He positioned himself between her thighs and she wrapped her legs around him. Their eyes met and locked, as if they both wanted the moment to last forever, and then he moved, slowly at first, each thrust more intense than the last. She held on, arching her body to his, lifting her hips to match his rhythm until she begged for release and he pulsed his seed into her and cried out her name with an exhilaration that sent tears cascading down her cheeks.
• • •
Curled in Aden’s arms in the wee small hours, Rosa asked Aden about his past. “Something happened to you to be so guarded. I’m guessing it was a woman. Tell me about her. What was she like?”
Aden did not pretend he didn’t know to whom Rosa referred. “Her name was Lydia. She was my beloved. She was mortal without an inkling of potential whatsoever.”
It never occurred to her he would fall in love with someone without potential. “How is that possible?”
Aden played with the ends of her hair, letting it fall through his fingers, over and over. Oh, how she could get used to this. “How is anything possible? Do you know anything at all about my story? Has Goran told you anything?”
“Nothing. He said I should ask you.”
“Yet he had every right to reveal the truth. Lydia was Goran’s baby sister, an anomaly in the immortal magical world: born without magic or an ounce of potential in a family of immortals. Her lack of magic set her apart from everyone else. As a result she didn’t venture out into the world but remained at home, hidden mostly from everyone so as not to draw attention to the fact she aged while everyone else in her family did not. When she was eighteen, Lydia convinced Goran to let her assist him on market days in old Londontown by helping to sell his services as a scribe. One day they set their stall next to mine.”
Aden smiled softly, his memories no longer laced with pain. “I was struck dumb by her beauty. You could say her looks and her sweet nature were her potential. After that, I looked for every opportunity to attend market day. With a few well-placed spells, our tables were always set next to each other. I should have known better than to continue seeing her, but from day one, I was infatuated. Maybe I thought things would change. That Lydia would develop potential.”
“You were blinded by your love for each other.” Rosa understood immediately.
“Blind to everything and everyone except ourselves. At first, we hid our romance, or so we thought, meeting whenever we could, but it appeared everyone already knew. Marylebone called a meeting between our two families. They instructed that our liaison could not possibly continue. Heartache would ensue if we followed our current path. Goran did not agree with their decision. My mother was ambivalent. Marylebone was adamant a union between us was unacceptable. Their actions only served to make the two of us a tighter unit. Lydia was inconsolable. I was furious. Within days of the ruling we crept away in the middle of the night, eloping the next day before they could find us.”
Rosa bolted upright. His story was far more disturbing than she’d thought possible. “How did Marylebone handle such blatant disregard of their ruling?”
Aden tugged her down into a fierce hug. “How do you think? I was stripped of my status, made Earthbound for the duration of Lydia’s life. I was lucky they did not bind my magic for the duration. Even so, I was beyond angry and refused to see reason. I suppose I didn’t want to hear the truth. I stopped speaking to my family, virtually ostracizing myself from them. They tried repeatedly to speak with me, but I was furious with everyone. In the end I not only cut my family out of my life, but Marylebone as well as punishment for their lack of support.”
“Oh, Aden.” Rosa pushed his long hair away from his face, peppering kisses over his brow. “I can’t imagine what that must have been like.” Her heart broke for Lydia, a woman she had never known, a woman who had captivated the heart of a young idealistic warlock. Life had done much to harden him since then.
“Don’t get me wrong. I was happy too. We both were. We were together and that was all that mattered. I had earth magic so I crafted silver, made affordable trinkets, and opened a small shop well away from Marylebone and our families. Lydia worked at my side, my partner in every aspect. We did well financially. We wanted for nothing in the material sense.”
Aden hesitated. Rosa thought nothing else would surprise her, but what he said next shocked her to her magical core. “When Lydia fell pregnant, we were overjoyed.”
“You had children?” Rosa didn’t know the outcome, but she knew denying the Fates brought doom. Warlocks’ Ruin!
