by KH LeMoyne
God, when had it happened? When had he become doomed to love one woman forever? Probably the first time he’d seen her stare at him across the dimensional mirror, he thought wryly.
“If we don’t move we might grow together this way.” Her breath tickled him.
He swept the hair from her neck and planted a kiss. “Would that be so bad?”
“You could convince me.” She gasped when he licked the delicate curve between her neck and shoulder. “I’m easily distracted. I can’t even think when you touch me.”
Logan stroked along her hip, dipping to tease the crease between her thigh and curls. He brushed his nose along her cheek and noticed her eyes darken again with passion. He didn’t need to see the golden shine outline her body, or feel through his power to determine her emotions. She wore them for him like a second skin.
“Only if I worship your body correctly. It’s only fair, since I can’t think when you touch me, either.” He licked at the corner of her mouth, promising more. Then he cupped his hand over her breast and teased her nipple with his thumb. “But I do require your dedicated attention, in order to get this right.”
She moaned into his mouth and surrendered for a second time.
Bri rubbed her hand across her sweater, enjoying the soft texture of the cashmere. So fine and light, perfection with the softest sensation. Logan had purchased her clothing in the gift shop, before he’d left to pack up Robert’s things.
She glanced around the quiet room.
The meal, the bits and pieces left from what they’d devoured between their explorations of each other, was still on the rolling cart. Three white roses in a tiny bud vase were the only thing untouched. She’d stayed in the room to give him privacy for his grief, though she needed fresh air and privacy herself.
First, she’d leave him a message, a positive sign, of the changes she now wanted in their lives. Time and sacrifice had clarified many things for her. Not the least was the joy their physical connection delivered. Every inch of her skin radiated with luscious heat and the phantom touch of Logan’s lips and hands. But physical pleasure wasn’t the most important thing she cherished about Logan.
She cast a glance to the window. The sun hung low in the sky, leaving perhaps an hour or two until sunset. Plenty of time to walk through the gardens and let Logan begin to reconcile his emotions with Robert’s loss uninterrupted. She also needed an opportunity to test the connections she held to her loved ones. Neither she nor Logan would accept defeat. But a meditation on the new course of action seemed appropriate.
Halfway to the door, she paused and detoured to the meal tray. Plucking the three roses from their vase, she repositioned them. Satisfied with her efforts, she headed down the back stairway, wove through the corridors, and took two wrong turns before finding the exit to the maze of gardens behind the castle.
The farthest edge of the groomed flowerbeds bordered a small patio. Several chaise lounges faced the rear of the building, beneath arching shade trees. Rubbing her breastbone, she sat there and tried to ease the heavy press of weight in her lungs. Distracted with thoughts of Robert and Logan, she stared at the beautiful gardens as a familiar pressure suddenly pushed at her.
Her breath hitched. Another portal was opening.
She stood and glanced up at the windows of their room. Had he returned yet? Should she wait for him? Surely, he’d sense the portal opening, and would search?
Could she be lucky enough to have her brothers join her in this dimension and share in her happiness?
Not able to wait, she dove into the maze, following the pull of the portal. She turned a corner at a final row of boxwoods and the portal’s shimmer illuminated before her. Pulsing, slowly beckoning, its waver wisped like a smoky haze. The bright shards of sparkling red combined with the setting sun behind for a spectacular display.
Bri moved closer with a frown. Red?
No, that wasn’t right. Red marked the minion portals. A minion meant for her? The one left alive after the battle in Loci? She hadn’t felt the oily essence on her way here from the room or in the gardens.
Or was it tracking Logan? They’d never targeted him before—perhaps a poor assumption on her part. She bit her lip, considering how it had found them. They’d worn clothes, but otherwise brought nothing with them through the portal. Even Logan’s sword had disappeared after they landed in this dimension.
She blinked, the answer hitting her like a punch to the stomach.
Dear Goddess, the minion’s knife. For years it remained safely hidden. Yet ever since she’d brought it out of hiding, they’d tracked her. How stupid could she be! Worse, she’d brought it here with her to Logan’s dimension. Granted, she’d considered it a form of defense, but now saw it for what is was. A beacon.
And she’d left it in the room. With Logan only one door away and due to return any moment.
“No!” Her cry filled the sky. Her nightmare was replaying, her short-lived bliss crashing in around her ears.
She struggled for a connection to Logan, searching through her mind for a sense of him before the minion found him. Goddess, please let me find him first. She needed him. His family needed him.
A piercing screech filled the air and she spun around. The minion was visible over the hedge, on the far side of the portal. Logan stood before the minion, her knife in his hand.
Moving backward, he avoided the claws and rapier, with first a jump to the left, then more backward steps. On the last move, he caught his heel on the edge of the stone walkway. He skidded onto his back, but with a flip, rolled to his knees and popped up again.
The minion flew at him, hovering a moment before it slashed.
He parried the minion’s attack, but the short blade was no match for the longer rapier. Bri glanced at the portal, desperate for a solution. Distracting Logan was out of the question.
