by T. M. Cromer
In the distance, she heard a fussy mewl and went to investigate. She found a massive modernized kitchen and Mackenzie Thorne nursing her daughter at the center of it. “Oh, I beg your pardon. I—”
“No worries, Selene. I’d enjoy the company if it’s not going to make you uncomfortable to see me feed Delaney.”
“Not at all. She’s a beautiful baby,” she felt compelled to say as she sat down.
“Thank you. She has her moments when I’m convinced she’s a demon spawn from hell, but for the most part, I adore her.”
“Preston told me you’re psychic.” Why in the world she felt the need to say it aloud, Selene couldn’t be certain. But she was fascinated with any abilities beyond those of a standard witch, and the Thornes seemed to be possessed of these extraordinary powers. “How does it work exactly?”
Mackenzie looked uncomfortable, and Selene opened her mouth to withdraw her question when the other woman spoke. “Mostly by touch. A simple brush of an object will allow me to see its history. This long English oak table, for example.” She ran her hand along the length of the wood. “It was crafted by a local woodworker in the nineteenth century. Right here, in place. When Baz gave me free rein to renovate the kitchen last year, I insisted on keeping the table instead of adding an island.”
“It’s perfect for the space.”
“I thought so, too.” Mackenzie smiled at her. “As for visions of the future for family or friends, that’s also done by touch. Although I rarely volunteer the information unless pressed.”
“Is there ever a time you can’t see ahead? Is your gift sporadic?”
“Is there something specific you’d like to know, Selene?” Mackenzie’s gentle voice held understanding. “Perhaps your future with Preston?”
Uncomfortable with the other woman’s insight, Selene shifted in her seat and folded her hands together in her lap. “I don’t like uncertainty.”
“Ah.” There was a wealth of compassion in the one word. “Well, if you love him half as much as he loves you, everything should work out.”
“I don’t know the extent of his feelings for me, although I’d like to,” she confessed, mortified to her very soul that she had.
“His feelings run deeper than the Mariana Trench and will last for all eternity,” Preston said from behind her.
Her heart sped up as she met Mackenzie’s cheerful grin. “You set me up, Mrs. Drake.”
“It’s Mack, and yeah, I sort of did, but only so you could hear it from the horse’s mouth.” With a quick snap of her fingers, her clothing was back in place. She shifted Delaney to her shoulder and patted her back. “From the second you and Preston arrived on this plane, my visions went dark, Selene. I’m afraid no one knows the future but the baby Aether at this point.”
“I see.”
“If my ability returns, I’ll be happy to relay anything that comes to me.” Mackenzie rose, kissed Preston’s cheek, and teleported away.
Selene didn’t bother to look at him, instead studying the room around her.
“Have I scared you?” His deep voice held a curiously vulnerable note.
“I worry I can’t live up to the legend of the Thornes’ undying love stories.” The truth was hard for her to speak. Her upbringing didn’t allow for the openness Preston’s intimate circle seemed to share, and she was used to keeping her feelings under lock and key out of necessity.
“No one expects anything, Selene. Hell, we might not live to see next week.” He squatted beside her chair and stared into her eyes. “It’s why I didn’t want to wait to tell you how I feel about you.”
She cupped his jaw and stroked the pad of her thumb over his lower lip. “When I first saw you in the Otherworld, I knew you were a danger to my heart.” She stopped watching the motion of her thumb and met his steady gaze. “Isis said I was your one true love. That’s a lot of responsibility to bear. Perhaps it’s partly the reason I kept turning you down.”
“You’re not responsible for my happiness. I am.” He gently bit her thumb and grinned when she scowled. “Do I want to share my life with you? Yes. But if you choose to go about free of me, so be it. In the end, you are responsible for your own happiness, too. If I can’t add to that, then we both go on without the other.”
“You sound blasé about the whole thing.” And she wasn’t sure she liked it.
“Nah.” He straightened up and drew her to her feet. “Nothing is more important in this very moment, but I want you on your terms. Not mine.”