He shifted his weight slightly, pausing in his explanation, a faraway look in his eyes. “I would not change anything about my past actions. Although I can’t truthfully admit I always thought that.”
Rosa gripped his hand until her knuckles hurt. “You acted out of love.” A blinding knowledge that she could never coerce Aden into binding his magic with hers slammed the gates of her hope shut as he revealed his painful history. “Tell me the rest,” she insisted, knowing there was more.
“We had three beautiful babies. Two girls. One boy.” Aden‘s voice trembled and moisture formed in the corner of his eyes. “None of them born with potential.” His words were raw, wrenched from his heart. A single tear streaked down Aden’s cheek. She thumbed it away, knowing it cost him to tell her the absolute truth.
“You watched them all grow old and … and die.” The man had endured so much. “What about their children?”
“They all were childless in their unions with others. Another punishment by the Fates, it seems.”
To have your children die while you still lived. It broke Rosa’s heart. She stifled the ache in her throat, fighting back the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks.
“There’s something else you should know.” He turned on his side, facing her, resting his head in the crook of his elbow. His free hand smoothed a path down her arm. “About the rose.”
Rosa mirrored his position. Their fingers intertwined, Aden brought her hand to his mouth to kiss her knuckles one by one. “It was mine. I made it.”
“I kind of guessed.”
“I made it for Lydia as a symbol of my love and gave it to her on our first wedding anniversary. A magical rose to bloom for a magical love.”
Rosa’s heart skipped a beat. The rose bloomed for her too. Why? All these years she had worn it without an inkling of its history, and yet here she was in the arms of the man who had crafted that very rose.
“Marylebone gifted it to my mother. Maybe she had an inkling she was about to die, as she handed it to me barely weeks before her passing. I wear it to keep her memory close to me.”
“You must continue to do so. It’s yours now. It was the shock of seeing it that sent me spiraling into a black hole. I’m sorry I frightened you. After my last child passed away, Anton invited me back to Marylebone. I’ve worked my way back up the ranks. Believe me, it’s been a bloody hard road. It took centuries for me to stop wishing I had died with them. I thought nothing would ever draw me out of the despair I’d sunk into. I swore on the death of my last child I would never love or marry another. I would do as the coven directed, carry out their wishes and work tirelessly in atonement. I’ve hurt so many people. My family and Goran in particular. I have much to atone for.”
Rosa didn’t know if she could bear to hear any more. “You have nothing to apologize for. Not in my eyes. Let’s just enjoy what time we have together now.”
Aden jerked up onto an elbow to peer down at her, “That’s what I want to tell you … ”
Rosa shushed him with a finger to his lips. “No more talking.” When he protested, she silenced him with a kiss. Then another and another until he stopped talking and they made love. Sated, they both slept wrapped in each other’s arms, knowing there was much to discuss but not wanting to spoil such a momentous night.
• • •
Rosa snuck from the bed in the early hours of Sunday morning. Aden lay asleep, arm flung over his head, a small smile curling the corners of his mouth upwards. He looked … happy. The bed was a rumpled mess, the top sheet tangled about his legs. She loved him so much. She ached with a love she knew she would have to sacrifice but she would never regret the past few hours wrapped in his arms. Rosa took a final, thirsty look consciously taking a mental snapshot of Aden, knowing it would have to sustain her for a lifetime.
She kissed the tips of her fingers, touched them lightly to her heart and then to his. From me to you, she mouthed silently. I will carry you in my heart. Always.
• • •
Rosa wasted no time in tears, no matter how pathetic she felt. It was her last day as a magical being. The bells would toll for her a final time tonight. She showered, changed, then made her way to Zelda’s.
“Gracious, girl. What is it? You look dreadful.” Zelda led her into her kitchen and went straight to the drinks cupboard. “You need something to straighten that spine.” She thrust an overfull, crystal-cut glass of brandy into Rosa’s hands. “Drink up.”
