Poison and Potions: a Limited Edition Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by Erin Hayes

  Chapter Twelve

  Alec had been hard on Adira. Perhaps too hard. But in the end, his body was more bruised and wounded than hers. Although her instinctive reactions still relied heavily on physical ability over magic, she was fast and she was strong, so when she did come through with magic, it made her a fair match, even for him.

  And yet, looking at her, he felt defeated in an entirely different way.

  She sat on the ground, her head tipped back against the wall. As she tried to catch her breath, her chest heaved, drawing attention to her breasts. Sweat had soaked her clothing, turning her shirt sheer and revealing the outline of her nipples.

  Alec crouched in front of her. “Had enough?”

  She laughed, but winced as she did so. “Don’t make this about me,” she said. “You’re the one losing.”

  Wetting his lips with his tongue, he reached out and flicked his thumb over one of her nipples. “Do you always fight so…freely?”

  She smacked his hand away, though her face flushed even more. “You try fighting with a bra on. Then we’ll talk.”

  “I wasn’t complaining. I merely wonder if you only won because of how…distracting you are.”

  “Hmmm,” she purred, sitting forward. Her hand slipped to the inside of his thigh, and his throat closed up. “I’m not the only one who likes to be free when I fight.”

  Alec stared into her eyes, a fire starting in his pit, waiting to see what she would do. But she just sat back again and closed her eyes.

  “I won because I’m better than you,” she said. She peeked one eye open, then closed it again, smiling.

  She was teasing him.

  “You won because I let you,” he said. Which was true. She was a fair match for Alec, but she couldn’t beat him. Maybe one day, but not yet. “Maybe next time I won’t be so easy on you.”

  “I’m counting on it.” She took a deep breath before opening her eyes and standing. “It’s late. You should probably go.”

  He rose to meet her. “I should, but we need to clean up those wounds first. That cut on your thigh went pretty deep.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’ll remind you that you’re the one who did that to me.”

  She pushed past him and started toward the exit, but the way she was limping, he knew she needed helped.

  He came up behind her and swept her up into his arms. “You’re too proud for your own good,” he said. “Come on. I’ll take you upstairs.”

  He didn’t wait for her to respond. Just carried her upstairs and set her down on the bed. While she changed into a fresh set of clothes, he stopped off in the kitchen downstairs to get her a plate of a food.

  Miss Balek handed a plate for him as well. “She okay?”

  “She will be, ma’am,” he said, though he wasn’t sure how true that was. Would she heal from today’s wounds? Yes. But what about the life ahead of her. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

  He rushed off before Miss Balek’s cloudy eyes could see through him. When he reached Adira’s room, she was already changed into her nightdress, laying on the bed with her wounded leg elevated on a pillow.

  “Do you need anything?” he asked.

  “My life back,” she muttered. “Or at least some of my things from home. It’s bad enough I’m sleeping on borrowed time. I don’t want to sleep in borrowed clothes, too.”

  “I’ll get your things,” Alec said without thought.

  Adira’s eye popped open, and she looked at him as though seeing him for the first time. “Really?”

  He swallowed, a weird feeling forming in his stomach as he looked at her. “Just tell me where to go and what to bring back.”

  She leaned over and reached inside the nightstand drawer, then pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. She scribbled something, then handed it to him.

  “It’s a map.”

  He looked at from a few directions. “Is it?”

  Adira rolled her eyes. “The star is my place. The skull is the Regent’s castle.”

  Alec dropped the hand holding the map to his side. “Really, Adira?”

  She smirked. “There’s a list on the bottom. It’s not much, but I think you owe me every last thing.”

  Damn, girl still had some fight left in her, even after all their sparring.

  “Consider it done,” he promised.

  Alec pulled the bedside chair toward the end of the bed, closer to her thigh, and retrieved a small pouch from his hip. Inside were three vials. He’d intended them for himself, but her wounds were worse than his.

  “I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard,” he mumbled, more to himself.

  She frowned. “You should have pushed me harder.”

  Alec shook his head and opened the first vile. “Lavender and Tea Tree,” he said. “Blessed by the Regent.”

  “No, thank you,” she said. “I’ll heal myself.”

  She mumbled something and waved her hand toward her wound, but nothing happened. Again, she tried, this time growling under her breath afterward.

  “Have you ever been able to heal yourself before?” Alec asked.

  Adira glowered at him. “I’ve never had to.”

  Well, she wouldn’t like what he was about to say next. “I don’t think it’s going to work. Even before the world divided, not all of the Othala Witches had been able to heal. That’s why there had been so much disease. The best we have now is a witch’s ability to enhance the natural properties of nature in medicine.”

  “Then I’ll take my chances letting nature heal it on its own,” she said.

  “And yet you bought cloves from the Regent’s dispensary?”

  Adira sat up a little, a scowl marring her features. “I will never take more from that man than I absolutely need.”

  Alec pushed her back into a lying position. “Well, you absolutely need this,” he said. “You can hate the Regent later. For right now, we need to disinfect the area.”

  He smeared a few drops of the oil over the gash in her thigh, then took out a second vial of Neroli and Sage. That would help the wound heal and prevent any scarring. He lifted a third vial.