At Logan’s fierce growl, her attention snapped back to the fight. He’d practically launched himself at the ugly thing, raw fury in his swings. She didn’t need to leverage his power to feel the dense hatred he’d unleashed.
His emotional attack lessened his focus. The knife went flying from his hand as he nearly stumbled, landing before the portal and far out of his reach. Still, the minion advanced.
Where was his damn sword? Surely the blue-and-white fire was unique to his Makir power, and didn’t require he carry a physical weapon to leverage its ability.
She focused on Logan, reached across the space, and searched for his energy. His vibrations were so disjointed and angry, she had trouble separating them from his normal essence. Determined to win, as silver, blue, and white vapors spun by her, she grasped them, yanking hard enough to separate them from the erratic dissonance in his mind. Then she slammed the vapors back at him in a rapid gust, as he raised his forearm to ward off the minion attack.
Brilliant in its appearance, his sword elongated from his hand in time to ward off the blow.
Sucking in a breath, she refocused on the kernel of her plan. Logan might kill the minion. However, a better solution would rid them of minions entirely, and halt their ability to track to this dimension.
She stared at the knife. If it went through the portal, the minion should follow.
But her entrance into the portal with the knife guaranteed the minion would follow.
23
A loud crash beside the boxwoods distracted the minion. Logan didn’t care what had caused the racket, but he glanced anyway. His heart leapt into his throat.
Bri knelt, her knife in her hand. The white gauze of her gown’s hem floated above the broken shards of a garden urn. Without a backward look, she rose and stepped through the portal.
The minion swung toward his new prey, and Logan lost all reason.
He lashed at the creature, left, right, center—hacking with his sword until smoking bones littered his way. And still, the creature lurched toward the portal and Bri’s last location.
With a sudden surge of power and a final roar, Logan swiped acros
s the shoulders and severed the head from the body. He didn’t wait for the conversion from corporeal substance to ash, but charged for the portal. He couldn’t let her leave. Not without him. No matter the cost, he’d follow.
“Logan, don’t.”
Two steps from the portal, arms grabbed him around his waist and held him back with a fierce grip.
“Logan.”
He fought, trying to rip them away until the voice registered. Bri’s voice. Bri’s hands. He turned and looked at her in confusion. She wore the blue cashmere he’d bought her, not a gauzy nightgown.
He glanced at the portal and then pulled her in front of him. “I’m not hallucinating, right?”
Hell, he was crazy to ask a hallucination to exonerate him.
“Close the portal, now. Quickly.” She was on her toes, shouting in his face, one palm forcing him to look at her. Then her words finally sank in and, hugging her tight, he raised his hand toward the crystal shimmer. Energy pulsed from both of them in one swift cerulean deluge. The glow shrank to a pinpoint and snapped shut.
“If you’re here,” he rasped, burying his face in her hair. “What went through?”
“An illusion.” She squeezed him harder, and then pulled back to check him.
He focused on her eyes, needing physical confirmation he wasn’t dreaming. That he hadn’t made a terrible mistake. “You created that illusion?”
She nodded with a weak smile. “Actually it’s my brother Nicholai’s skill. I borrowed from him. Wherever he is. I was so desperate I called and his power lent itself to me.”
He glanced back toward the pile of ash scattered along the pathway. “But I’d already destroyed it. Why didn’t you just throw the knife through the portal?” With a frown, he slowed his mind enough to consider what she’d done. And then the logic of her actions became clear. “You believe he can see us?”
“We can’t be certain. I doubt he has a presence beyond the portals, even if he can force one open. But he has powers we probably can’t imagine. If Owain caught the illusion of my leaving, he’ll think I’m…” She waved her hand toward the sky. “Somewhere else. He’ll expend energy finding the knife wherever it landed. But with it gone, he’ll no longer have a way to find us.”
His pride for her swelled as Logan considered the risk they’d just averted—that Bri had diverted. Not only had she chosen to stay, but for the second time in as many days she’d chosen to dig deep in her arsenal and use logic over brute magical force. And she’d proved her arsenal didn’t bow to the rules of portals and dimensions. She could reach others and borrow magic. No wonder Owain wanted her power.
“Such a calm plan, and here I was, a maniac.” He wrapped her hair around his hand, needing the tactile reassurance. “I came back to the room and you were gone. Then the portal energy burst hit me.”
“I wanted to give you time alone.” Her hands slid over his chest. “When I sensed the portal, I came to check whether my brothers had come through. When I saw the red—” She closed her eyes and shook her head before meeting his gaze again. “That knife—all this time, it’s been waiting to lead Owain straight to us.”
He smoothed away the stress lines at the edge of her eyes. “It’s not like we had any way of knowing.”
Emotions swirled in light gold around her. Before he could soothe her, she pressed a hand to his lips as if determined to say her piece. “I love you. I’d breathe for you, Logan, if you needed me to. It’s taken me too long to realize I held everything in my hands, and I almost lost you.”
