Rhiannon raised her eyebrows. If she wasn’t mistaken, the tiny twit was jealous. She frowned. Maybe Galia could grow into a full-size Fae and she and Keir had a thing going?
At that thought, Rhiannon’s cheeks heated. The ass wouldn’t have been after her if he had another woman—Faerie, whatever—would he? Two-timing them both?
Been there. Done that. Had the scars on her heart to prove it.
Keir cut into her thoughts. “Go to our room before I send you back to Otherworld,” he commanded.
Rhiannon blinked. Our room?
She tried to back away from Keir, but he had a hold on one of her wrists. Maybe a good blast of spellfire to his ass was in order.
The Faerie’s angry expression vanished. She bit her lower lip and Rhiannon swore she saw tiny tears glistening in her eyes.
“Please don’t send me back.” Galia wrung her hands and her hovering became more erratic. She looked at Rhiannon and raised her little chin. “But what are you doing with a human?” she said, as though being human was lower than being a Fomorii.
Keir released Rhiannon’s wrist and scrubbed one of his hands over his face. “Damnation, Galia. You do not belong here. I should have sent you home as soon as I found you in my haversack.”
The memory of the small oof sound came back to Rhiannon when she thought about Keir slinging his pack into a corner when he’d first arrived. So, this Faerie was a little stowaway, was she?
“Excuse me.” Rhiannon pushed past Keir so that she was between him and the Faerie. “So nice to meet you, Galia,” she said in a sweet-as-honey voice before she turned and headed up the stairs. “This human witch has other matters to deal with.”
She cast a glance over her shoulder and saw Spirit sitting below the Faerie, staring intently up at her. His tail twitched as if he were about to leap for a succulent treat.
“Come on, Spirit,” Rhiannon said. “Isn’t one rodent a day good enough for you?”
Keir had never seen Galia’s cheeks so red as she stared after Rhiannon’s retreating backside. The imp looked like she could breathe fire. He frowned. For all he knew she could breathe fire. All Fae had different talents and abilities.
“Galia,” he said in his harshest tone possible, drawing her attention back to him. “When I let you out of the room today, you promised to stay out of sight unless I gave you leave.” The Faerie’s shoulders slumped and her coloring returned to normal. “I was so bored.”
“I think it is time you returned home.” Keir braced one hand on the end of the stair railing. “You do not belong here. You need to be back with Fae of your kind.”
Galia fluttered out of his reach. She glanced around the basement and back to him. “I could clean this place, like our room. I’ll make it look just as nice.”
And make it smell of godsdamn lilacs while she’s at it. “No.” His body still raged for Rhiannon, and he was none too happy with Galia for interrupting what was sure to have led to far more than touching and kissing.
He could probably have had the witch, taking her until they were both sated. Then he would have taken her a second time. And perhaps a third.
“Keeeeiiiirrrr.” This time Galia’s voice came out as a whine. She gave a distasteful look at the stairs. “I promise I will not interrupt you and the human again.”
“That is for certain,” he growled. “You will not have the opportunity.”
“Look.” A small glittering pink arrow appeared in her hand and she flung it at the stairs. For one moment Keir thought she was going to burn it down. Instead, her magic hit the stairs and exploded into of puff of pink sparkles that engulfed the staircase and gave off the strong smell of lilacs. When the sparkles vanished, the staircase was spotless and freshly polished. “See?” she said. “I am useful.”
Keir rolled his eyes to the rusty exposed pipes in the basement’s ceiling. Rhiannon and the other witches had been talking about cleaning the basement for the D’Danann. Galia would make that task much easier.
He blew out a huff of air and brought his gaze back to the Faerie. “What about your promise to remain out of sight?” Galia nodded with such vigor that her hair floated around her shoulders. “I promise.”
“Do not show yourself to D’Danann, witches, or humans,” he said, unable to believe he was allowing a compromise.
Her chest rose and fell and disappointment colored her pretty features. “I understand.”
Keir felt a twist in his gut and he wanted to thump himself upside the head for feeling bad about forcing the Faerie to hide.