  “I’m leaving the helichrysum and rosehip seed with you. Use it. I’m not playing games, Adira. Your pride about this will not be cute. The potion will speed healing, and you need to be at your best in time for the Display.”

  No sooner had he spoke the words than he regretted them, but there was no sense pretending that wasn’t where all this was headed. She at least deserved for him to be forthright and honest with her.

  “Then maybe you shouldn’t have cut me so deep,” she hissed at him.

  “Just moments ago, you said I should have gone harder on you.” Alec slipped his hand up her thigh a little higher, above the wound and below the hem of her short nightdress. “If you try to make me feel guilty for training you properly, I will not wait until tomorrow to do just that.”

  “I’m not the only one here who doesn’t know what they want,” she said, challenging him. “You’re so conflicted you don’t know whether you’re coming or going.”

  “Watch your mouth,” he warned. “Unless you prefer I give you something else to do with it.”

  Her cheeks flared red again. Adira’s stared at him, eyes wide, but he held his gaze steady. He hadn’t said what she had in mind—he’d meant he’d give her the need to use her spells—but her blush told him her thoughts had drifted to another place, and that had his thoughts drifting now, too.

  His hand slid a little farther up, until his fingers grazed over top her underwear. Heat radiated from between her legs, and the moisture through the fabric told him she’d been waiting for this touch long before he’d considered giving it to her.

  “Adira…” He shook his head. He wanted to add, “We can’t do this,” but the words wouldn’t come out.

  He couldn’t sleep with her. That would be wrong. But they’d already kissed, more than once, shared more than a few intimate touches. His finger slipped beneath her underwear and slid between her fol
ds. Fuck, she would probably do anything he asked. And he was going to turn her in. He was starting to wonder if that really made him noble…or if it made him a monster.

  She squirmed beneath his touch, and he dipped his finger inside of her. Where did he draw the line? How far could this go before it become unforgiveable? He pressed inside deeper, his heart pounding, his cock throbbing with jealousy.

  It probably wouldn’t fit anyway, he told himself, but it didn’t stop him from wanting to try. If he went slow enough, he might be able to do it without hurting her.

  Adira was moaning now, and Alec’s desire was becoming painful. If he didn’t stop soon, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. Only she would be able to stop him then, and he knew she wouldn’t. In the arena, she needed to be strong, but here…it was on him.

  He removed his hand, clenching his jaw, and turned away. “You should eat,” he said as evenly as he could. “Get your strength back up. Today was hard. Tomorrow will be harder.”

  The next morning, Alec woke with a start. He sprung up, nearly falling off the narrow bed, and glanced around the room. Shit.

  How could this have happened? How could he have fallen asleep here?

  The Regent would be wondering where he was, where he had been all last night.

  His attention flashed back to the bed. Adira slept, her chest rising and falling in quiet breaths.

  He’d tried to leave. He’d gone as far as the end of the drive before turning around and heading back inside, back upstairs to her room. Maybe they couldn’t have what they want, but it was wrong to just walk away like that.

  When he got back to her room, she was sitting on the edge of the bed.

  “Sorry,” she’d said.

  He shook his head. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. It is what it is.”

  Then he’d laid her back down and climbed on the bed beside her, barely balancing on the sliver of mattress remaining. He’d planned to stay only a little while. Just until she’d fallen asleep. He’d closed his eyes, thinking a few moments would recharge him for the hike back to the castle.

  And now look what had happened.

  Instinctively, he glanced toward a window to gage the time of day by the placement of the sun in the sky, but was soon reminded the cause of the room’s lack of light. Those damn boarded up windows. He understood them well-enough, but right now, they left him in the dark in more ways than one.

  He switched on a bedside lamp and peered over to Adira once more, his gaze sliding down the length of her body. She’d fallen asleep on top of the sheets, and her nightgown had ridden up on her hips while she slept, revealing the bottom curve of her ass and leaving nothing more than a shadow to hide the space between her legs.

  His body responded immediately, and he forced himself to turn away. Damn her, she was even sexy when she was sleeping. It only made things harder knowing that, if he really wanted to, he could climb between her legs and kiss her awake and she would open herself to him.

  But despite the way his throbbing cock begged him to do just that, he knew he could not. She was destined to be Queen. Where once he thought it only a possibility, he was now certain. The way she had fought him yesterday left him no doubt. Besides, even if it wouldn’t be utterly unforgivable and immoral for him to sleep with her in that way, he needed to leave. Hours ago.

  The Regent might be looking for him. And he couldn’t have the Regent looking for him while he’s with a witch in hiding. If he was found here, the Regent wouldn’t top at killing Alec. He’d kill Miss Balek, too. Probably even take the female children and hold them they were old enough to be tried as potential brides.

  No…the Regent wouldn’t go that far.

  Would he?

  Alec’s chest constricted. He wasn’t thinking straight. He never did when she was around. He’d let her shake his loyalty to Dvorak, his loyalty to protecting the sector. In the end, he could not let his emotions sway him from what needed to be done. She had eight days left. He would help her train, and then she would meet her fate.

