“You are mine,” He whispered on my mouth while his hands quickly lifted the skirt of my dress. “Say it.”
“I’m yours,” I answered breathless, feeling his fingers caress me intimately.
“Again.”
My heart began pounding against my chest with every touch. “I’m yours, Cyn.”
He lifted me against his body, until my thighs were pressed against the wall. I held on to him, wrapping my arms around his neck, while he kissed me with a thirst I had never felt from him before. A half gasp, half moan escaped my lips when I felt him inside me. His hands firmly held my inner thighs, while his hips crashed into me again and again, and all I could do was hold on to him.
“Again.” He moaned in my ear. His back muscles rippled under my hands while he made love to me with every ounce of passion he held in him.
“I’m yours.” I cried out as the sensations heightened. My moans increased. He was pushing me higher than I had ever been before. Every time he plunged into me, he took me farther from the ground until nothing held me to this earth. There was only he and I, together in this void.
“And I’m yours, my Goddess. For eternity.” His warm breath fanned my skin as he hid his face in the curve of my neck. I could feel him so deep inside me, all the way to my soul. The last ounce of consciousness I had, disintegrated when he pressed closer to me, as close as our skin allowed. He was full of need and a hunger that I shared. A powerful moan erupted from deep inside me when I fell over the edge and into his arms. His body shuddered and jerked with mine, our moans became one when he claimed my lips once again. He didn’t stop.
I loved everything about Cyn, and would always accept any way he made love to me, because he was right. I was his. I wanted to be his and belong to him. Forever. Yet, the underlying despair that stirred in him tonight was one I vowed never to cause him again.
The next day, I met Eisha at the Warrior training grounds, after Cyn had left for the morning lessons with the children.
All the Warriors stood in perfect formation, responding to their leader's call. Cathair, Seima, & Art stood in front of the rest. They were Eisha's first line of support in battle, and the best among the Warriors.
“The High Priestess has asked that we train her in the art of the Celtic Warrior. We shall teach her and welcome her into our midst as the purest source of encouragement for our mission. She shall inspire us to be better, faster, stronger and we shall do the same for her.”
I took a step forward, my gaze searching each and every one of their eyes. “Once my training is done I will seek justice for our people, for anyone that has ever died at the hands of the Romans. For everyone, they have ever taken from us.” My lips trembled as the agony once again stirred inside me. “They killed my Grandfather, your Mòr Sagart, without an ounce of remorse. They have hunted us down for centuries and taken pleasure in slaughtering our race. It's time someone stopped them. It is time we say enough! I can't do this by myself. I will give everything to you if you help me in return. I need you. Please help me end this war once and for all, please, so we can finally have peace. So we can sleep without wondering if they will come during the night to burn our village, or take the person we love the most from us. I beg of you, brothers and sisters. Stand with me against their despotism and help me end this. Help me seek the justice our loved ones deserve.”
Cathair was the first to speak. “I pledge my life to you, High Priestess. I am your humble servant, and I shall fight for you until my last breath.” He kneeled. “Chan eil thu nad aonar, oir tha mi seasamh ri taobh thu”— You are not alone, for I stand beside you.
“Chan eil thu nad aonar, oir tha mi seasamh ri taobh thu,” Seima said, kneeling as well.
Art walked towards me and kissed my forehead. “My brother won’t approve of this, but I’m a Warrior. Chan eil thu nad aonar, oir tha mi seasamh ri taobh thu.”
The murmurs rose in the air as each, and every one of the Warriors recited their vow to me and kneeled.
I was not alone.
CHAPTER 12. BROTHERHOOD
MARCUS
* * *
“Let me go. Incompetent piece of shit!”
I pushed the doctor out of the way as I stood. The pain radiated from my shoulder stump after he secured the Bebionic3 prosthetic arm. My left fist trembled as I endured the pain while the arm adapted to me. As the sensors connected to my nerves, the ache began to lessen. I took a breath, letting my body relax and reached for the glove covering my prosthetic hand.