Limbs heavy, Rosa took the glass, glancing briefly at the clock on the wall. It was ten in the morning. Fourteen hours until witching hour. Until everything would change forever. “It’s no good,” she muttered, more to herself than to Zelda. “Brandy won’t do me any good.”
“Maybe not,” Zelda told her, “but it will make me a whole lot happier. Go on, drink all of it.”
Rosa knocked back a swig. The amber liquid burned the back of her throat. She coughed, and her eyes watered. Do not cry, she sternly instructed herself. No more feeling sorry for yourself!
Zelda topped the glass up. “That’s it. Give yourself a reason to cry if you need to. Now, tell me what the trouble is. By all accounts, last night was successful. The rumor is you went into Lavender Cottage in the wee hours of the morning with Aden. There have been no reports of you leaving the house after that. So why the hangdog face?”
Rosa wondered at what time this rumor made it to Zelda when only the hardiest souls and churchgoers were likely to be out on a Sunday morning. She supposed it was her cronies on the Supreme Council.
“It was wonderful.” Rosa could not hide the truth from the woman who knew her heart so well. “Aden was amazing. It was the best night of my life.” Her lips quivered, damn it, so she downed more of the brandy, the warmth seeping into her chilled veins, giving her the fortitude to remain strong.
Zelda clasped Rosa’s hand. “What’s happened, then, to send you here at this hour?”
“Aden happened,” Rosa’s lips trembled again.
“I don’t understand. Isn’t it what you wanted?”
“Yes!” Rosa tugged her hand from Zelda’s grasp. “It’s what I wanted! But it’s not going to happen. I can’t do it to him.”
“What?” Zelda was shocked by Rosa’s outburst. “What do you mean you can’t do it to him? Can’t do what?”
“I can’t bind my magic with him.” Rosa hiccupped into her drink. She took another swig. “It’s over. The festival is over. I’m not going to find anyone else.” Her voice rose as her next words broke her heart. “I don’t want anyone else.”
“But he’s for you,” Zelda said. “That’s why we sent him to you.”
“But he’s not!” Rosa knocked back another swig. She needed some of that backbone Zelda had mentioned was missing for what she was about to say aloud. “I’m … I’m giving up my magic at the appointed hour tonight. I’m surrendering it so I can remain with my sisters. Marylebone can give it to someone more worthy. I don’t want it.”
“You must have sustained a head injury overnight! Did Aden bang that head of yours against the headboard one too many times.” Zelda’s eye’s held a smidgen of worry in them, her tone stern. “Of course you want your magic. It’s your life’s blood. It’s who you are.”
“Once, maybe. Not any more.” And it was the absolute truth. Aden was her life’s blood now. “He will leave once witching night has passed. He will have no further reason to stay once my magic is gone. I’m never going to settle for anything less than what I feel for him.”
“So he said no again.”
“I never gave him the chance. Once I learned his story, I knew I could not ask him again.”
Consternation shone brightly in Zelda’s eyes, lips pursed into a thin line of vexation. She stood up. Paused. She sat back down. The old woman was more agitated than Rosa had ever seen her. “I didn’t go to the trouble of raising you so you could give up at the crucial hour. You’re stronger than that.”
Rosa endeavoured to explain. “I love Aden. I think I loved him almost from day one, even when I denied it to you all, but … I can’t allow him to bind his life with mine.” She spilled everything she had learned of Aden and Lydia’s past.
“Even so,” Zelda asserted when Rosa finished her tale, “all is not lost until the last second of the last minute of the last hour.”
Rosa was emphatic. “No.” My heart is already lost. “Tonight at midnight, I’ll relinquish my magic. You know what happens to witches who do not do so. They go insane, are hunted down and burned by Marylebone’s dragons until there is nothing left of the body. Besides, I can’t leave my sisters. Especially now, when they’re both so vulnerable.”
