Jaxon’s eyes narrowed. “I do not like what you are implying.”
“I am stating facts. A human is an emotional, unstable creature without the capability of bridling the wizardry you seek to bestow upon her. Why, a simple bout of anger could destroy the nations below us, killing innocent people. This woman,” the words carried a wealth of disgust, “is no more able to handle your ability than a child.”
“For someone who can’t control herself, I’m doing amazingly well right now.” Tess glided toward the door. “Because at this moment I would like nothing more than to knock you on your holier-than-thou ass but, out of respect for my husband and his family, I am restraining myself.”
Andion’s face contorted into a mask of rage. “It would appear your husband has been sadly lacking in certain areas, not the least of which is respect for those who wield far more power than you could ever hope to attain. Perhaps I will make it my duty to correct this oversight.” Before Jaxon could anticipate the wizard’s move Andion’s eyes brightened to an unnatural glow and a burst of flame shot from the pupils.
Tess turned, flung up her arms and the flames bounced harmlessly off the protective shield encircling her. The wizards, now all standing, stared in stunned silence, exchanging glances.
Jaxon touched his hand to the solid presence, a note of admiration in his voice. “You used a protective spell—a shield. Can you lower it?”
She gave him a look of pure annoyance. “Of course I can lower it.” Her arms dropped to her sides and took the shield with them. “If any of you had bothered to treat me with a measure of respect, I would’ve gladly told you I didn’t choose a spell I knew I couldn’t control. A shield seemed to be the simplest way to protect myself from the witches and according to Charlemaine,” she turned a smile upon her mother-in-law, “it will take them some time to disable it, time enough for the rest of you to get your collective asses to the tower.”
Charlemaine bestowed a look of pride upon her daughter-in-law. “Well done, Tess.”
Jaxon’s shoulders sagged with relief. “Do you have any idea what we were thinking, the manner of spells that are in that cell? Most of them require extraordinary control which is why only few of us are allowed within the walls.”
“Uh-huh.” Tess clearly wasn’t impressed. “Well, next time, before you show up like an avenging angel, perhaps you would take the time to ask me what I’d done. I would’ve told you…because I trust you.” She let the words hang in the air.
Jaxon didn’t need to hear that he hadn’t trusted her enough. The weight of his guilt settled around his shoulders and he reached out for her. But she backed away, her hands extended.
“Don’t. I need to be alone right now. Maybe you could expend your excess energies on him.” She pointed toward Andion and when Jaxon focused his attention on the elder wizard, he heard the whoosh of air signaling Tess’ departure.
Jaxon pivoted slowly. Flames licked at his fingertips as he curled his hands into fists. “I could kill you for what you did just then. Actually I should. You turned on one of your own.”
Andion sniffed. “She is not one of ours. She is a hybrid, part human and part wizard. She will never fully be one of us.”
“There is one way.” Jaxon’s voice vibrated with fury.
Falcon slid between the two wizards. “And we all know that is not something we are going to consider. Andion knows what he did was wrong and at the appropriate time, he will rectify the situation. Am I correct?” Without waiting for a response, he continued as if assured his orders would be obeyed. “As for you, Jaxon, I believe you have a wife to contend with. Being that with the exception of your father, we are all single wizards, I am afraid you are very much on your own with this one.”
Jaxon darted a glance toward the door. “I think it has been that way since the day I met her.”
“I can only wish you well.” Falcon patted him on the back and ushered him toward the door. “You may leave us now.”
Jaxon hesitated. “Mother, I did not mean…”
Charlemaine’s laughter interrupted his words. “Do not trouble yourself with an apology, Son. I have long ago accepted your temper and your tenuous hold on self-control.”
“It seems to have gotten feebler since I married.”
“Welcome to my world,” Jensen replied with a wink, slinging his arm across the back of the chair his wife occupied to soften his words.
Jaxon started to disintegrate but a firm clamp of Falcon’s hand stopped him.
“You should erase the desire to retaliate against Andion from your thoughts.” Though the words were soft, barely discernible, the warning held clear.
Jaxon’s eyes frosted. “Easier said than done.”
“I do not care if it is the hardest thing you have ever done in your life. To take the life of a wizard is to suffer banishment and make no mistake about it you would be banished, regardless of your destiny.”
The younger wizard sighed and lowered his head. “So I am supposed to endure while he threatens Tess and enjoys himself at her expense?”
“No. You are supposed to let me take care of it. That is what I do. For now.”
“His death would open the door for another wizard to take his power,” Jaxon reminded his mentor as he lifted his head, thrust out his chin. It was an age-old gesture of defiance, easily recognized by the older wizard who knew him well.
