by T. M. Cromer
Spring laughed. It was a deep belly laugh that doubled her over and lifted the oppressive thoughts she’d had since she woke without her memories. This was the first time her siblings were free around her. The first time they opened up and joked without being worried how she would respond. And while Spring couldn’t say what was normal, the situation felt right.
Winnie’s sky-blue gaze held an approving light. “Cinnamon rolls are ready, sister. Bring that delicious eye candy of yours in for breakfast.” She directed one word to Knox. “Bacon.”
In a flash, Knox had scooped Spring up and teleported them to the Thornes’ homey kitchen. He dropped her into a chair at the head of the old, scarred, wooden table, then dumped a half dish of bacon onto his plate.
As he bit into the crispy meat, he closed his eyes in ecstasy. “I’ll be honest, Spring, if you decide you don’t want me, I’m making a play for your sister. That woman can cook.”
The edge of the Winnie’s dishtowel connected with Knox’s thick bicep. “It’s hard to screw up bacon.”
“Stop macking on my woman,” Zane ordered in his deep baritone right before he stepped into sight. With a long-suffering look at Knox, he asked, “Why is everyone always trying to steal her from me?”
Winnie’s essence brightened, and a wide, welcoming smile graced her countenance. “Zane.”
“Hey, babe.”
They shared a sweet, loving kiss while the others unabashedly stared.
Spring hadn’t been aware of her heartfelt sigh until Knox linked his pinky with hers under the table.
“For the record, I don’t care if you can’t make perfect bacon or plate-sized cinnamon rolls,” he whispered in her ear.
“Good to know,” she murmured. “Eat up so we can explore that clearing. They won’t let me leave without a bodyguard.”
The sound of speeding wheels crunching the gravel drifted through the open window above the sink. Knox craned his neck to see who the newcomer was. A flash of exasperation came and went across his features, and he cast a side glance at Spring. “I’ll be right back.”
Spring rose only to be gently shoved back into her seat.
“I think it’s best if I handle this,” he informed her as he strode away to answer the front door.
“What’s going on?” No one else in the kitchen would meet her eyes. They were back to trying to protect her. The high-handed behavior set her teeth on edge. “Fine. I’ll go see for myself.”
“Sister, let Knox handle it,” Winnie cautioned.
“In case you all are too obtuse to understand, let me spell it out for you. I don’t need you to run interference for me. Last I checked, I’m a grown adult in possession of a capable mind. Just because I’ve forgotten…” Spring inhaled deeply in an attempt to get her temper under control. “…forgotten a few things, doesn’t mean I’m an invalid. Stop treating me like one.”
She raced for the door to find Knox arguing with another male approximately his same age. The other guy was shorter than Knox by roughly three inches but outweighed him by a good thirty pounds. He might have been nice looking, except at the moment he was flushed in fury. The red complexion made his round face look like an over-ripe tomato.
Once his eyes alighted on her, his demeanor changed. “Spring!”
The happy cry confused her. “Do I know you?”
The man’s mouth dropped open in his surprise. “It’s true then?”
She looked to Knox for understanding. The watchful stare told her nothing. “I’m afraid I’ve had a bit of an accident,” she hedged as she stepped closer to Knox’s side. “My memory was affected.”
The newcomer’s mouth opened and closed like a landed trout. “You don’t remember me?”
“I’m sorry.” She seemed to be saying that a lot lately. “Who are you?”
“I’m your boyfriend.”
Spring reeled back in shock. The heel of her shoe caught on a loose board behind her. If it hadn’t been for Knox’s cat-like reflexes, she’d have fallen.
* * *
Large, betrayed eyes turned on Knox. “Boyfriend? I thought you… you made me believe you and I were…”
Spring’s horrified expression cut deep. Coldness permeated his soul at the same time outrage took control. She’d immediately taken the little dweeb’s word for it.
“You and I are,” he assured her with a little shake. He turned on Tommy and shoved him toward the steps. “Get a clue, Tommy. She’s not interested.”