“What’s to become of us if we succeed in destroying the Evil?”
“I got the impression we return to this plane permanently to live out the remainder of our days.” He sighed heavily. “But we have to survive the trial ahead, and I’m not quite confident of our chances.”
Her heart dropped to her knees. When had a Thorne ever lacked confidence? “Is the Aether serious about bringing all magic down?”
“I believe it’s why he’s brought in the final elemental. Alastair told me Castor is descended from Zeus. He’s powerful in his own right.”
“Where do we go from here?”
His full lips curled and sent her into a tizzy. What was it about this man’s wicked grin that made her want to drag him to the nearest bedroom and make him live up to its promise?
“You kiss me for good luck, darling.”
“I don’t believe in luck, agápi mou. You’ll have to try another way to claim your kiss.”
“I could simply steal one.”
“It’s not stealing if I freely give it.”
Again with his wicked grin, and again with her trembling limbs.
“Pucker up, buttercup,” he growled in a low tone.
The kiss was more than she’d imagined. Soft, loving, demanding, passionate. It was… All. The. Things! The taste of him was to be savored, yet she wanted to consume it all at once. And oh, his skill. Before she could form a coherent thought, her bottom was on the nineteenth-century table and Preston stood between her legs with one hand cupping her head as his other splayed along her lower back. He leaned over her, forcing her into a semi-dip. Her position was precarious in more than one way and more than in the physical form. If he let her go, she’d fall.
“Done inspecting her tonsils, Pop? If you are, we have a big baddie’s ass to kick.”
Preston took his time releasing Selene. When she peeked up into his handsome visage, his expression was an equal blend of amused and frustrated.
Without breaking eye contact with her, he said, “Tums, my darling daughter, if you don’t leave immediately, I’ll take my revenge out on your good-for-nothing husband.”
“Now you’re just being mean,” Autumn muttered. “But if you want to spend your time playing tonsil hockey instead of saving the world, who am I to complain?”
A muscle ticked in Preston’s rigid jaw, and Selene suppressed a laugh. She’d never had children, but she imagined, with four daughters, the man in front of her had dealt with interruptions of this nature many times in the past.
“She’s right. We have to save the world.” He sounded resigned and out of sorts, which made Selene ridiculously happy. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 10
“It’s hopeless.”
“No, Tums. You’re just bored with the research.” Spring shot her older sister an annoyed glance. “Really, just pop back home and check on the kids. You’re much more suited to action than all of this, anyway.” She returned her attention to the pages of the ginormous tome in front of her.
“Thanks for understanding.” Autumn shot her a cheeky grin and teleported in the blink of an eye.
“Like we weren’t aware of her game,” Summer muttered.
Winnie rolled her eyes but said nothing.
Selene watched their interactions from where she sat at the end of the dining-room table with her own monstrous book. Those four women had grown up together, and although their personalities were vastly different, somehow they worked perfectly as a team. She’d never had that
, and felt slightly envious.
Winnie blew out a breath, shoved a piece of folded paper between the pages of her book, and turned her bright, curious eyes toward Selene. “Ready for a coffee break?”
“Absolutely.”
With an elegant swirl of her hands, Winnie conjured four mugs and a carafe. Then she poured and prepared a cup for Summer, Knox, and herself. She cast a quick look her way. “How do you take yours, Selene?”
“Black, please.”
“Cinnamon roll?”
“You intend to send me into a diabetic coma, don’t you?”
Winnie laughed and cut the dinner-plate-sized pastry into five portions. After dishing up a piece, she carried the coffee and dessert to Selene. “Here. Research is best done on a sugar high.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Carlyle.”
“Ugh! Call me Winnie. Please. There are far too many of us married to Carlyles now, and we won’t know who you’re talking to.”
Selene laughed around a bite of cinnamon roll, then moaned. “I swear I could get used to this.”
“All of Winnie’s baked goodies are to die for,” Summer said as she reached across the table to snag a plate for herself. “We fight like rabid dogs to get the last bite.”