“It is not the doctor’s fault that you are not man enough to take a little pain, Marcus.”
I raised my gaze to find my Mother walking into the room. “Not now, mother.”
“Mrs. Smith,” The doctor said, straightening.
“Mrs. Cornelli, please. We are in private, doctor. You may call me by my real name. As for you, dear son, you should be more respectful of the person that has given you full functionality after those savages caused you to lose your arm. You may leave us, Doctor.”
Her gaze roamed my face as the doctor left the room. She stood in front of me. Her eyes were cold as they had always been. She wore a black dress that reached her knees. Black heels and a leopard-print silk scarf around her neck, held with a gold roman-wreath pin. Her glossy white hair was twisted up into a bun. She held her hands in front of her and lifted her chin. She looked at me down her nose. My mother had always been the personification of elegance and power. Even at eighty years old. She was the head of The Brotherhood of the Dying Moon. Her word was law. The diamonds on her Brotherhood ring sparkled when the light from the window hit them.
I reached for my black shirt and carefully put it on, feeling the strain in my right shoulder. I shut my eyes as the piercing sensation shot through my nerves and took a deep breath. I sat on the bed once more, deciding to ignore her taunt. “Have you come from the firm?”
“Yes. It turns out if I want something done well I have to do it myself.” Her gaze went to the window. “I went to get the tracker out of Victor's old office.” Her voice tensed when she mentioned my brother's name, and I knew what the next words out of her mouth would be.
“It is not my fault he’s gone, mother. Cassius killed him. Not me.”
She whirled around “Did you even try to stop it? Tell me! Or did you just stand there allowing him to murder your brother?”
“He disobeyed a direct order from Cassius, and then lied about it to the Brotherhood.”
“I don't care what he did. He was my son!” I looked away when her eyes bore into mine. She walked closer. “It's a good thing the Druids killed Cassius, because if they hadn't I would have done it with my bare hands.” The venom seeped through her lips mixed with pain. “You allowed Victor to be murdered, then you left your son behind. You are a disgrace to the Brotherhood. Your father would be ashamed of you.”
My jaw worked as I tried to control myself. “I did not leave my only son behind. I was shot and passed out in the back of the truck. Aurelious was the one that left him. He was more concerned with getting Leigh’s useless ass to safety than saving one of our own.”
Her sharp laugh was like nails on a chalkboard. “Now that’s grand. Felix, one of our own? Leigh has done more for us than your son ever will. His intel itself is worth more than Felix. He didn't even have the guts to kill the guards when he faked helping those stupid girls escape from the mountain. He disobeyed my direct orders and knocked them out, instead of using the gun we gave him. All because he had a moment of apprehension after Julius amused himself with the Latin girl. I bet you anything you want that after three months with those Neanderthals, he hasn't even fought back. Leigh is worth more than Felix will ever be.”
“He is my son!” I roared, tired of her condescending demeanor towards him. The back of her hand connected with my face before the last word left my mouth. Blood trickled from my lip as she leaned in. Her face was a mere inch from mine.
“Don’t you raise your voice at me. I am your mother! You have raised that boy
as if he were something special. Spoiled him and gave him every single one of his heart's desires, but you forgot to make him a man. He's weak like his filthy Druid mother.”
“Do not speak about her.”
Her cynical laugh rang through the air. She straightened. “I don't particularly care that you used her for pleasure, and to bear you a son, Marcus. You are a man after all, and the truth is those women are not really good for much else, but do me a favor and do not lie to yourself. What you had with her while we had her captive was nothing more than sex. If you loved her, you wouldn't have allowed Julius to torture her for information while being pregnant with your son. Besides, I would have never allowed my son to marry a Druid. I would have killed her first. I guess it's a good thing she was so weak during childbirth. She did us both a favor.”
She faced the mirror and fixed her scarf. My jaw strained while the ire in me electrified every single one of my nerve endings. Ailidh's beautiful face crossed my mind, and my chest tightened. I forced the image out of my head before the pain could settle.