Falcon’s brows furrowed. “I will hear no more of this. What good would become of Andion’s death if Tess were to attain his powers and yet lose her husband in the balance? Let this go.”
“It seems I have no choice.”
“For once, we are both in agreement. Go then.”
* * * * *
She watched him walk toward her and knew his intent. She wanted to resist but giving in to the gentle magic of Jaxon’s embrace just seemed right. Tess rested her head on his shoulder, breathed in the scent of him and wondered when life would ever feel normal again.
“I’m sorry.” The words were heartfelt and poured from Jaxon with the pain of his guilt.
“For what exactly? Because from where I stand, you’ve a lot to apologize for.”
Jaxon stroked her back. “For assuming the worst instead of trusting you. For yelling at you. For subjecting you to the tribunal. I should have let you speak.”
She didn’t give an inch. “Yes, you should have.”
He kissed the top of her head. “It’s not within my nature to—”
“Please, don’t.” Tess interrupted him. “I know all about your nature.” Hell, she’d been a witness to it for long enough now to know him almost as well as he knew himself. She recognized his moods, knew when he was deep in thought, worried or scared. And though he’d been angry with her, she’d known all along the basis was fear. She couldn’t fault him for that. “How can you live like this? Always watching behind your shoulder, wondering when the witches will strike next?” Her hand curled against his chest. “It’s like someone’s put a hit out on you.”
He rested his chin on the top of her head. “This is our life, Tess. It’s what we’ve always known.”
“Can we ever return to your house on the mountain?”
“Occasionally, yes.”
“That’s a qualified response if I ever heard one. Look, I know there’s something going on that you’re not telling me and I think it has something to do with Falcon.” Her eyes fastened on his face. She saw the shifting in his eyes, the way he veiled his gaze in an attempt to prevent her from seeing something he didn’t want her to see. She caught hold of his chin and forcefully turned his head. “I want to know, Jaxon. You can’t keep hiding the truth from me because you want to protect me. How many times do I have to tell you we’re in this together?”
He managed a smile that she knew he didn’t mean. “Falcon will step down soon.”
Her eyebrows lifted, eyes widened. “As the leader?”
“Yes.”
“So who will take his pl—oh! Ohmigod! You’re supposed to take
his place. You’re going to be the new leader. That’s why Charlemaine said she wasn’t under your power yet and you said something earlier, I can’t quite remember what it was but I knew you were trying to tell me something. Or maybe you weren’t trying to tell me. Why didn’t you want me to know?” She took a step away from him to see his face better.
Jaxon tucked her hair behind her ears, rubbed his thumbs along her cheeks. “Because Falcon’s position is a powerful one. If you think being the wife of a wizard is difficult, you cannot imagine what you will face as the wife of the leader.”
She didn’t want to imagine. “Did you know before we married?”
She felt the tension spring to life inside him, watched him pull away from her.
“Does it matter?”
“You could have told me.”
“Yes, I suppose I could have.”
She stood on tiptoe and looked into his eyes. “But you were scared I wouldn’t want to marry you.”
“The knowledge would have been too much for you, Tess. You had enough to adjust to without worrying about what the future held. Falcon hasn’t stepped down yet. I don’t know when it will happen.” Yanking the bottom of his shirt up, he pulled it over his head and tossed it aside.
For a moment the sight of his gleaming muscles distracted her. “But you think it will be soon.”
He walked across the room and tugged open the closet door, doing things an ordinary man would do, when Tess knew it was all for her benefit. “Unfortunately yes.”
“For God’s sake, Jaxon, just change clothes the way you want to. You don’t need to pretend you’re human any longer.”
The snap in her tone brought his head around. “No, I don’t imagine I do.” With a nod of his head, he clothed himself and began to circle the room with slow measured footsteps.
The bitterness of his voice told her more than he wanted her to know. “You don’t want to take Falcon’s place.”
“No one can take Falcon’s place.” Now wearing faded blue jeans and a blue cotton shirt, he looked ruggedly handsome. A perfectly ordinary man…who just happened to have magical abilities.
She cleared her throat for focus. “Why not?”
“He’s a force of nature. For as long as I’ve been alive, he’s been here, in charge, keeping us together. I’m not sure I can be what he has been.”
Coming to stand in front of him, she put a halt to his pacing. “So don’t.”
“I don’t have the option to deny my rightful place in the Assembly.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. Don’t concentrate on being what Falcon has been or trying to become what he is. Just be yourself. I don’t think you were chosen for this role because of your ability to emulate your leader. It’s apparent Fate or whatever it is that does this choosing sees something in you that maybe you can’t see yourself.” She reached out for him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I know I believe in you.”
