Scent Of Magic

by Jeanine Berry

  They flew south to the other colony site, which Blane had explained was located on the coast of a large island. The colonists of New Hope had been in contact with the other colony via radio until the signals had stopped fifteen years ago. Blane feared the worst but wanted to settle the mystery.

  As they circled in from the air, they saw the forest had overrun the decrepit buildings. The colony appeared lifeless. Landing confirmed their fears. They searched the empty buildings expecting to find bodies—skeletons, perhaps—but there was no trace of the colonists.

  They spent the morning poking around in the ruins, but the mystery only deepened as they pieced together the final days of the men and women who had lived there. Blane found the colony’s main computer and managed to retrieve what records there were of the end, using auxiliary power from the lander. As they combed through the files, a frightening scenario emerged.

  “It looks like they all went into the Otherworld,” Blane said at last. He leaned back in his seat, his eyes darker than ever with the pain of his inner demons.

  “And willingly at that,” Ange added, rubbing her forehead. She’d spent the past two hours staring at the screen and a headache pounded at her temples. “No one writes a word of being forced. They welcomed their interaction with the Fa’eries. And they wanted to leave Kyffin for the Otherworld. They considered it a better place to live out their days.”

  “They may be right about that.” Blane sounded bitter.

  “But why did the Fa’erie interact with the whole colony here, but only with you in New Hope?”

  Blane’s expression turned even grimmer. “I have a suspicion. My grandfather on my mother’s side was from this colony. I share blood with these people.”

  Ange got up from her seat to stand at one of the shattered windows. “You think there’s a link to the faerie in your blood? But what about me? As far as I know, no one in my family has ever been to Kyffin.” She shuddered. “I’m beginning to think everyone should get off this damnable planet. With the children gone, New Hope will die anyway. Why struggle on? After seeing what happened here. I’m willing to cram the whole colony on Hawk somehow.”

  She turned around in time to see a muscle twitch in Blane’s cheek. “Not everyone wants to escape Kyffin. As it stands right now, two of the parents don’t want their children to leave with us, and the adults won’t be that much different. Selfish and stupid in my opinion, but there you are. The human race in a nutshell. With luck, I can get most of them to change their minds, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we leave a few behind. Besides, I suspect my brother plans to bring new people in. He’ll want to establish some sort of base on this world as the market for his Scent of Magic grows.”

  “I won’t be a part of that.”

  “I know. And I’m grateful. But the truth is, if Ryol wants to return to this planet and collect his Fa’erie dust once a year, I can’t stop him.”

  “You can refuse to cooperate. You can refuse to call the Fa’erie.”

  “And I will once all the colonists who want to leave are off this planet. But it looks like I’m not unique. Knowing him, he’ll find some way to summon the Faerie.”

  Ange sighed and walked over to the desk where Blane sat. He shuffled aimlessly through some scattered disks as if looking for one last clue to the tragedy all around them.

  Without thinking, she placed her hands on his shoulders, her fingers digging deep into his tense muscles.

  “Ah, that feels good.” A smile crossed his face as he relaxed under her hands. She slid her massaging fingers further up his neck into the tangled mass of his brown hair. The silky strands tangled in her fingers.

  Steel muscle and silken hair. Someone lonely like her but with a heart that cared about his colony, about the Fa’eries and the fate of the world.

  Was it his faerie glamour that attracted her or the honor and compassion she saw in his soul? She lifted her hands and he half-twisted around in his seat to stare up at her. Then he rose in one swift movement and took her in his arms. His mouth covered hers, his lips hungry. A million suns exploded in her loins as she surrendered to his soul-searing kiss.

  She buried her hands in his hair again, hungry for the taste and smell of him. When at last they parted from the kiss and stared into each other’s eyes, Ange knew her heart was lost. It no longer mattered how their passion had started, love had captured her lonely heart. She belonged to this man body and soul.

  Without a word they gathered up their belongings and left the empty colony behind. Ange angled the lander up into a clear sky and watched the island drop away with a feeling of relief.

