Stupid man.
“The spell!” Narcissa laughed again, an oily sound that left Daphne feeling a little dirty. “Daphne, take care of him.”
Daphne moved. It was time. Bringing both hands up, she called her magic from the deep well inside her. Even when she was a little girl, magic always came so easily to her. It washed over her skin, lifting her hair and she sighed at the pleasure of it.
Releasing the spell at the knight, she enjoyed the shocked look on his face as he found himself pinned to a wall like some handsome butterfly.
Stalking to him, she listened as Emily screamed and Kayden fought to defend her. It wouldn’t work. Stupid goodie two shoes never won against true darkness.
They let Narcissa and Kalli live under their own roof and fed them. They harbored darkness and didn’t understand what a foolish mistake that had been. They gave Cress blood, which now kept them from hurting the ones who attacked them.
Foolish.
Callum fought her spell, his face taut with fury. Getting close enough to breathe the same air, she whispered, “Why would you be dumb enough to come after me? I told you, trust me.”
“Witch!” He accused. He tried to spit at her, but that failed since her spell held him captive.
She went up on tiptoes, nuzzling his lips with her own. “Good never wins. Why don’t you guys ever get that? It’s so much more fun to be bad. Will you be naughty with me, Callum?”
He struggled and she tsked him before turning away. Joining her sister, she watched as Emily struggled, as Kayden fell prey to his own magic.
That had to suck. Getting your ass kicked by your own magic. What a bummer.
Turning, she smiled at Narcissa, who grinned back before turning to further torture Kayden.
It was almost too easy to take the small dagger from her pocket and jam it between Narcissa’s shoulder blades. Daphne felt the resistance of bone and pushed harder, using her magic to ensure the weapon was buried to the hilt.
Narcissa crumpled, clawing at her back before gasping and falling, driving it further home with the weight of her body than Daphne could have hoped. Kalli fell, a limp, lifeless puppet without Narcissa’s magic shoved up his ass to control him.
Standing over her sister, she watched as she coughed and blood stained the soft white of her dress.
Watched as her expression changed from disbelief and pain to that sure knowledge that death waited.
“Why?” Narcissa managed. Daphne had to struggle to hear her over the sound of Kayden and Emily choking for air, struggling to recover from their own brushes with death.
“Everyone always forgets about me, sister. So easy to ignore me, to assume I’m a pawn to move around the board. Trust me—you’ve no idea what I want, nor do you ever care what I want. I’m done with this. I’m going home.”
Brushing her hands on her skirt, she cast a glance over her shoulder at Emily. “Sister,” she nodded at Emily.
Emily reached for her. “Daphne, thank you—”
“Don’t thank me. I just committed treason. And I’ll break more laws. I don’t want your world. I’m going home.”
Releasing Callum from her spell, she watched as the knight fell to his knees. His gaze locked on her face and she simply nodded to him.
And transported herself home.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Aren’t we supposed to save the day in our fairytale?” Emily snickered.
Kayden wrapped his arms around his new wife, watching as Callum knelt by his brother. “He lives,” he advised his best friend.
“Barely,” spat Callum. “She knew. She had to have known what Narcissa and Kalli planned.”
“I’m sure she did.” Kayden couldn’t disagree.
“And she let my brother get hurt for what? So we would end up at this point?”
“She saved us.” Glorious in her defense of her sister, Emily stormed over to Callum, bending to get face to face with him. “She saved us. We couldn’t beat Narcissa. She used blood magic. Nothing we did to her would have worked.”
“She let it go and if we’d been warned—”
“What, Callum? You would have done what exactly?” Emily shoved away from him, looking furious as she blazed out of the room.
“You pissed her off,” Kayden advised while offering his best friend a hand up.
“I noticed.” Callum watched his brother. “We need to get him to a healer. He’s injured.”
“I know.” Glancing after Emily, he didn’t care, as awful as it might seem.
“Go after her.”
Meeting Callum’s gaze, Kayden nodded.
He followed Emily, but was stopped at the door by Callum’s soft question. “Did you know that Daphne was on our side?”
“I don’t think she was sure, going into it, what she was going to do. I think that was how she managed to fell Narcissa.”
“She killed her own sister.” Callum whispered the words.
“I know.”
He glanced back to see Callum rubbing a hand across his face. “What kind of crazy bitch kills her sister?”
Kayden didn’t have answers. What Daphne had done saved them, was heroic, but she did shove a knife in her own sister’s back.
Who was to say she wouldn’t do the same to Emily, given the chance?
Their family hungered for the throne, so much it seemed that they would do nearly anything to get it. He didn’t have time to ponder possibilities. He wanted his wife.
Stopping by his father’s rooms, he ensured the old man was still recovering, that the excitement of Kalli’s spell and them transporting hadn’t upset him. Then he headed to his own rooms.
Emily leaned out the window, rubbing the curl of brow on her dragon and making the animal croon in delight. Her dress was torn, she looked tired, and yet…
She looked happy, so very right, finally in his world.