His breathing was finally normal, but his heart rate was out of control. Her words sounded dangerously close to a commitment. Afraid he’d heard wrong, he told her the truth. “I didn’t want to believe you’d left, but—it didn’t matter.”
“You were going to follow me.” Her eyes shone bright with tears, but she smiled at him and shook her head. “I’ll never ask that of you.”
“I couldn’t let you go. I love you, no matter what.”
Blinking at him as she pressed herself closer, she rubbed her nose against his shirt, then looked up, tilting her face toward his. “Didn’t you see my sign?”
At his frown, she squeezed him harder. “The same one you left me the morning after we married.”
He glanced around, running the last several minutes backward in his head. Then he stilled and air rushed to his lungs as he searched her face for confirmation. “Back in the room? The roses on our pillows.”
She nodded. “When I woke up that morning you were already at the castle. I knew you’d left the petals for me as a sign. That you were still with me, that you’d be back. That you’d never leave me.”
“The flowers.” He tried to smile. He couldn’t. The emotional pummeling had left him too strained to do anything but hold her tighter. “Yes. I left them because I love you.”
“Because I love you, Logan,” she repeated. “I left my sign for you here, so you’d know I’m not leaving you, now or ever. We will do this here. Together.”
He nodded. The tight sense of disaster dissipated, and the constriction on his heart eased.
“Promise me again.” She brought his lips closer to hers. “Promise me you’ll hold me so close in your heart nothing can tear us apart.”
His thumb stroked from the sweet indentations at the edge of her mouth across her soft cheeks. The reassurance she was trying to extract from him finally made sense. “When I married you, I promised to love you before all others. And I always will.”
“Show me,” she murmured against his lips. Then she kissed him. The tension drained from them both. With their defenses dropped, the excess energy from the fight converted into a raw eagerness and a desire to mark each other with their passion.
A sizzle of heat flashed over his skin and colors brightened as he returned her caress, but he pulled back for a second. He needed closure, confirmation she’d accepted the enormity of her decision. “Bri, what if this is all there is? No closure for either of our families.”
“My choice is you, protection of the portal, and our family.”
He inhaled. “I’ll be honest. I expect the battle to get harder. It may take all our energy to defeat Owain’s attempts. But I doubt this will end the way either of us hope for or imagine.”
She’d searched for years for her brothers. Failure at the end of such a journey, giving up on those dreams—he didn’t want that for her, but he couldn’t control the future.
“I will never give up the hope.” Gripping his shirt, she pulled him closer. “But today only proves we can succeed in safeguarding the portals. Together. I’m learning what I’m capable of. I know what I need and who I am. You are the future I want.”
His answering kiss was harsh, demanding, but she opened to him. Her emotions flowed as well. No holding back. No doubts. He was almost strong enough to sprout wings and fly with happiness. His mouth blazed across hers as his hands skimmed along her skin beneath her sweater.
“I could get rid of our clothes,” she said with a laugh.
He nuzzled her neck and nipped in small bites along her flesh. “I’d rather unwrap the package on my own. But we should go back to our room.”
“It’s nice out here under the stars. No one will see us.”
The humor in her voice offered him a sensual challenge.
“The bed will be more comfortable, and the condoms are there.” He laughed. “It’s not like I stuffed one in my pocket when I raced after you and the minion.”
She pulled back. “What do we need them for? I’m not going to change my mind about our future together.”
“There’s no hurry.” He brushed her hair from her cheeks as he searched her face. She wanted their future. He could feel the truth. See the incredible glow of gold and silver surrounding her. And while the thought of having a child with her filled him with a new sense of purpose, they had time. “You might want time to acclimate and adjust here. If you want children, we can have them when you’re ready.”
Her fingers dro
pped to the buttons of his jeans as her brow rose. “I had nine years to acclimate. I can adjust just fine with you, whatever comes our way. So, I’d rather let fate decide. Do you agree, my husband?”
“Agreed.” His kiss swallowed her laugh, as he lowered them to a chaise under the faint twinkle of stars. “As long as I always have you.”
Also by KH LeMoyne
The Guardians of Eden
Betrayal’s Shadow
Warrior Reborn
Destiny’s Mark
Shifters Unlimited
Hidden
Missing
The Phoenix Legend Series
Rebel’s Consort
Shepherd
The Portals of Destiny
Return of the Legacy
The Portals of Destiny Tales
Dragon Rider’s Gift – Dragon Rider Trilogy Book 1
BOOKS written as LW Herndon
The Thaddeus Kane Novels
The Mark of Kane
About the Author
KH LeMoyne writes romance: fantasy, futuristic and paranormal. A former technology specialist, she lives with her family and corgis. If you’d like to receive a new release email alert, sign up here:
http://khlemoyne.com/newsletter
@khlemoyne
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www.khlemoyne.com
GENRE: Paranormal/Fantasy Romance
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. (V1)