  They headed southeast until they came to a lush outcropping of emerald green set like a jewel in the glittering sea.

  “That looks promising,” Ange said, pointing to a pristine beach of clean white sand kissed by sea foam waves.

  An eager light appeared in Blane’s eyes. “Know how to swim?”

  She laughed. “I may have spent my life on starships of one kind of another, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen a swimming pool.”

  “The ocean is something else again,” Blane warned. “Especially with two moons. The tides and currents are tricky.”

  “It’s only a swim. How bad can it be? Or does Kyffin have man-eating fish?” She frowned as she tried to remember the name of the fearsome creatures said to haunt the oceans back on Earth. Sharks. That was it.

  “No. It’s quite safe.”

  Ange landed her craft on the long grass that waved in the wind above the beach. A strip of pure white sand beckoned to them.

  “Race you to the water,” she said, drawing in a deep breath of the fresh sea air.

  “I need to find a private spot first.” Blane winked at her. “Behind some bushes. You go on down. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Ange hesitated, but the sparkling blue water called out to her. She spent most of her days and nights in space, staring at the stars. How often did she get to splash in a warm ocean or walk untouched white beaches?

  With a smile at Blane, she ran toward the water’s edge. When she reached the sand, the slippery grains slid under her heavy boots. Wanting to feel its gritty texture under her bare feet, she pulled off her boots and socks. She buried her feet in the sun-warmed sand and wiggled her toes. The breeze plucked at her clothes as if urging her to go further. Why not? With a delighted laugh, she realized she and Blane were alone on the island. No one would see. And if Blane became aroused by her bold display…for once, she would welcome the presence of a lust-maddened male.

  Smiling, she pulled off her clothes. Within moments, boots and pants and her shirt littered her trail to the water’s edge.

  “Quite a show!” Blane yelled from the ridge where the lander was parked. He ran toward her, his fingers already tugging at his tunic. More clothes fell on the sand. Ange plunged into the water, followed by Blane. The warm ocean embraced their naked bodies, and when their lips met amid the crashing of the waves, Ange tasted the salt sea on his kiss.

  They spent the day frolicking in the ocean and laying on white sand under a hot sun, exploring their mutual attraction with kisses and caresses that quickly turned to fierce bouts of lovemaking. Between their sessions of shared passion, they lay side by side and talked. She told him of her miserable childhood as a ship’s brat, hauled from world to world, from danger to danger, never knowing a home or a moment of true security. Even her most beloved possession, the Hawk, was purchased at a terrible price, the compensation for her mother’s accident.

  He told her of his boyhood on Kyffin, so different from her experiences. He’d been rooted to one world, locked in to its tempo and its seasons, dependent on its bounty for survival. She began to understand why some of the colonists might refuse to leave it.

  As they talked, their voices mingled with the endless rhythm of the sea. The even, steady sound of waves whispering over sand soothed Ange’s tense nerves. The tragedy of Kyffin weighed on her. So much invested, so much lost.

  She said
as much to Blane as they sat on the beach.

  He stared into the surging waves with a thoughtful expression. “Flying up here, I saw a hundred better sites where my ancestors could have settled.”

  “I assumed there was a reason the original settlers wanted to be near the mountains. A mineral, perhaps.”

  Blane scowled. “We’ll never know. The colony was financed by private funds, so the information in our records is limited to ‘need to know.’ Anyone who knew the real reason was probably evacuated when the civil wars started in the Federation.”

  “Leaving the rest of you out here to die.” Ange shivered. As a starship captain, she was accustomed to dealing with the sometimes brutal realities of space, but the willing cruelty of humanity never ceased to amaze her.

  She leaned back on her elbows and studied the bright blue expanse above her. She’d traveled the Second Federation and beyond into the dangerous Abandoned Zone but had never found a planet to call home. Not that she’d consider Kyffin a candidate either. At best, it was a minimal dirt ball. Humanity could survive here—given sufficient numbers to maintain some semblance of civilization—but its very location and its lack of valuable resources guaranteed it would never be more than a bit player in the history of the galaxy.