“The engineers are working on trying to get a signal from the sensor hidden in Felix's Brotherhood ring. The only good thing that might come from Felix being your son is that if he is still alive, he might lead us right to the Druids. Although, he might very well be at the end of the world because we have tried everything and nothing seems to be working to locate him. Unless…” Her eyes fell on me through the mirror. “Unless they have him blocked. Do you think they have discovered the sensor and destroyed it? No. They are not that smart.”
My heart slammed against my chest. “You put a tracker in my son’s ring?” I asked outraged.
She huffed. “Of course I did. Like I said, he is weak, like his pathetic mother.” Her hand lifted to the back of her head where her delicate fingers tucked in a strand of hair that had come loose from her bun. “In any case, we need to wait until you have recuperated and have full control of that arm. With Cassius gone, the responsibility of leading the army falls on you. We must strategize and bide our time to get them when they are most vulnerable.” She smirked. “They probably think we are scared of them because they have that girl. We should have killed her while we had her here. They are greatly mistaken if they believe that we won't finish this.”
She walked towards me and cupped my face, kissing the cheek she had slapped.
“Take a few months to make sure the pain is finally gone from your limb. The doctor said that with the several traumatic surgeries you had to endure after the amputation, it would take a bit longer for the prosthetic to fully function. Thank God he was able to do the nerve reconstruction on you. Use this time to prepare son, so we can be victorious next time we go after the Druids. Think of the battle and use every image in your mind to create a strategy of attack. Think about what their weaknesses could be, and how we can get to them.”
“Cynwrig Bressall. He is their strength, but he is also their weakness. They look up to him, they follow him, and they will die for him. If we take him out, they will all fall apart.”
The smile on her lips became brilliant. “That's my son.” Mother kissed my forehead and walked towards the door. She stopped and glanced at me from over her shoulder. “Oh, and see what else you can get Leigh to tell you about Cynwrig, that might help us take him out. Once we have killed the remainder of the Druids, we can finally kill him too. We have no more use for him.”
CHAPTER 13. WARRIOR
Four months later…
BRIANA
* * *
Doing magic had become as natural as breathing for me… So had training with the Warriors.
Asrhia’s help had been invaluable. I don’t know where I’d be without her. The way she pushed me and guided me to trust my instincts, the things she had showed me and helped me do, were incredible to me. It was as though she actually knew me on a personal level. She was able to identify which responses I would have and turned that into a tool to help me learn, and master my type of magic. I still hadn’t learned anything else about her, though. All I knew was her name, the fact that she was an Ovate, A Seer of Prophecies and Traveler of Space and Time. As far as Cyn had explain. I also knew that she’d come to help me, yet, sometimes I could swear she knew me better than I knew myself.
I couldn’t say why, but I trusted her.
Every day brought the same routine for me. I worked on my magical skills with Asrhia, met with Cyn for lunch, and trained all afternoon with The Fantastic Four, as Lia liked to call them. Eisha, Art, Seima and Cathair. Sometimes Eghan replaced Eisha when she was apparently busy with other things, like today. Sometimes he covered Cathair.
* * *
Chuckling, I stepped on Eghan's thigh while he bent holding his torso, and I whirled around in the air. Using the force of my spin, I swung my arm out towards Art to hit him with my arm brace, but he was faster. He evaded my blow, but I used his own move to help me. I held his shoulders and pushed myself off the ground again flipping over his head and landing in front of him. My hand lit up as he widened his eyes and I pushed against his chest. He flew back, landing on his butt.
“No magic allowed!” Seima shouted.
“Stop ganging up on me then!”
The guys laughed. I ducked, missing Seima's dagger by an inch and rolled on the floor. My leg swung out, and I swept her legs from under her. She threw a new dagger at me as she fell. The thick fortress fog invaded my mind, materializing at the same time right in front of me, and stopping the dagger mid-flight.