“Not to be a hard-ass here, but can you all focus for five minutes?” Spring cast them all an irritable look. She softened it with a smile solely for Selene. “Sorry. This crew would rather leave the reading to Knox and me, but this mess is rather dire.”
“I quite agree.” Selene shot a glance toward the study doors where Preston was closed up with the Aether, Alexander Castor, and Alastair Thorne. “I wonder what they’re concocting?”
“Nothing good without Spring and Nash,” Winnie quipped. Bending over Spring, she hugged her from behind and pressed her alabaster cheek to Spring’s. “We all know to leave the genius ideas to this one.”
“Stop buttering me up and park it, sister. We need all the brainpower we can get here.”
“You forgot her tea, Winnie.” Knox conjured a fresh pot and poured a cup for Spring. “She’s cranky without her chamomile.”
“Dirt,” Spring said archly with a pointed look at his mouth.
Knox simply grinned and dropped a lingering kiss on her lips.
An inside joke, based on the light laughter of Spring’s sisters.
Again, a pang of envy struck Selene. Always the outsider, she bent over her book and resumed reading again. It took her a second to process what she was seeing. She gasped. Four pairs of curious eyes turned in her direction.
“Maybe we don’t need to bring magic down so much as we need to pull the Evil into another dimension,” she said with dawning confidence for her idea.
Knox stilled. “What do you mean?”
“We know of the Otherworld, the Underworld—or Hell as some call it, and the earthly plane. What if we are limiting ourselves by thinking we have to bring it back here? Can we take it to the Underworld or some lesser-known dimension?”
Spring slowly began to nod, gaining momentum as she mentally worked through the problem. Finally, she grinned. “I think you may be on to something, Selene. Let’s run this by Nash before we present it to the others.” She tapped out a lengthy text.
Within minutes, Nash Thorne strolled through the doors. “Who do I need to kiss for their brilliance?”
Selene’s hand shot up like a rocket, and they all laughed.
“There will be no kissing of my woman,” Preston growled.
She jumped in her seat, having failed to notice his entrance. She didn’t want him to assume too much at this point, so she said, “Your woman? I don’t believe any commitments were made.”
“I’ve committed to beating up any males who even think about touching you,” he countered with a smug smile. Striding forward, he placed his hand on the chair back and one on the table in front of her, effectively boxing her in. “How about we compromise, and I kiss you for your brilliance? Afterward, you can tell me what triggered this discussion in the first place.”
Her answer was to weave her fingers through the thick auburn hair at the back of his head and draw him close. His lips brushed hers and ignited white-hot need within her. They kept their kiss at a fairly PG rating due to their audience, but Selene would definitely be seeking more when they were in private.
“Mmm.” She smiled as she drew back and gazed up into his desire-laden eyes. “Okay. I suppose you can claim me as your woman.” When he grinned, she held up her index finger. “However, I want it to be known that I’m free-thinking and independent. And I rely on no man. Understood?”
“Whatever you wish, my love.”
“Great answer, Dad,” Winnie said approvingly.
“I learned some things while raising a houseful of free-thinking, independent women,” he said with a wink at her. He looked down at Selene. “Independent women are my specialty.”
She snorted a laugh and pointed to the book. “Shall we discuss what I’ve found?”
“By all means.”
Nash plopped into a nearby chair and crossed his arms, sporting a playful pout. “It’s so not fair that I didn’t get to kiss her.”
“Consider the consequences, my darling brother.” Summer thumped his bicep with the back of her hand. “Had you kissed her and Ryanne found out, you wouldn’t have had to worry about my dad killing you.”
Nash chuckled, and his jade eyes took on a warm glow. “Yes. And I’ve no doubt my darling love and our pesky cousin Liz are scrying and spying right now.” His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he removed it to read the message. With a snort of laughter, he turned the screen toward Summer. “Can I call it, or what?”
