by C. J. Archer
"Forgotten you?"
"Perhaps not forgotten. Overcome your feelings." There, that explained it. I bit the inside of my lip until I tasted blood.
He merely grunted and strode off again. I grasped his arm and this time did not let go when he tried to jerk away. The movement only brought me crashing into his side.
He tried to prize my fingers off, but I clung on. I was the picture of a desperate female and I ought to have been ashamed of myself. I was not.
"Don't, Cara. Please. We cannot touch."
"Why not?"
His nostrils flared. His jaw hardened. I skimmed my fingers over the bunching muscles and, to my surprise, they relaxed. He heaved out a deep breath and closed his eyes.
After a moment, he opened them again, but stared down at the ground, not at me. "Every time I come here, I must leave again. Twice now, I've come and gone from you—from this realm." His gaze flicked to me then darted away, as if checking if I'd noticed his admission. I'd noticed. My heart lifted. "Last time was…more difficult than the first."
I flattened my palm to his cheek and was surprised when he leaned into it. "And you think this time will be worse."
He inclined his head in a small nod.
Oh, Quin. "It will be for me too." I placed my other hand on the other side of his face and forced him to look at me, but he still did not meet my gaze. "Yet I refuse to think of this encounter as a bad thing. It's a reprieve, of sorts. A few stolen minutes are better than nothing."
He gave a small shake of his head. "It's too…hard."
"Pretending we don't have feelings for one another isn't going to make it easier." I stroked my thumbs over his cheeks, tracing the smooth skin stretched over strong bones. "Ignoring me will only make me miserable."
His gaze finally lifted to mine. I knew then that he had been as unhappy as I had since his departure. "I'd rather you were miserable and safe here than have you think you can find me, and happiness…elsewhere."
It was my turn to look away. I lowered my hands, but he caught them. It would seem his determination not to touch me had melted away.
"You were going to enter the portal to come to me, so Sylvia said." He nodded at the part of the ruins where the portal lay dormant and unseen to human eyes. "Why, Cara? Were you putting yourself in danger in the hope I would be sent to retrieve you?"
"No!" Yes. Perhaps.
It was his turn to grasp the sides of my face and gently force me to meet his gaze. "Don't. Don't do that. Never step through that portal. The chance of you ever seeing me on the other side is so small that it's almost nothing. You have more chance of seeing me here than elsewhere. It was a foolish notion. You're wiser than that, Cara."
His admonishment stung, because he was right. He'd deduced the core of my reasoning without me even knowing it was the reason. I did feel like a fool, and now I felt worse because he saw me as one too. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the accusation in his. Hot tears slid from beneath my eyelids and down my cheeks onto his hands. He caressed them away.
Next thing I knew, I was being crushed against his chest, his arms pinning me, one hand on my lower back, the other at my shoulder. His heart thundered erratically against my ear, far louder than usual. It matched my own, smashing itself against my ribs.
The embrace was a welcome relief but it wasn't enough. I tilted my face to peer up at him but I didn't get the chance to see him properly. His mouth met mine with a passionate kiss that did nothing to settle my heart; there was none of the sweetness of our other kisses. It was all primal passion, as if our gnawing hunger couldn't be sated any other way. It set my skin on fire and banished all thoughts from my mind, all cares. I had Quin in my arms again. Nothing else mattered.
He broke the kiss. I groaned in frustration and tried to lean into him, but he held me at arm’s length.
"People can see," he said shortly.
"I don't care! My friends won't tell anyone."
"The servants…" He swallowed. "Your reputation is too important." He let me go and strode off toward the ruins.
"My reputation is irrelevant now."
He stopped and swung round. "This is why I did not want to kiss you again. I should not have—" He dragged his hand through his hair and growled. "Cara." He settled his hands on my shoulders and peered into my eyes, all earnestness. "Promise me you will not throw away your future."
"I promise."
His gaze held mine for a long moment, then he gave a single nod and let me go. I trailed after him, pleased that I hadn't needed to lie. I did plan on having a fulfilling future. I would just spend it unmarried. To a man brought up with medieval ideals, he probably didn't think spinsterhood could be a satisfying state for a woman.