A fist connected with his back. “You aren’t in charge of who I see.”
Jealousy clouded Knox’s vision and his good judgment. “You know what, you’re right,” he growled. “You want to date Tommy, be my guest. It’s no skin off my back.”
Fury pounded in his temples, and reason took a vacation. He knocked into Tommy and sent the other guy into the dirt on his ass. With a disgusted grunt, Knox headed for the clearing.
He couldn’t believe history was repeating itself. He’d fallen for that spoiled-rotten brat just as he had the first time around. And just like before, Spring was determined to lead Tommy on when it was Knox she wanted.
He was halfway to his destination when a second set of footfalls registered. Menacing energy tried to wrap its ugly tentacles around him in a distinctive attack against his psyche. He just about snorted his disbelief. Of all the Carlyle clan, he was the strongest and the most advanced warlock. It would take heavy magic to bring him down, and it certainly wouldn’t happen in his current location. The land between the Thorne and Carlyle estates was charmed. Granted, it didn’t mean an enemy couldn’t attack the old-fashioned way with a man-made weapon, but not with magic unless they were a blood relation to one of the two families.
Calling on the five elements, Knox pivoted on his heel, ready to strike. Shock brought him up short. “Mother.”
Two days ago, when he’d last checked, she was locked up in a containment unit at the WC headquarters. The wards on the center made the place impenetrable. No one could get in or out without an express invitation from the Council. And Marianne Carlyle was no exception. She’d been sentenced to life imprisonment for her crimes in assisting the Désorceler Society. She’d been Zhu Lin’s little spy for years leading up to the incident that took Robert Knox’s life.
“How did you break free?”
“I served my time.” The sly, oily expression she graced him with was only relieved by sheer hatred.
“You’re a liar,” he stated flatly.
A movement in his peripheral vision snared his attention. He darted his eyes around the woods as if he were bored with the conversation and the woman in front of him. A glimpse of tawny hair identified the new arrival.
Spring.
“Go back.” He’d meant it for Spring, but he hoped his deranged mother would assume it was directed at her.
Marianne cocked her head and studied him. Knox was careful to reveal nothing. If he showed any sign of vulnerability, she’d strike. It had become her M.O. Marianne Carlyle despised weakness in any form.
One arm behind his back, he gathered the power of the elements he’d mentally summoned.
“Come out, girl,” she called. “I know you’re here.”
“There’s no one here but you and me, you crazy hag,” he scoffed. “The voices in your head must be confusing you again.”
Madness burned bright in her pale-gray eyes. Eyes once the color of his but now practically leached of color from her depravity and inability to find happiness.
“I won’t hurt her. I want to see the pathetic fool who holds your affections, my darling son. I feel it’s only right to warn her that you bring death and destruction to everything you touch.”
Old insecurities rose up and tried to dig their claws into him. Hadn’t he done just that to Spring? Brought death after her destruction? Ruthlessly, he shoved aside his negative musings. His mother was a master of manipulation and mayhem. If he let her inside his head, he was done.
His heart skipped a beat when Spring step
ped from behind a wide oak and moved toward them. “Don’t!” Panicked, he’d been unable to hold back his shout.
Spring paused when Marianne cackled.
“Go back,” he called. “Do it now.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Spring argued, starting in motion again.
His general dismay morphed to full-fledged alarm at her stubbornness. With his head turned toward her but his eyes locked on his mother, he affected an ugly tone. “Don’t you have a date with your boyfriend,” he sneered.
“I do,” Spring answered. Four steps closer, she said, “He’s supposed to explore the glen with me this morning.”
When Spring’s words sunk in, Knox’s heart spasmed. Still, he couldn’t soften. “Go home, Spring. I have better things to do with my time than waste it on little girls who don’t know their own mind.”
Marianne’s grotesque, mocking smile widened with each word they uttered. She saw through his pretense. “Always the hero, aren’t you, my boy?” Her focus on Spring, Marianne raised her hands.