Summer glanced around the room, not quite focusing on one particular spot. “You never have to worry, Ry. I’ve got your back. I can loan you Morty’s baseball bat if Nash gets out of line.”
The phone buzzed again.
Nash snorted and shook his head. “She said, ‘thanks.’”
“Okay, let’s get back to the subject at hand.” Spring closed the book she was reading and rested her arms on top. “Nash, Selene’s idea is to find another dimension and dump the Evil there. Is it a possibility?”
“Theoretically, yes.”
“What would prevent us from doing so?” Selene asked.
“It would have to be a place without magic to feed on. It would also have to be a plane it can’t leave. But I’m of the belief that magic exists everywhere, so…” He shrugged.
“Would Damian know?” Spring tapped her fingers on the leather-bound tome in front of her.
Preston straightened up. “We can ask.”
A few minutes later, Damian—joined by Alastair and Castor—entered the dining room.
* * *
As Selene outlined the basics of her idea, Preston watched her closely. She was elegant in her movements, as minimal as they were. Sultry, without being overtly sexual. Her statements were an economy of words. Everything about her appealed to him. And when she caught his eye, he imagined those exotic peepers of hers had warmed.
He’d only been half serious earlier when he said no one else was going to kiss his woman. Mainly because he knew Nash was deeply in love with his girlfriend, and Preston hoped Selene held feelings for him. She might not be ready to tell him, but he preferred to believe he could sense them under the surface. Why else would she say she was prepared to be his?
“The only place that might work would be the Nether,” Alastair was saying. “It’s neither good nor bad, and magic can’t be sustained there.”
“It won’t work.” Damian appeared grim and frustrated.
“Why ever not?” Selene’s back straightened, and her expression cooled. Preston laid his palm on her shoulder and gently squeezed to show his support.
Damian’s gaze snapped to her, and he gave her a rueful smile. “I didn’t intend to reject your idea outright, Ms. Barringer.” He shot Alastair a mocking glance. “While Al is rarely wrong, he is in this case. The Nether represents Yin and Yang.
You see, it’s not only that magic can’t be sustained there; it’s that no human can without a counterpart.”
“As in a mate?” Winnie asked.
“No. As in an enemy.”
The occupants of the room all seemed in various stages of confusion or disbelief. Preston was no exception. “I don’t understand, Damian. Are you trying to say that if Alastair was to go there, he’d need an evil Alastair to match him?”
“Close. Not necessarily an evil twin of himself, but yes, his greatest enemy. Of which, none survived to the best of my knowledge. Am I wrong, Al?”
“No. Not wrong. Those who would harm me or mine are indeed gone.”
His brother didn’t sound bothered in the least, and Preston couldn’t say he was, either. Zhu Lin—the head of the Désorcelers during his time on earth—and Victor Salinger had targeted their family one too many times to be allowed to live.
“Great, so it’s back to the drawing board,” Knox muttered.
“Not necessarily.”
Everyone’s attention turned to Castor. The smile he turned on them was wide and engaging. “I’m a Traveler. So is Quentin. Between my son and me, we could bring forward everyone we need.”
“No!”
The ground rumbled, and they all scrambled for purchase. Selene clung to Preston where he knelt beside her.
“Jesus, Knox! You’re likely to kill us all with those bursts of temper!” Nash complained.
“We are not bringing back anyone who might harm Spring,” Knox stated flatly. “I’ll kill the first person who tries.”
Spring touched his arm. “Babe. It’s okay.”
“I mean it. You’ve suffered enough.” The hard-as-steel expression on Knox’s face said he wouldn’t be swayed by her softly spoken words, and Preston couldn’t fault him for it. As a matter of fact, he admired the hell out of his son-in-law. The young man would do what was needed to protect Spring whether she agreed or not. But then again, they were two of the oldest soulmates in existence. Preston suspected Knox couldn’t live without her. He’d seen the toll her disappearance had taken on the man a few years ago. Knox had nearly gone out of his mind, but had done whatever it took to find her and bring her back.