Jaxon’s arms banded around her and held her close. “It’s not going to be easy to watch him walk away.”
“He will leave the Assembly altogether?”
“Yes.”
Tess touched her fingertips to his cheek. “Where will he go?”
“He won’t tell anyone.”
“Why not?”
“Because he will need to clear all thoughts of the Assembly from his mind. He can’t have us knowing where he is because he will think about us. Those thoughts could jeopardize the Assembly.”
“How? It’s not like humans could climb up here, Jaxon. You worry too much about the Assembly.”
He smiled at the simplicity of her words. “That’s something only a human would say.”
She tried to pull herself out of his arms but he held her fast. “I wish you’d stop thinking of me as just a human and start thinking of me as your partner.”
“I’m trying. It’s not easy to change five hundred years of habit.”
She accepted the veracity of his words. “Look, Falcon is your friend. I’ve seen you with him. You care a great deal for him.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then don’t let him leave.”
Jaxon looked down into her upturned face before tweaking her nose. “I wish it was that simple, my love. But the choice isn’t mine to make.”
“Will he leave immediately after he steps down?”
“I’m not sure.”
Tess stepped out of his embrace and made her way to the bed. “I can see Falcon is just as big on sharing as the rest of you are. This family needs to work on its communication skills.”
He joined her back at the bed, sitting close enough for his shoulder to rest against hers. “Do you really trust me?”
“I think I’ve trusted you since you stopped that hurricane to save my life. I knew you wouldn’t hurt me. All of this,” she shrugged, “has been daunting to say the least.” She took hold of his hand. “By the way, thanks for standing up for me with Andion.”
Jaxon frowned. “Why wouldn’t I stand up for you? You’re my wife. Andion stepped over the line.”
She didn’t know why she felt the need to defend the wizard. “Maybe he didn’t know the line was there.”
“He knew.”
“Get that look off your face. You know you can’t kill him.” She nuzzled against his side. “Maybe just maim him a little.”
Jaxon looked startled for a second, then laughter bubbled up inside his chest and spilled forth. “You could get us both into a lot of trouble with thoughts like that.”
Tess giggled and lowered her head to the beat of his heart. “This entire place could use a little levity. Most of those guys in here wouldn’t know how to laugh if they had a manual. Except for Rane. He tends to laugh a lot—mostly at your expense.”
He lifted her head, dipped in for a quick kiss. “Even in our world, little brothers are a pain in the ass. Now enough about my family. I think there’s something much more important we could be doing with our time rather than talking, don’t you?”
With an impish grin, she pulled back and looked up at him. “You can’t possibly be thinking about sex, can you?”
His own grin matched hers. “Every second of every hour of every day.”
* * * * *
In the valley below Mystique, the sisters of the Coven of Allesandra joined hands and began to chant. The time was right.
Athena’s breaths fogged in the crispness of the air but she didn’t notice the cold. The spell had worked and she could barely contain her anticipation. “Tonight, Tess will come to us.”
“And you are sure she knows nothing of her pregnancy?”
The leader of the Coven smiled. “Not even the masterful wizards know.”
“You have not tried the second spell, Athena. Suppose it doesn’t work?”
Athena’s eyes fixed on Hestra’s pale face as she relinquished the hands of her sister witches. “Must I continually reassure you?” Her voice snapped in the night. “Once I place my hand upon her womb, the child will unite with us. Though Tess will carry it to term, once it is born, the babe will belong to us.” She rubbed her hands together. “The spell cannot fail.”
The witches shifted nervously in spite of their leader’s confidence. “How can you be so sure no one knows?”
Skin tingling, Athena ran her hands up and down her arms. “I just know.” Though she felt a twinge of regret for using Braeden’s connection with her, she had to do what was right for the Coven. Were she not to protect it, the wizards could one day destroy them all.
Braeden wouldn’t forgive her but keeping her sisters safe had to come first.
No matter how much she loved him.
She would lose him. Nothing could prevent that but her memories would have to sustain her until she was victorious over the Assembly. And what perfect memories they were.
Her mind drifted, taking her back to a time, less than a month ago, when she and Braeden had shared one of their last moments together alone. It had been here, at the tower, in her cham
ber. At least it had started here…
* * * * *
“You shouldn’t be here.” Athena sensed him even before she heard his footsteps.
His hands settled on her shoulders. “Where else would I be?” He leaned in and she heard the inhalation as he drew the scent of her hair into his lungs.
“We can’t keep doing this!” She sharpened her voice, desperately needing him to fight against this overwhelming desire too. Breaking away from his grip, she whirled around to face him. “We don’t belong together, Braeden.”
Indigo Spell Page 30
