by Erin Hayes
Erik came up behind her. “What’s going on?”
Adira started spreading the pieces out and facing the markings up. “It’s too perfect. And then it doesn’t work. See?” she asked, lining the runes up. “All of them could fit together, but none of them line up.”
“So?”
“So…the rune posts are each at least a yard apart. Miss Balek would know when collecting them which ones go together. And yet no one has ever been able to line any up in any of these baskets.”
Miss Balek arrived at the table with a few baskets stacked into one another. “This is everything we have,” she said, setting them down. “Let’s see what you can do.”
Adira laid out the additional rune pieces the same as the other ones and assessed them. “Erik, has anyone been able to line any of these up before?”
“Maybe once or twice, but no one has been able to repair them.”
Adira pursed her lips. “The Regent can’t repair them, either. Is that why we’re doing this?”
“I guess… Why? Do you think you can repair them?”
One of the rune pieces stood out to her. There was something familiar about the pattern. She’d seen it before…somewhere.
On Alec.
That was the mark placed on all the Witch Hunters.
She picked up the piece and showed it to Anastazie. “Think you can find another one that looks like this?”
The little girl nodded.
“Lots of lines, more than most of the other pieces have, okay?”
While the girl sifted through, Adira turned a few other runes over in her hand. This was intentional. Someone didn’t want these runes to be repaired.
Anastazie bounded back over to Adira. “I found it! I found it!”
She took the stone from the girl’s hand, looked it over, and then smiled. “Excellent work. Let’s see what we can do with this.”
Turning back to the table, Adira picked up the first familiar piece again and held the two stones together. The markings lined up. That was a start, and enough of a breakthrough for everyone huddled around to gasp.
Erik placed his hand on her forearm. “You can do this, Adira.”
She focused all of her energy on the line dividing the two pieces in her hand. “Opravit.”
The stone edges began to erode and blur, mending back together until it was one piece. This time, Adira gasped. Before coming to Miss Balek’s home, she’d only used spells she’d practiced in private for months, and none of them had ever come to her on the first try, with such ease. This was surreal.
Something rumbled behind her, followed by a loud screeching that shook the ground. She spun around. On the other side of the room, one of the plows had reanimated and was now dragging its iron moldboard across the concrete.
“Oh, wow,” Erik whispered from beside her. “Now what?”
Miss Balek came up beside them. “Now someone needs to stop it before it puts a hole in my wall.”
Adira shook her hands at her side, trying to clear her mind. So some of these runes weren’t just runes that protected the Sector. Some of them powered objects, which would explain why nothing else anyone had done had been able to do anything with that plow until now. But she wasn’t about to destroy the rune if she didn’t have to.
This was the purpose for negative spells.
Suddenly, it made sense. The Othala Witches had cast enchantments for objects to power themselves. Then some objects had been given negative spells to keep them on hold until they were needed.
Adira still didn’t know how to do that, though. She could only guess. The object needed a pull. Adira just needed to direct her magic differently. Normally, her magic was explosive. This time, it needed to be concise. She needed to confine the space, create a vacuum.
Her dad had taught her about that when she was little, though she hadn’t realized at the time it could ever pertain to her magic. Still, it was the only way she knew to create negative energy.
Stalking closer to the crawling machine, Adira braced herself and focused her energy through an imagined tunnel. “Blok.”
It didn’t come out sounding very confident. And it didn’t work. Either because she just wasn’t capable, or because she did it wrong, or because she’d used the wrong word. She didn’t know. There were too many variables. But the plow was approaching the other side of the room, and Adira needed to stop it before it took the house down.
“Maska,” she said, more confidently, focusing on her attention to mask the enchantment to funnel it into a negative energy.
Still, nothing. The plow was barely a few feet from the wall now. Adira stood in its path and held out both her arms, creating a tunnel with her hands. This had to work.
“Skrývat!” she said.
The plow didn’t stop. Adira didn’t move.
“Try again,” said an older male witch. Jedrick was his name, if she recalled, though they’d not spoken much before.
Somehow, though, that was more motivating. He barely knew her and still thought she could do this.
She tried again, putting all of her confidence and energy into it. “Blok! Maska! Skrývat!”
Finally, the plow slowed, then came to a halt just as it pressed against her toes. She let out a slow breath, feeling as though she might faint, while the rest of the room cheered.
Against all odds, Adira had figured out the most useful piece of magic she could ever use to protect herself—the ability to conceal it.
An exciting development, here at Miss Balek’s home for witches. Things had been accomplished today that had never been accomplished before. Things that solidified Adira’s worst fear.
She really was destined to be the Regent’s Queen.
Over the next week, Adira trained harder than ever before. Accepting her fate gave her the motivation she needed to follow through. She even used the helichrysum and rosehip seed on her wounds to be sure her injuries would be as healed as possible before she had to face the Ravager. Alec followed through as promised, first bringing her a satchel of items from her home, and also in making each day of training more severe than the day before.