“Thank you,” he said, with a slight incline of his head, “for setting this room to rights for the D’Danann. I will take you out with me again to see more of this Otherworld.”
Galia gave a delighted giggle and bobbed up and down in the air. “Now?”
“Later.” Keir turned and headed up the stairs. He paused and glanced back at Galia. “What would you prefer to eat?”
The Faerie grinned. “Anything you think I would like.”
Keir nodded and started up the stairs again. “I will see you shortly.”
Rhiannon sat on a couch in the common room, her legs tucked up beside her. Spirit at her side. The cocoa-colored cat had stayed closer to her ever since she had been kidnapped just a few short months ago by the Fomorii.
She’d been saved by Silver, Hawk, and Jake and a few of his officers, but so many witches hadn’t made it.
At this moment the room was filled with D’Danann, PSF officers, and witches, discussing how to get to Ceithlenn and the demons. They had come to the agreement that the goddess must be near the location where they had battled the Fomorii and the Basilisk.
The chattering around Rhiannon became nothing more than a low drone as she petted Spirit and tried to push all thoughts from her mind. Especially those of a certain D’Danann warrior whom she’d almost had sex with in the basement.
Bless it! She didn’t even know the man.
As she reached deep inside her for some semblance of calm, she began to feel light-headed.
Her vision blurred and her ears felt as if they were stuffed with cotton.
Her hand stilled in Spirit’s hair.
Everything went hazy and she felt as if she were being transported out of her body, traveling, traveling. And then she stopped.
Rhiannon found herself in a large and sumptuous penthouse room. She looked at her hands then ran them down her skirt and felt the soft brush of her palms against the material. Her sandals sank into plush carpeting and her chest rose and fell with every breath.
It smelled strange. Like burnt sugar and jasmine.
When Rhiannon raised her head, she saw the vivid image of a woman pacing before a window. Unfortunately, the wooden blinds were drawn so no view could be seen.
The woman turned and Rhiannon gasped.
Sara.
But not. Sara had been a white witch in the D’Anu coven who defected to serve Darkwolf, a Balorite warlock who practiced dark sorcery.
Copper had told Rhiannon how Sara had absorbed Ceithlenn’s essence when the door opened to Underworld.
Sara was even more beautiful with red hair. It wasn’t a natural shade, but it suited her. She now had such interesting eyes—they seemed to shift colors like a wavering mirage. A revealing leather catsuit barely covered her flesh.
Just like the flame-haired being.
Rhiannon’s heart beat faster.
She felt as if she were drifting, dreaming, yet still there, whole, in the room.
Ceithlenn. The name rolled through Rhiannon’s mind and her heart moved into her throat. Sara was the goddess’s human form.
Something stirred in the corner of Rhiannon’s vision and she gave a soft gasp of surprise. Darkwolf. She ground her teeth from thoughts of what the evil bastard had done. If it wasn’t for him summoning the Fomorii, none of this would be happening.
Not far from him was Junga in her Elizabeth form. The sight of her made Rhiannon want to throw up. That bitch had given Rhiannon th
e scars on her cheek.
She looked back to Darkwolf, who stared at Ceithlenn. His handsome features were blank. The stone eye Rhiannon remembered seeing when she’d been captured by the Fomorii still rested on Darkwolf’s chest. But it was cold and lifeless, not the throbbing red that it had often become.
Tension suddenly crackled in the air and Rhiannon’s attention snapped back to Sara—Ceithlenn. She was sniffing the air, her gaze slowly sweeping the room.
Then her eyes focused directly on Rhiannon.
As if Ceithlenn could see Rhiannon there, in the room.
Suddenly a sensation like invisible fingers digging into her brain caused Rhiannon to cry out and drop to her knees.
Ceithlenn grasped at the Shadows deep inside Rhiannon, driving into the places no one should have been able to touch.
Rhiannon screamed from the pain and clasped her hands to her chest as she fell from her knees to her side.
Ceithlenn growled and extended her hand, palm first.