Knox reacted without thinking twice. The burst of electricity flew from his fingertips and hit his mother center mass. The lightning bolt he emitted slammed into her at roughly two million miles per hour and fried her with close to one billion volts.
She didn’t have time for any expression of surprise or pain to cross her face, and as such, her face was frozen in a mask of hatred and evil intent. Forever.
21
As Spring stood deeply shaken and paralyzed by shock, Knox sagged against a nearby tree. The power it took to electrocute his mother must have been staggering. His tormented look spoke of a deeper issue. Because of the action he took to save Spring’s life, he would be forever forced to deal with the knowledge that he killed his own mother.
She couldn’t imagine the weight of that burden.
There had been no doubt Marianne had planned to harm her. Intent was in every line of the other woman’s body and in every nuance of her voice. Knox had tried to issue a warning, tried to make it seem like he was an asshole who didn’t care one whit for Spring’s feelings, but leaving him alone was impossible for her. She could no more walk away from him than she could let him walk away from her.
In the short time they’d spent together yesterday and today, she noticed one thing; Knox’s light shone brighter and bolder than anyone else she’d met since waking. While she hadn’t appreciated his caveman attitude where Tommy was concerned, watching him storm away had triggered a pain in her chest. She’d become short of breath, and her heart rate went into overdrive.
In her family grimoire, beneath the family crest with its motto, had been a jotted note. A Thorne will only love but once. They shall know their other half by the warmth of the light emitting from their soul’s mate. Those words had resonated with her when she’d read them. And when Knox had stepped from behind the tree in the garden, he lit up the night with his aura. Maybe that was why she’d given him her immediate trust. Yes, trusting a stranger had been foolish on her part, but she felt as if she knew him. As if he were part of her very DNA. Ignoring their connection would be too painful.
Earlier, when Tommy had claimed to be her boyfriend, Knox’s extreme reaction had forced Spring to ask herself how she would’ve responded should the situation be reversed. She would have snatched a bitch bald. With the realization came a wild urgency to find him.
Now, here they stood. Twenty feet separated them, but it could’ve been twenty thousand. Expression closed off and hardening by the second, Knox was creating an expansive distance between them.
Skirting his mother’s still form, Spring stepped up to him. “Knox.”
His gaze was locked onto his mother.
“Look at me. Please.”
Violently, he shook his head, causing his blond, shoulder-length hair to catch on his beard. With a trembling hand, Spring smoothed the sweat-dampened locks back from his face. Still, he stared at the same point beyond her shoulder. She wove her fingers into the thick hair at the base of his skull and, with great care, applied pressure until he faced her. She pressed her lips to his in a gentle kiss.
“Thank you for saving me.”
He blinked. She imagined she saw a lessening of his pain. She kissed him again. This time, his lips clung to hers.
“You did the right thing. She was intent on harm.”
“I could’ve done something else,” he rasped. “Frozen time, bound her. Anything but kill her.”
“You went with your instincts.”
Wrong choice of words. Knox zeroed in on his mother, and his eyes became glacier-like.
“I have the instincts of a monster.” He jutted his chin toward the body on the ground. “That monster. Between her evil genetics and those of Robert Knox, I’m—”
She placed her fingertips gently against his mouth. “You are not the product of your birth. You are more. You’re better.”
There was a glimmer of hope in the eyes he lifted to search her face. He sought her honesty, and Spring let her true feelings on the matter show. “You saved me. It’s not the first time either, is it?”
“No.”
“How many times have you made sure I never stepped into her crosshairs over the years?”
“Too many to count,” he murmured and closed his eyes. “Too many damned times to count.”
“How?”
“I kept a constant watch over you both. Sometimes in person, sometimes scrying. But I swear I wasn’t stalking you.”
“Go on.”
Knox swallowed and leaned into the hand she pressed to his cheek. “The day I shoved you into the manure? She was watching from beside the barn. I sensed her presence. It’s like a black pall over my soul.”