The ups and downs of their relationship, if you could call it that, leveled off. He still refrained from sleeping with her, but when they were together, he was with her. He tortured her with his kisses, teased her with his touch, and, when she trained well, rewarded her with some of the most pleasurable sensations she had ever felt in her life.
Still, Adira wanted more.
She closed the door when he followed her up from training on the twelfth day and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Tomorrow is the last day,” she said quietly. “Then what we have is gone.”
He took one of her hands and brought it to his lips, kissing her fingers. “What we have will never be gone, Adira.”
“Might as well be.”
He lifted her up and plopped her down on the bed, then kneeled between her legs. “I thought you knew better than to run that mouth of yours?”
Normally his digs would make her blush or smile, but not tonight. “Do you think the Regent knows something is up? From your absences?”
“He thinks I’m out looking for you.” Alec sighed. “Well, not you specifically. But someone like you.”
“And you think that when we are all living in that castle, he’s not going to know? You think you’ll be able to hide how you feel?”
Alec leaned over her and kissed her deeply, then pulled away.
“It’s not me you should be worried about,” he whispered against her lips. As his hand slid up her thigh and under her nightdress, her hips swerved in response. “Can you hide how you feel?”
He slid her underwear to the side and worked his finger inside of her. She moaned against his lips, and her ears burned with heat. His thumb rubbing against her clit and his finger working inside of her quickly pushed the more serious thoughts from her mind.
His lips tickled her ear, and he whispered, “Tell me what you want.”
She pull
ed his mouth back to hers again, kissing him. “You know what I want,” she said. “Tell me what you want.”
They both wanted the same thing, of course, but he wasn’t going to give it to her. She’d spent nearly two weeks trying already. Adira slid her hands between his legs to rub the head of his cock through his pants, and he bit her lip.
“No, Adira.”
She didn’t stop. His hands came out from under her nightdress and posted on the bed on either side of her, and his body rested down against hers, his cock straining against the inside of her thigh. She grinded against him.
“Come on,” she whispered. “We don’t have much time left.”
She pushed out from under him, and he had to roll to get beneath her to stop from falling on the floor.
“We can’t,” he said.
“Okay,” she said quietly. She leaned down and nipped at his ear. “Let’s see what we can do, then.”
She trailed her kisses down his neck and chest, and traced her tongue in small circles on his abs, over his hip, and along the waistband of his pants.
Slowly, she untied his pants and slid them down. He didn’t stop her, but his gaze followed her cautiously. She took him into her mouth, swirling her tongue around the head of his cock until his head dropped back against the pillow and he groaned.
She paused, peering up at him. “Should we stop?”
Alec ran his fingers through her hair, taking hold, and pulled her mouth back down over him again. His hips pumped up until he nudged the back of her throat, and he cursed under his breath.
She could probably get him to fuck her now, but she couldn’t live with him knowing she’d had to manipulate him into it. He’d been clear that was the line. Anything but sex. As far as she wanted to go, he would take her—anywhere but to that point.
But he was only human, and he deserved something to remember her by.
Adira tried to take more of him into her mouth, but the effort made her gag, and he pulled her back just enough to relieve her. His hand on her head guided her up and down along his shaft until his cock got so hard it made Adira start to moan, too.
Her mouth vibrated against him, and his hips pushed himself a little farther into her mouth, then held her head still as a warm salty liquid squirted across her tongue and down her throat.
When it was done, he pulled her up against his chest and pressed a kiss along her the widow’s peak of her hairline. “I knew that mouth of yours had to be good for something other than your smart attitude.”
She play-slapped his arm and peeked up at him. He was smiling. This is what it felt like for the world to be right.
The truth was, there was no hiding how Adira felt. At least not the lust and attraction that swam through every cell in her body whenever Alec was near.
But it was more than that, too, and Adira wondered if that was the part neither of them would be able to hide.
Chapter Fourteen
The closer it came to the day Alec would turn Adira in, the harder it became for him to sleep. With today being their last full day together, Alec could hardly keep his eyes closed. Around three in the morning, he gave up and lied down, staring at the ceiling instead and trying to image a tomorrow where Adira slept just a few doors down.
That was half of why he couldn’t sleep. The visions played out in a multitude of ways, but none of them the way they should. Sometimes, he couldn’t imagine her there at all. If he forced himself to envision her with the Regent, his stomach turned. And almost every effort to picture her in that room ended with him sleeping with her, which inevitably led to the Regent finding out and banishing him from the Sector. A certain death.
Despite his inability to envision the future, the fact remained that turning her in was the right thing to do.
He told himself this a dozen times, but other thoughts shouted louder.
Another woman could be Queen. The Regent didn’t care which witch filled the role. It didn’t have to be the woman Alec loved.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. Love?
The things he’d done to Adira—and more important, the things he would do to her—those were not things you did to someone you love. But it was the right thing to do. As much as he wanted to believe there was another witch out there who could fill the role for her, he knew as well as she did that there was not. She was the strongest witch he’d ever met. Even stronger than the Regent. She was a sure thing.