Rhiannon’s heart felt lodged in her throat as she writhed on the floor.
The room seemed to billow. Expand.
A tremendous boom shattered her ears.
Something slammed into her chest.
Excruciating pain filled her mind, her body.
She screamed again before everything went dark.
* * *
Rhiannon’s scream tore across the common room just as Keir walked through the doorway. His heart thundered. He reached her before anyone else and caught her in his embrace as she slumped forward on the couch.
Spirit jumped onto the floor but staggered, as if also affected by whatever was wrong with Rhiannon.
Keir felt the pulse in her neck and relief surged through him to find it sure and strong. Her breaths were so shallow he had not seen her chest move. He ignored everyone as he swept her up. Rhiannon remained limp and pale in his arms.
“What’s wrong with her?” Keir asked Silver as she came to his side.
“She must have had a vision.” Silver pushed a loose lock of Rhiannon’s auburn hair away from her smooth cheek and placed the back of her hand to Rhiannon’s pale skin. “I happened to glance up from across the room and saw she was in a trance—I’ve seen that expression many times.”
Silver’s eyes met Keir’s, a look of fear on her face. “But then she jerked back like something had slammed into her before she screamed. That’s never happened during any of her visions before.”
“Where is the healing witch?” Keir demanded then saw the half-Elvin witch, Cassia, pushing her way through the crowd.
“Up to her room.” Cassia gestured toward the stairs, to the upper-level apartments. “We’ll get her to bed and I’ll take care of her.”
Keir still could not explain why he felt the tremendous need to protect this woman, or why he wanted her so badly. But right now, all he could think about was getting her safe and well.
Holding Rhiannon tightly in his arms, he followed the Elvin witch up the stairs to Rhiannon’s apartment. When Cassia unlocked the door with her magic, it swung open and he caught the light citrus scent he had come to associate with Rhiannon.
Cassia flicked on the lights, revealing a room as bright and colorful as Rhiannon herself. Splashes of reds, yellows, greens, blues, and purples greeted him from lamps and framed pictures, to couches and chairs, to kitchen canisters, towels, and potholders.
Cassia led the way to the bedroom and pulled back the sheets and Keir laid Rhiannon on the bed. Even her sheets were a bright shade of yellow.
Keir took her small hand and gently stroked her fingers as Cassia held her palms over Rhiannon’s chest.
Iridescent sparkles glittered over Rhiannon’s body as Cassia moved her palms above the witch. She looked startled for a moment. “It’s worse than I thought—some kind of blackness is inside her.”
Cassia removed her hands and the sparks vanished. An expression of deep concern was on her face. “I need to get a few things. You leave and let Silver take care of her while I run to my place,” she said, hurrying from the room.
“I will not leave,” Keir growled as he gripped Rhiannon’s hand tighter and leaned over to see her beautiful face.
“Out of the way, you big numbskull,” Silver said as she tried to push past him.
Before he could respond or move, Rhiannon’s eyelids fluttered open. For a moment her green eyes met his, her expression going from puzzled to pleased to very displeased.
Keir gripped her hand tighter. “You will be all right, little one,” he said in Gaelic before he allowed Silver to gently push him out of the way.
He sat in a chair beside the doorway, arms folded over his chest and his legs crossed at his ankles. He did not know why it was so important to ensure that Rhiannon was all right, but it was, and he had no intention of leaving.
10
A force so powerful that it almost flung Darkwolf to the floor rocked the room. Elizabeth’s shocked cry could barely be heard when a sound like a cannon burst in the air.
The walls fluxed in and out, wavy as if made of water. Then everything cleared.
Fury on her features, Ceithlenn stood with her palm out, facing the wall across the room from her. Her hair nearly stood on end and her body reverberated with anger.
Darkwolf tensed. What the hell?
“That witch won’t get in my head again,” Ceithlenn growled.
“Who?” Darkwolf asked, trying not to sound too interested. He’d been a bit obsessed with the witch named Silver from the moment he’d met her, and hoped she wasn’t centered in Ceithlenn’s sights.