“Rosa.” Zelda blinked back an exasperated tear of her own. “They’re vulnerable by their own making. But the bells haven’t tolled for them. Their magic will return. Sacrificing yours is final. There’s no going back if you do.”
A solitary tear slid down Rosa’s cheek to splash into Rosa’s brandy. “There’s no need to tell me what I already know.” Another tear fell.
“My dear, sweet girl.” Just as she had done all those years ago when Rosa’s parents had passed away, Zelda tugged her into her arms and rocked her backwards and forwards while whispering soft words of solace into her hair.
Rosa hiccupped as the brandy smoothed out the edges of her anguish. “Aden needs to wait for the bells. He deserves to find his true mate. An immortal true mate. He will find her one day and forget all about me.”
Zelda tsked. “You are so very, very wrong. What am I going to do with you?”
“Nothing,” Rosa told her. “Absolutely nothing. You’ve done what you could. I’m in charge of my destiny now. I choose sacrifice. Please, don’t even think of interfering.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Acutely disappointed to discover Rosa gone upon awakening, Aden lay in his bed, his hand splayed on the sheet where she’d lain. Early morning sunshine filtered through the windows, casting light and shadow over his skin. He wished she’d felt comfortable enough to remain at his side. He’d wanted to waken to see her lying next to him, her head on his chest, her hair splayed between his fingers. Still, he smiled, his heart lighter, the burden of his past gone. He’d never expected to feel this way again.
It was time to live. It was a pity Rosa had left so early. He had much to tell her, but if he was to set his decision in motion, it was time he galvanized himself into action. With only the rest of the day in which to act, he surged from the bed, turning his attention to imbuing Rosa’s gift, the scrying bowl he had so painstakingly crafted over the past few weeks, with its final spell. An infusion of love in every particle of silver. And then he created a complex layer of safeguards so it would never tarnish, scratch, or dent. It would be impervious to damage of any kind. Rosa would never suffer the loss of a scrying bowl again.
Wrapping the finished article in tissue paper, he set it down at Rosa’s back door, knowing she would find it upon her return. He had made an attempt to reveal to Rosa last night of what he planned next, but she had effectively silenced him with her kisses. In the light of a new day, the idea that had come to him when dancing on the embankment morphed into a fully formed decision.
But before he c
ould implement his plan of action, he needed to return to his family to advise them of his decision. He owed them that much. A strange injection of happiness as well as sadness spiked his veins, intoxicating, invigorating him into decisive action. The past few hours had been jammed with life-changing events. And now he was about to embark on an even greater change. Creating a link in the veil, he linked with the ley lines surrounding the planet and transported himself from Raven’s Creek to the family enclave in Cyprus within the space of a heartbeat.
• • •
Rosa went directly to Beth’s after leaving a still protesting, worried Zelda. Alanna was there as well as Goran. They sat round the table, the mood in the room festive, all believing Rosa’s future with Aden was now sealed. That she was safe.
When Rosa arrived, her face tear-stained, her aura tainted with anguish, they were all startled out of their chairs.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Alanna was the first to speak. “And why can I smell whisky?”
“What happened? What’s Aden done to bring you here so distressed?”
She owed it to them to reveal her decision, as much as it pained her to do so, so once more, she launched into the retelling of Aden’s tale.
Goran remained mute throughout her entire explanation, his lips tight with disapproval when Rosa declared she was to give up her magic. “I cannot allow you to do so.”
“You cannot stop me,” Rosa rubbed at eyes that felt blurry and tired. Tomorrow, when it was all over, she would hide away from the world and re-evaluate her life.
Alanna refused to accept her decision. “Are you crazy? You would give up what is essentially your soul for a stupid, blind warlock? We can hide you,” Alanna insisted as she paced the small room.
“How? I’ve stopped using my magic as a result of its unpredictability. Any hint of distress or anger seems to exacerbate the release of uncontrollable surges from me without my raising a single spell. I could inadvertently hurt whoever was hiding me. It’s too risky.”
The Silver Rose Page 21