But what if she’s not?
Perhaps Alec should have spent the last thirteen days looking for someone else instead of training her.
With a growl, Alec sat up in his bed and clutched his head in his hands. This was ridiculous. Emotions had no place in his role as lead Witch Hunter. Adira’s fate was to face a Ravager and marry the Regent. Her destiny was to bring forth an heir. Maybe in another time or place things could have been different—should have been different—but in this time and this place, this was the way things needed to be.
He should just sleep with her. If he did, he might be able to finally think straight.
Alec reached into his bedside drawer and retrieved a bottle of whisky the Regent had given him for his loyalty.
He couldn’t sleep with her.
Adira didn’t belong to Alec. She belonged to the Regent. She had never been his to kiss, to touch, to taste. He’d already crossed the line, and though all the excuses he’d made along the way would mean nothing in the end anyway, he simply could not take it any further.
He stared at the bottle in his hands, then twisted the cap open and took a burning swig.
Alec had it all wrong. He didn’t owe his loyalty to the Regent. He owed his loyalty to the Sector. That didn’t change what he had to do, though, as much as he wished it would.
He set the whiskey on the nightstand and blew out a thin breath.
Shouldn’t Adira belong to herself?
Alec drank until there was nothing left. No alcohol, no emotion, nothing but the plain truth: Alec could not resist that woman forever. If she lived here, Alec would have her eventually. That left him with only one option.
He had to leave.
He had to turn Adira in, leave the castle, and never return.
Regent Dvorak stopped Alec on the way out the door.
“It’s been nearly two weeks. How haven’t you found someone already?”
Alec didn’t lift his gaze to the Regent. “I’m close.”
“Close to what?” Dvorak snapped. “How can you be close and not have someone? It’s never taken you this long before. Need I remind you what’s at stake?”
That was the last thing Alec needed. He remembered that just fine. Perhaps if he could forget, he wouldn’t be so damn tormented.
“No, Sir,” he said, finally looking up at the Regent. “The truth is…”
Dvorak raised his eyebrows and rolled his hand. “The truth is…get on with it.”
Alec pulled out the witch tester device. “The truth is, I wanted to find the right witch this time. I altered the settings to find someone stronger than the witches we’ve found before. Then I couldn’t figure out how to change it back.”
The Regent snatched the device from his hands. He shook it at Alec. “This isn’t a game, Alec! Now I’ll have to recalibrate this!”
Alec scowled but forced the muscles in his face to relax before addressing the Regent. “Like I told you. I’m close to finding someone. Didn’t think I should waste the day just because I didn’t have a device. If you recall, I’ve done this job for years without the witch tester.”
Dvorak pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to walk away before I do something I likely wouldn’t regret but don’t have the time to deal with.”
But before the Regent made it very far, he turned back around. “I almost forgot,” he said, holding out his hand. “Your sword, please.”
“My sword?” What did the witch tester have to do with his sword?
“Yes, your sword! Did I stutter? If I have to recalibrate this damn thing,�
� he said, waving the witch tester around again, “I might as well ensure the sword is in working order as well. The enchantment I put on it for you won’t last forever, you know. Which of course you do know, don’t you Alec? That’s why we’re in this whole mess.”
This didn’t feel right, but if Alec resisted, that would cause him a world of trouble he didn’t have time to deal with. He handed over the sword.
“I’ll re-calibrate the device and have it back to you tomorrow morning,” the Regent said. “The sword may take a little longer.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Alec said, stepping toward the exit again.
Dvorak stood in his path. “So then where are you going today?” The Regent’s expression went sour. Eyes narrowed. “Hmm,” he said. “It’s a woman, isn’t it?” he asked, a smile cracking his face. “Well, come on, a man has his needs, Alec. You don’t need to hide it from me.”
He clapped Alec on the shoulder and walked away.
Alec tried to calm his nerves. That whole exchange felt off. Or maybe he was just paranoid because he knew he was doing something wrong. Hiding Adira from the Regent was by far the most traitorous thing he’d ever done.
And yet, turning her in felt wrong, too. But he would do it when he said he would, and that would have to be good enough.
On his way out of the castle, he crossed paths with Constantine. There was just no escaping this place today.
“Alec, wait up!” his comrade called, jogging to catch up with him. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you around in days.”
Almost thirteen days, Alec thought to himself. If he could trust anyone with the truth, it would be Constantine. But he couldn’t trust anyone, and that was the thing.
“I’ve been looking for a witch.”
“The one from the market?” Constantine asked, taking stride behind Alec, who was still trying to distance himself from the castle.
“That’s the one,” Alec muttered. “Has anyone had any luck? Any leads?”
Constantine’s lips pulled down in the corners. “Poof. Gone without a trace.”
“Hmm,” Alec said. He stopped suddenly, turning toward his friend.