“Dude!” I squealed as the glint of the sun against Eghan's spear caught my gaze. It flew towards me from the right. I got up in time, but Cathair's arm trapped my chest, and he held his sword to my neck. I had worked on this technique with Art before. I knew how to get out of it. The problem was Cathair's sword was scary as hell. The blade looked more like a chainsaw. It curved and had small blades sticking out along the sides. Normally, I thought it was badass, right now not so much. There wasn't enough space for me to do the maneuver.
“I got you, pretty little Priestess.”
Oh, that does it, dude.
“Daingnich”—Fortify.
My palms hardened, like rock, and I grabbed the sword pulling it away from my neck. At the same time, I bent forward with all my core strength, throwing off Cathair's balance and hurling him to the floor. I ran forward and jumped as Art came at me, my thighs wrapped around his neck stopping his attack, and I used the momentum to throw my body downwards. It was Eisha’s favorite move. I brought him down with me.
“Say uncle,” I said, sitting on his chest.
“Go, Linda!” Lia shouted from the bench on my right. She was definitely my cheerleader.
Art laughed, pushing me off of him. “Ok, you need to stop cheating, Sis,” He said as he stood.
“Excuse you? I’m not cheating.”
“You are using magic, and magic is not allowed,” Eghan added.
“She is a Priestess,” Cathair challenged, walking towards me. “And she is very much like Cyn. She cannot help herself. It is inside her.” He leaned in. “That was impressive by the way. Rock hands? I want those. I could punch a few people.”
He looked at Art, and I laughed. “Hey, you are ganging up on me. I know Eisha likes using multiple attack partners in my training, and that I can handle, but you guys are abusing the situation.” I pointed at my eyes with two fingers then at Art's. “I'm watching you.” I mouthed to him, and he grinned.
“Ok, let us be fair,” Seima said, walking towards me. “Three attackers. All right?”
I nodded, fixing my ponytail. I wiped my hands on my yoga pants and made sure nothing had “popped out” of my tank top. “Let’s do this.”
I took a deep breath as they all stood in a circle, around me. My senses honed in on them, as my eyes went around the circle. Each of them looked at me and smiled, baiting me. There was no way to know which three would attack or who would attack first.
“Feel the air on your skin, hear the whispers of the earth, an
d see the shadows around you…”
Eisha’s words resonated in my head as my eyes fell on Art. The next second the sound of Cathair's boot crushing the ground reached me as his weight shifted to attack. He was behind me. I stepped to my right and whipped around as his left arm swung the sword. As his body leaned forward, I lifted my leg and kicked him in the back throwing him forwards. A slight breeze caressed the left side of my arm. I leaned away and reached out, catching Eghan's spear in the air. Its momentum pulled him forward, and I wrenched it from his hands as he fell. The force pulled me too. I stuck it in the ground to stop myself from falling on my face. I quickly turned, facing them again, while I still held the spear, and twirled it in my hand like a baton.
“I always wanted to be in a school band.”
Art came at me, and I lifted the spear, blocking his sword. I thrust it forwards, the sound of metal against metal reverberated through the air. I twirled and swung the spear as a bat, but he ducked just in time. I moved towards him attacking again, and again but each time he stopped it with the sword. I turned, kicked and swung, but I couldn't beat him.
“Damn it!” I mumbled, trying one more time to push him back.
Do you want to see what cheating really looks like, punk?
I thought, stepped back and twirled the spear again. In the middle of the turn Eghan's spear vanished, and my staff materialized in my hand so fast, that Art didn't even notice until it was too late. The magic rushed through me while I pointed the staff at him. It connected with the sphere, and a ray of pure light shot out. Only enough to sting him, of course. The light hit his chest, and he stumbled back falling on his butt again.
“No, Linda! Let the Wookie win!” Lia whined, and I looked at her laughing.
“Aaah!” I shrieked as Art tackled me to the ground. My staff disappeared, returning to its essence as he managed to trap my legs and arms. He had me like a freaking pretzel. I couldn't move. “Ouch.”
Renewed Magic (The Ancient Magic Series Book 2) Page 20
