it into the water. Once again his eyes looked at her with an expression of daring. A daring for dominance. Dominance. A grin threatened to break free as she pondered the significance.