“The one you scried in your cauldron. The witch called Rhiannon.” Anger shimmered in Ceithlenn’s eyes.
“The bitch dared to invade my thoughts—twice,” Ceithlenn growled. “I felt her the first time I dined on human flesh and absorbed that human’s soul. But I didn’t see her until she visioned us in this room.”
Ceithlenn’s scowl deepened. “I had the opportunity to read her mind, and you were correct—the witch was one of those who destroyed part of our forces.”
Then she gave a wicked smile that turned Darkwolf’s stomach. “I know the secret she guards so well,” the goddess murmured. “A secret that will be her ruin.”
Darkwolf narrowed his brows. What did that mean?
Ceithlenn approached Darkwolf with that look in her eyes he recognized only too well. She was horny again—and pissed. He didn’t know how much more he could take of her.
He didn’t want her.
He wanted her.
It was slowly making him crazy.
This time Elizabeth stayed in the room with them as Ceithlenn pressed her body against Darkwolf’s. Ceithlenn’s burnt sugar smell and Sara’s jasmine scent almost made him scowl. She bit his lower lip, hard. His damned cock came to full attention as she rubbed her body against his.
“That bitch.” Ceithlenn’s fury obviously hadn’t cooled as she bit Darkwolf again. “She was the one who instigated the invasion and she has paid. And will continue to pay.”
With the power of her magic, she slammed him to his knees hard enough that pain shot through his legs. He ground his teeth to keep from shouting from the agony. She fisted his hair in her hands and yanked him close to her.
“So how does it feel?” She smiled, an eerie light to her eyes, and he knew it was the Sara part of her that spoke now. Sara, a warlock he had dominated much like he’d dominated Elizabeth, before Sara had joined with Ceithlenn.
Could he kill her in her Sara form? He would do it in a heartbeat.
“Tell me,” Ceithlenn urged. “How does it feel to be the one at someone else’s mercy?”
11
Rhiannon blinked and had to clench her eyes tight against the light coming in through her curtains. Dear Anu, her head ached and she thought she might puke.
Despite that, she felt somewhat comfortable, which was a strange contrast. The cool sheets hugged her, the mattress soft beneath. Spirit was curled up against her side and rubbed h
is head on her arm, acknowledging that she was finally awake. Scents of sandalwood and cypress hung in the air and she felt as if oil had been rubbed on her chest, belly, arms, and legs.
Something had happened, but what? She couldn’t quite grasp it. Whatever it was perched on the edge of her thoughts and stayed just out of reach.
She finally managed to get her eyes open and squinted to try to ground her vision. Her whitewashed vanity table and purple dresser drawers came into view, although they seemed to swim a bit. The yellow wall behind them was almost too bright.
Rhiannon blinked again and saw that her bedroom was much cleaner than normal. She wasn’t exactly the world’s neatest person.
How had she ended up in bed?
And jeez, where did this headache come from? She was a witch, for Anu’s sake.
Her skull hurt as she turned her head to see the rest of the room. The open doorway came into view next and then she lowered her brows.
Keir sat in one of her chairs beside the door. His arms were folded and he was looking directly at her.
She blinked. Instead of a leather tunic and pants, he wore a black T-shirt that hugged his muscled chest and a pair of snug jeans that looked so good on him her mouth watered.
Okay, there had to be something seriously wrong with her.
“What are you doing in here?” she asked in a voice that came out rough and dry. Goddess, she needed a drink of water.
Keir leaned forward as he uncrossed his legs and bent his knees. He rested his forearms on his thighs as his gaze held hers. “Are you all right?” he asked. He didn’t sound as gruff as normal and it threw Rhiannon off balance.
She pushed herself to a sitting position and dizziness caused her eyesight to blur again. The sheet fell away and she looked down to discover she was in one of her robes. A royal blue satin one that gaped at her breasts. She hurried to tighten it while she avoided Keir’s eyes.
When she looked back at him, she took a deep breath. “I’m fine.”
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