He moved to her side and wrapped his arms around her from behind. She sighed, relaxed into his embrace, and he placed a single kiss at the base of her neck.
“I’m going to hate waking up from this one.”
Her soft words were hard to hear, but he was listening to her, holding her, this woman who held his happiness in the tease of her smile.
“It’s not a dream, you know.”
He smiled when he said it but when she didn’t answer, his joy faded.
It still felt like a dream to her.
No matter how hard he clung to her, Emily wouldn’t believe Kayden was really there.
It was time to prove to his bride that this was her world and he wasn’t letting her slip away again.
“I’ll be back,” he whispered.
She nodded. He moved away from her and started to plan.
****
The king was fine. She touched his hand, even though he slept. If nothing else, this dream was the longest she remembered. Sad to think it would fade when the alarm clock chimed and stole her away from this world.
It really was a helluva dream, though. Casting spells, remembering a magical childhood…something about the movie magic of the scene with her ‘sister’ really brought home the very delusional nature of all of it, though, and she realized it just couldn’t be reality.
“Princess!” The little girl crept into the room, her violet eyes bright under her curtain of nearly white hair. “The prince needs you.”
“Shh,” she advised. “You’ll wake the king.”
The little girl stifled a giggle behind her hand and gestured frantically for Emily to follow her.
The daughter of one of the dukes, Marris spent a good amount of time with the Princess Emily. In real life, children scared Emily. Probably part of that whole wish fulfillment thing, that in her dreams the child liked to curl on her lap when the bards were singing, and whisper secrets in her ear.
It made her wish this were real. That one day she might hold a child with her laugh and Kayden’s magical eyes.
Sighing at the fruitlessness of such things, she followed Marris out of
the king’s bedroom and down the hall towards the main room. It made her so happy that she finally remembered the whole dream, even back to a childhood. Too bad none of it could really be real.
The fire was lit and the hall was empty, surprising her. Usually, by this hour, the hall was full of random dignitaries all wanting to eat their fill at the king’s table.
Tonight, no one lingered and Marris ran off with a giggle, leaving her alone in a room lit by candles and with only a soft violin playing from some hidden alcove.
Kayden entered. He wore a shirt, a rarity for him, and his dressier kilt. He looked like just what he was.
A dream magician prince.
Emily inhaled and exhaled deeply. The sight of him still took her breath away, so she had to concentrate to keep from getting lightheaded when he looked at her like that.
Like she was the center of his world.
He came to her, took her hand, led her further into the hall. Pulling out a chair, he gestured for her to sit and she grinned up at him. “What’s going on?”
Food was brought out by servers, who moved in silence and offered a great array of choices.
It made her laugh to see a burger on one of the trays.
“A burger?”
“You seemed to like them in the other world. I want you to know that whatever you desire, I will ensure it is here. You will want for nothing as my princess.”
He looked so serious that she twisted in her seat to stare at him. “No, seriously, what’s going on?”
Kayden sighed heavily. “You aren’t going to let me woo you properly, are you?”
“Woo? What the hell does that even mean?”
He reached below the table coming up with a box. “Woo. Charm. Seduce.”
“I think we’re past seduction. I told you, I’m a sure thing. You got me a present?” Snatching the box, she flipped it open before sucking in a breath.
She didn’t realize she held it until he whispered, “Breathe.”
Dizzy, she did. The box held the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen. A single star sapphire surrounded by glinting rubies and wound in what had to be antique gold lay on the bed of blue velvet. Winking up at her, she tilted it, allowing the star to chase across the azure surface of the stone. “It’s beautiful.”
He knelt and she looked at him warily.
“Emily, will you be my wife?”
“I already am your wife.”
“Will you promise to stay by me, from now until the stars crumble from the skies?”
She blew out a breath, snapping the box closed. “I already am your wife.”
“I don’t think you believe this is real. That you’re mine. So, we’re backtracking. I want you to be my wife, to stand by my side, to live and love with me through good times and bad.”
She passed the ring back. “Kayden—”
Music played, still, soft in the candlelit hall. She turned to it for a moment before smiling at him. “Dance with me?”
He frowned. “You don’t want the ring?”
“It’s incredibly romantic.” Emily shrugged, pulled on his arm and didn’t let the smile crumple. “Dance with me.”
He stood, gaze locked with hers. “There isn’t anything I can do to make you really believe, is there?”
Sighing, she allowed his arms to close around her, breaking the eye lock by tucking her face into his shoulder. Inhaling, she could smell him. He was warm and safe and smelled like nothing she could exactly describe. Closing her eyes, she enjoyed the feel of him, the warmth of him, and the slow rocking of their bodies to the soft melody.
She hadn’t lied. The ring was incredibly romantic. Just the kind of thing a dream magical prince should give his soul mate princess. The music was perfect, the setting so detailed, she wondered at her lack of imagination normally. Probably, the fact she created such a detailed other life for herself in her dreams was a sign of something really wrong in reality.
But for now, there was music, the night, and this man.