  He touched his fingers to the runic symbol he’d put on her wrist back in the alley and removed it. She wasn’t going anywhere. The least he could give her was his respect and trust, not treat her like an animal to be tracked by some marking.

  Maintaining his will-power to not look at her—not even once more—Alec left her room and shut the door behind him.

  How would he survive her living under the same roof as him? If she defeated the Ravager, she would be Dvorak’s bride. She would sleep down the hall from him every night.

  If Adira became Queen, Alec’s life would become torture.

  Chapter Thirteen

  When Adira awoke, she was not surprised to find Alec gone. In fact, her only feelings of surprise lied that he had come back at all the night before.

  Her feelings about that had been mixed, though. Could a person be thrilled to see someone and yet so mortified by their presence that they wished never to see that person again?

  Apparently, yes.

  But one thing was for sure: the attraction did not go one way. Alec just had far greater self-control than she did, and she hated him for it. Of course, there were more important things she could hate him for, but none of those things mattered today. Today she needed to focus on her magic.

  She skipped breakfast to spend the first few hours of her morning studying the spinning top. Someone, at some time, had put an enchantment on the enchanted object to block the enchantment. It had been done. Which meant it was possible, even if no one here knew how to do it.

  Essentially, it must have been some kind of blocking or masking spell, because it wasn’t that the original enchantment had been removed. That was still there. When the negative charge was lifted, the positive charge shone through. Adira could see the value in that. But how much more valuable would it be if Adira could block herself?

  Adira held the top in one hand while paging through the book Alec had given her in the other. The Othala Witches had unimaginable power, and yet, the Ravagers had still taken over the world. The Othala Witches could cast enchantments that were self-sustaining…and yet they couldn’t heal things. The Original Sixteen had been some of the most powerful beings in all of history. And yet, it hadn’t been enough.

  So where did that leave Adira?

  Yes, she was the most powerful witch in Miss Balek’s home, but would that be good enough?

  She closed her eyes as she studied the energy on the top once more.

  Blok, maska, skrývat. Block, mask, conceal.

  Would that work? Did she need to user her magic differently to do it? The energy was a pull instead of a push, so perhaps she needed to pull the magic in instead of out. However someone did such a thing, she had no idea.

  Adira sighed and flopped back on the bed. This was a waste of time. The only way to test if it even worked was with the witch tester device, and Alec wasn’t going to help her with that. Despite how he might feel, at the end of all of this, he was turning her in. And with each passing day, she started to feel more and more like maybe he was right in doing so.

  If it wasn’t her, it would be someone else until eventually it was her. Or until the Dvorak’s magic finally went kaput and the Ravagers came to kill them all.

  Adira sat back up, leaving the book on the bed, and spun the top once more before heading downstairs to the training room.

  When she stepped inside, the room was as bustling as it was the first day. Had she dreamt of yesterday? No, of course not. She had the wounds to prove it. Today she would just be training with a larger crowd.

  Instead of the usual groups of two, though, everyone was sitting around one of the chalk circles. She took a seat on the floor beside Erik and Anastazie.

  “What are we doing?” she whispered to Erik.

  The witch boy nodded to some of the kids across the room, who sifted through a basket. “Miss Balek gathered more runes last night.”

  “She what?” Adira asked, her eyebrows stitching together. “
From where?”

  “The outskirts. She goes every few weeks and collects the broken pieces from different areas of the Sector.”

  “What about the Ravagers?”

  Erik shrugged. “The Regent stretches the magic between the good rune posts, so it’s safe. She just doesn’t get the pieces that end up on the outside.”

  Adira worried at her lip, looking over at the cheerful Miss Balek. She still thought it was a bad idea. What if another rune broke, or the magic failed from being stretched too far? She shouldn’t be going out to the outskirts alone.

  Anastazie passed the basked to Adira. “Your turn.”

  “To do what?”

  “To see if they make sense to you, duh.”

  Oh, so that’s what they were doing. “Okay, so it’s like a puzzle,” she said, but when she looked down into the basket, she saw that all the stones were broken perfectly in half. “That’s weird.”

  Erik leaned into her, peering over her shoulder. “What is?”

  She held a half-stone in each hand. “Don’t you think if they crumbled or broke naturally, they wouldn’t be so perfectly split in half?”

  The witch boy rubbed his hand against the scruff on his chin, reminding Adira that he wasn’t exactly a boy. “I never thought about it like that.”

  Adira tossed the pieces back into the basket, but as Erik reached to take the basket away, she snatched his wrist to stop him. “Wait a minute.”

  He lowered the collection back down, and she lifted out one of the pieces.

  “I know this one.”

  “What do you mean—”

  “Miss Balek!” Adira called. “Can you come here a minute?”

  The old woman circled to where Adira was sitting, and Adira stood to greet her. “Are these all the pieces you have, or just the ones from last night?”

  “Last night,” she said. “Why?”

  “When you find the pieces, are they together?”

  Miss Balek nodded. “I see where you’re going with this. Let me get you the other baskets.”

  Adira took the collection she had over to a long table on the side of the room and spread out the broken runes.