“So you didn’t reject me because I was too young?” Because she hadn’t experienced the incident firsthand, or at least not that she could recall, Spring could remain detached about the whole situation.
“Maybe in small part.” He nodded toward his mother. “But mostly because of her. When I was a young child, if I showed any type of interest or affection for anything, my father would destroy it. He convinced her to do the same. My best guess was that they wanted to mold me into someone as hateful and evil as themselves.”
In a blindingly fast move, Knox jerked her into his embrace and buried his head in her hair. She wrapped her arms around his neck and returned to him the comfort he needed.
“She realized early on how much I cared about you. It took a warning from my aunt Keira to make me see the futility of starting anything with you. My aunt and uncle monitored Marianne’s every move while I was under their care. They knew how twisted she was.”
With the tips of her fingers, Spring wordlessly burrowed her fingers under his long hair and stroked the nape of his neck.
“When I was old enough, they tasked me with the chore of policing her.” He exhaled a ragged breath and continued. “The day you stopped coming around was the best and worst day of my life. The knowledge that you were safe kept me going. Kept me from seeking you out and begging you to love me as much as I loved you.”
“Oh, Knox.”
“A little over a year ago, with the help of your father and my Uncle Phillip, we were able to convince the Witches’ Council to put her away for good.” Knox’s hold tightened, and although a little uncomfortable, Spring didn’t complain. In his arms was the only place she wanted to be. “The day you disappeared in Colombia, I initially feared she’d escaped her prison. Seems my fears weren’t completely unfounded. As you can see, she did eventually escape.”
“She can’t hurt either of us now.”
* * *
“She can’t hurt either of us now.” Knox allowed Spring’s words to sink in. For the first time in years, he was free. Free from the evil of his deranged mother and his reprobate father. Free of the darkness shadowing his every step.
“Thank you.” His voice was rough and raw. It matched his emotions to a T. Yet, he suspected she understood. In his need to see her expression and judge
her sincerity, he pulled back to gaze down into her face. Her clear eyes stared up at him. No fear. No recriminations. Only a gentle understanding for what he’d done. Goddess, he loved this woman. Even without her memories, her spirit remained the same. Open, good, honest, and compassionate. “I love you, Spring. I always have, and I always will. You don’t have to love me in return, but I want you to hold on to that, okay?”
Lifting up on tip-toe, she pulled his head down to hers and touched her mouth to his. His control snapped. He lifted her against him and ravaged her mouth. She offered up her innocent passion in return. The soft moan of desire she released set him afire. Wanting nothing more than to lay Spring down on the soft grass and make love to her, Knox pulled away and lowered her feet to the ground. The timing was shit again. There was still the matter of his mother’s demise—at his hands. He needed to speak with Coop, Alastair, and Preston to find out what type of punishment he would face in the non-magical world and with the Witches’ Council for his crime of murder. And no matter how he wanted to sugarcoat it, that’s what he’d done. He had murdered his own mother.
“There is no cell phone coverage here in the clearing to call Coop. I need to get you home and clean up this mess. Is it all right if I pop over later this afternoon?”
With a smile and a nod, she clasped his hand and tugged him toward the Thorne estate. He noted she was careful to place herself between him and the body of his mother, a protective gesture on her part. While Spring needn’t have bothered, Knox appreciated her thoughtfulness. He’d stopped feeling anything but disdain for his parents long ago. How could he not? And he experienced no regret Marianne was dead. Maybe that made him a horrible person, but he couldn’t drum up even an ounce of remorse.
By some unspoken agreement, Knox and Spring took their time strolling through the woods. Through the canopy of leaves, the sun shone brightly on the path. Here or there, she would stop and caress the grayed bark of a tree, restoring vitality to the old hardwoods. As Knox watched her interact with nature, he experienced a swell of pride. Other than to give voice to her feelings of emotional suffocation, she had taken her whole memory loss in stride. The speed at which she relearned to use her magic was a testament to her intelligence.