After a while, she heard him sigh. He then swept her into his arms as if she wasn’t any heavier than a heroine in a novel, carried her up the stairs to his tower bedroom with its glittering silver surfaces, and laid her on the bed. He came down with her, melting her bones with a soul-shaking kiss, and she thought he would make love to her.
Instead, he tucked her close, breathing softly in her ear. “I’ll fix this, Emily. I promise.”
She smiled. Kayden was such a wonderful dream. Closing her eyes, suddenly very tired, she stretched her lips in a jaw-popping yawn and burrowed closer.
“I trust you, my prince. Of course you will.”
And then she slept.
****
Waking to the beeping sound of her alarm clock, she slammed a hand down on it. Staring at the ceiling of her bedroom, she fought off a wave of sadness.
She knew it was all just a dream. Even knowing it, her heart ached at the loss of the magic, of him.
Rolling out of bed, she looked out her window at the ice storm that rampaged. Weather lately had been weird, she knew that. But an ice storm?
Getting a fast shower, dressing in her normal mundane clothes, she reminisced about the velvets and silks that she draped her skin with in the dream.
A far cry from khakis and a blouse and sweater, but, well, she wished it were real.
Heading down the street, she stopped in shock to see the burnt out shell of the library. Emily couldn’t stop the immediate flood of tears. Falling to her knees, she imagined the books, her life, that was gone.
Maybe that was why the dream had been so real. Some kind of PTSD reaction to the loss of her life as she knew it. A man put his hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him through the sheen of the tears.
“Are you all right, ma’am?”
Kayden.
But not Kayden. This man wore jeans and a fisherman’s sweater, looking like some add out of a men’s fashion magazine. She blinked, trying to mesh the reality with her dreams and failing.
“No, I’m not.”
He pulled her to her feet. “Crazy about the library, right?”
“I worked there,” she managed, scrubbing at the tears. “When…?”
“Yesterday. They said it was from the ice storm, but some are saying arson.”
Looking back at the fragments remaining of her life, she sucked in a broken breath.
“Look, hey, if you’re looking for a new job, I know of a place.” The guy was looking at her, almost waiting.
Emily shook her head. “I’m not really ready to job hunt quite yet.”
“Maybe grab a cup of coffee with me?”
“Sure.” She wasn’t sure why she agreed other than the fact he looked like the magical prince of her dreams. “You’re…?”
“Drake.”
Drake. Her dream prince was from the Draco family, the dragon keepers.
She shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs of the imaginary. “That would be great, Drake.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
She looked so lovely tonight.
He’d been wooing her, like she deserved, for months now. At times, he wanted to scream at her, beg her to see through the lie and remember him. She said nothing. He didn’t either.
Tonight, he was taking her out to dinner. Resisting the temptation of her flesh nearly proved too much for him so many times lately. He wanted to kiss her until she melted into his arms and make her scream his name.
Kayden, or Drake, as she called him here, resisted. This wasn’t about him or his needs. She’d given up so much for him, the least he could do was give her a proper courting.
Tonight, though, dancing slowly around her apartment—so reminiscent of his failed proposal—after eating a lovely dinner she’d prepared with her own hands, he couldn’t hold back.
He wanted to taste her lips.
Her soft laugh brought him back to the moment and he leaned far enough away from her to see her face. “Something funny?”
“You�
��d never believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
“I dreamed of you. Long before we met, I dreamed of a prince…it’s silly, I know.”
She tried to burrow back into his shoulder but he tilted her face up with his fingertips. “I would love to be your prince, sweet Emily.”
And he kissed her.
Soft at first, just barely rubbing his lips against hers. Savoring the flavor of her that he’d denied himself. When she opened her mouth on a sigh, he tangled their tongues, feasting on her passion.
No woman he’d ever met could compare to the immediate punch of desire just kissing her awoke in him. Without plan, he ended up with his fingers carded through her hair, pressing her into a wall so he could enjoy the feel of her coming alive in his arms.
Not satisfied with the kiss, his bride broke away, hoisting herself up to wrap her legs around his hips, grinding her sex into his throbbing cock. Smiling, he dove in for another taste of her. “Emily,” he whispered, dragging his lips away from hers to trace open-mouthed kisses down her jaw, to her neck and that sweet spot behind her ear that made her wriggle for him.
“Kayden,” she answered, and then froze.
He met her gaze, his hands rubbing gently at her ass. “Emily?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
He swallowed the rest of whatever she’d been about to say with another kiss that had her dragging his head closer.
Sliding his hands up her sides, he reveled in her flesh, warm and alive and so damned tempting.
“Wait!”
Her almost shriek had him pausing, hands moments away from cupping her bountiful breasts. “Yes?”
“I called you Kayden and you didn’t even pause.”
He shrugged. “Yes.”
“Are you—?” She shook her head as if to break free of whatever she was considering. “No, that doesn’t make sense. He was a dream and he had a kingdom—”
Touching a single fingertip to the lips plumped from his kisses, he whispered, “You don’t have to think about it, Emily.”
Her scowl was immediate and fiery. “He was a prince.”
Magical Curves Page 10