  Except for the Fa’erie, of course.

  Was it a coincidence that the colony had been planted so near to the meadow, right on the doorstep of a mystical portal from one dimension to another?

  “Who founded the two colonies on Kyffin?” she asked.

  Blane turned to face her. He was stretched full length on his side, his chin propped on his hand. His face looked relaxed and peaceful after their long day together. “Rasab je Makab. He was a wealthy entrepreneur of the last century.”

  Ange frowned, puzzling over the mystery. “That’s not a Celtic name, yet so many of the people in the colony seem to be descended from one of the ancient Celtic races.”

  “He wasn’t Celtic at all. In fact, there is some question if he was entirely human.”

  “Oh?” Ange traced a question mark in the sand with her finger. “If aliens and humans have ever managed to reproduce together, it’s never been proven.”

  Blane shrugged. “I’m not saying there’s proof. Only a lot of rumors, some of which were written down in the diaries of the original colonists. They seem to have started because of his unusual appearance. He was uncommonly tall with golden skin and eyes as black as a hole in space, or so they say. There were stories of coming upon him unexpectedly at night—stories that claimed he glowed in the dark.” Blane laughed.

  A chill ran through Ange as she remembered the luminous beings of the meadow. “Any chance he was part Fa’erie?”

  Blane traced a second question mark beside hers in the sand. “Possible. It might explain why he located the colonies here. It could be he knew about the portal close to New Hope and also the one by the other colony.” His expression hardened. “If that’s true, then I carry Fa’erie blood.”

  Ange sat up straighter and folded her arms across her chest. She slanted her gaze at her lover. His incredible attractiveness—was it born of more than the Fa’erie dust? Was it in his blood? The afternoon sun hung low in the sky. It poured down a molten path of light from the beach to the ocean and beyond to the limitless horizon. That path seemed to stretch out into infinity.

  Soon the twilight would be upon them. In a few hours the moons would rise together and their silver light would create another magical path on the sea’s surface. Moonlight, the link between Kyffin and the Otherworld. How closely were the two universes connected? Had the Fa’erie intermingled with humanity?

  A cool wind blew off the ocean and lifted her curls. She shivered. “What makes you think you might have Fa’erie blood?”

  “Rasab had an affair with one of the colony women. He asked her to come with him when they evacuated the colony but she refused. She’d ended their relationship the month before and started seeing another man, one who wasn’t important enough to be on the last ship out. It was only after Rasab left that she learned she was pregnant. She was one of my maternal ancestors.”

  “Maybe the baby belonged to her new lover.”

  “No. She had a DNA test done to be sure. She wrote about the test in her diary, said that the results proved Rasab was the father.”

  “Was there anything unusual about the DNA?”

  Blane’s face took on a faraway look. “Not that I recall. Wait. In one entry, she did call the baby ‘my extraordinary child-to-be.’”

  “So it’s possible.” Ange smiled at Blane. “Maybe that’s why you were the only colonist in New Hope to find the meadow. You were born with Fa’erie blood.”

  Blane sat up and grabbed a branch. He stirred the ashes around a fire he had started from driftwood they’d gathered from the beach. The flames hissed and popped. He glanced at her with an amused smile. “That explains why women are always fighting over me. My innate glamour, I mean. Speaking of glamour, you possess a pretty powerful dose yourself.”

  She offered him a wry grin. “No Fa’erie blood in me. My mother was a down and dirty starship engineer.”

  “And your father?”

  She looked away, suddenly uneasy. She knew nothing about her father beyond his name. Her mother never wanted to talk about the man who’d fathered her. Until now, Ange had assumed she was hiding some affair she was ashamed of. In her later years, her mother had gotten a hefty dose of religion. But what if—

  “I never knew my father.” She stared down and twisted her hands in her lap.

  Blane’s eyes glowed with warmth as he scanned her face. “We are two of a kind—strange blood. Halfbreeds.”

  Icy fingers clutched at Ange’s heart. The memory of a dark velvet voice leapt into her mind. Halfling child. Why had the Fa’erie king used that word?

  Blane leaned toward her and touched her cheek with his strong fingers. “I was attracted to you the moment I saw you.”

  Ange suppressed a shiver of desire. She’d spent years denying her physical urges. But since arriving on Kyffin, her passion refused to be denied. Blane’s constant presence drove her inner temperature to all-time highs.

  This interlude on the beach might be their last opportunity to share their love. Who knew what would happen once she returned to the Otherworld? She cleared her throat and brought up the issue that had tormented her ever since she’d begun to think she and Blane might share a future together. Time to get it out in the open. “I am a starship captain. My freedom to roam the galaxy means everything to me. I won’t be tied down to a single planet. Most men can’t accept that.”

  Blane tucked a finger under her chin and tilted her head back until her gaze met his. “Give me a chance, Ange. I’d be glad to follow you to anywhere in the galaxy you’d care to go.”

  Her breath caught in her throat at the thought of his muscled body filling her small cabin. She pictured them naked and tangled together on her narrow bunk. Delicious heat spread from her center out to her fingertips. She gazed out at the beach and the lengthening shadows falling across the sand. They were running out of time.

  “Ange.” Murmuring her name, Blane wiggled through the sand closer to her. His hands cupped her face, tipping her mouth upward. His own mouth descended and claimed hers in a fierce kiss.

  She surrendered to the moment of bliss. Her mouth opened without resistance and let his tongue slide in. She moaned with pleasure as he swept her mouth and tangled her tongue with his in a fierce, sensual demand.

  As if Kyffin itself sensed her desire, the waves surged higher and rushed toward the shore with a new urgency. The tide must be coming in. She opened her eyes. Over his shoulder, she could see the tremendous curve of a wave arching above the beach before collapsing in a shower of sea foam. The afternoon sunlight danced across the sea and along his skin turning it a deep red bronze. High above in the deep azure depths of the sky, a single star appeared as if heralding the coming night.

  Regret clutched at her heart. No mo
re time. She must leave him. She had to get back to the meadow tonight while there was still a chance of solving this mystery. But first…she closed her eyes again and concentrated on plundering his mouth as he had ravished hers. This time he tasted of the hot summer sun and starlight. He tasted magical.

  Laughing, she leaped to her feet and ran down the beach toward the sea, sand flying as she splashed into puddles left behind by the waves. The warm ocean surged over her feet as she plunged toward an incoming curve of a whitecap. Delicate sea foam clung to her naked breasts. Reflected starlight sparked in the heart of the dark waves that crashed around her, showering her with spray.

  The waves withdrew again in a long, sibilant hiss, pulling sand out from under her feet as they gathered and mounted into another crest. She floundered in the water and would have fallen except that Blane caught her. Their naked, wet bodies slid over each other as they splashed and laughed, fighting for footing.

  Breathless, Ange turned back to the shore. She stopped on the damp sand where the waves died in little rivers of foam and watched Blane emerge from the sea. His dark hair was plastered around his head and his magnificent wet body gleamed in the golden light of day’s end.

  The air was cold after her frolic in the waves. She sat down in the shallow water, letting its warmth soothe her. Blane dropped at her side, the long sweep of waves washing over them both. They cuddled on the wet sand, the water surging in eddies around their legs and hips, and he kissed her again with sea-salt kisses, deep and long. His hands, wet with sand, trailed gritty pathways down her sides and across her abdomen. He sucked drops of seawater off the curve of her breast and teased her nipples into aching peaks with the warm caress of his tongue.

  Sea spray drenched them as a heavier wave came crashing in. Silver rain poured over their bodies in a warm shower. They both gasped for air, laughing, and then Blane caught her nipple in his mouth. Water swirled between her legs and his tongue teased her taut flesh.

  Molten heat pooled in her loins. She wanted to lie down and open her legs in invitation, but the crashing waves threatened to drown her if she tried. Instead, she rolled up on her hands and knees, bending over to raise her buttocks into the cool air. The movement, the restless water sliding over her damp thighs and swirling around her legs, all made her tremble with desire.