We reached the ruins and wound our way through the scattered stones and the low, broken walls. The occasional blood spatter provided a grim reminder of the violence the abbey had witnessed both during its lifetime and after. The area where the portal lay hidden was a little cooler than elsewhere, but otherwise there were no signs that anything otherworldly was nearby.
"Will you return with Myer?" I asked Quin as we stopped.
"Unlikely. I'll send him back when I find him."
And return to Purgatory. "What about the book of spells?"
"It's an earthly book, not an otherworldly one. I'll leave it with him." He nodded toward the house. "After I go through the portal, you must fetch Jack and have him remove the book from Myer when he emerges. Keep it safe."
"I'll make it my life's work," I assured him.
He gave me a sad smile. "I know you will. Be careful, Cara. Stay safe."
I bit the inside of my lip to stop it wobbling. I could only nod in response.
He focused once more on the air where the portal was located. It was some time before he spoke again. "I don't know how long this will take. The administrators will guide me but time moves differently in all the realms. You may not have long to bring Jack here."
"I'll fetch him directly."
He took a step forward and I grasped his arm.
"Quin, you made me promise that I would lead a fulfilling life, and I will ask something of you in return."
"You want me to cross over," he said flatly. "That isn't my choice to make."
"You can ask the administrators. Tell them it's time." He had never told me why he was in Purgatory or why he'd been chosen for warrior duties. At some point, I'd given up asking. At the time it didn't seem to matter, but it did now. "How can they refuse when you've served them well?"
"We shall see."
"Promise me you will not toss your future away," I said, throwing his words back at him.
His jaw hardened. "It's not the same."
"Quin—"
"It's for the administrators to decide."
Part of me rejoiced in the knowledge that he could forever be accessible to me in his warrior form. I could summon him if I needed to, and we could take snatched moments here and there. Yet it was no easy ride for him in Purgatory. From what I could gather, it was a place filled with punishments and endless tasks that he was required to complete. Quin now deserved to move on to his afterlife and the next phase of his soul's existence. If it weren't for me, he might already have done so.
"Quin—" My words were cut off by his kiss. It was achingly gentle and filled with longing. I wanted it to go on and on.
He broke away and pecked my forehead. "No goodbyes." He let me go. "Open the portal."
I fished the parchment out of my pocket and unrolled it. I blew out a breath, then another.
"Cara." Quin's voice held only quiet sympathy.
I dared not look at him as I began reading the strange, ancient words. I wasn't even half way through the incantation when a strong breeze whipped around me, snapping at my skirts and tugging my hair. What was happening? The portal shouldn't be opening yet. The entire spell needed to be spoken for that to occur. I paused and looked to Quin for an answer.
He backed away from the intense, swirling wind and
drew his sword. "Get out, Cara!" he shouted at me over the loud whoosh of the wind. "Go to the house and lock the doors."
Oh God. Nothing good ever came through the portal, except for Quin, and he was already here.
"Go!"
I turned and ran. I hadn't even left the ruins when I heard Jack's shout up ahead. "Cara! What is it?"
"The portal…it's opening of its own accord!"
"Go inside." He ran right past me, his otherworldly knife in his hand.
"Be careful!" But he was already too far away to hear me.
I stopped on the lawn and watched the scene unfold down at the ruins. Hannah joined me but not Sylvia. She peered through a pair of opera glasses.
"Please be careful," she whispered.
I clutched her hand and watched too. A figure came through the portal. It stumbled to the ground on hands and knees near Quin. Quin jumped back and raised his sword. "It appears to be a human form," I said.
"My God." Hannah handed me the glasses. "It's Myer."
I peered through the glasses. It was indeed the missing Everett Myer. He picked himself up and smacked dirt off his hands. He wasn't holding the book.
"Come on," Hannah said, sounding relieved. "Let's see what he has to say."
We walked quickly toward the ruins, only to stop again before we reached them. Another human figure was spat out of the portal beside Myer. This one landed on his feet in a fighting stance, a long sword in hand. He was shorter than Quin and Myer, but strongly built. He was naked from the waist up, his long blond hair gathered at the nape of his neck with a black ribbon.
Quin's stance changed upon seeing the newcomer. Even from a distance I noticed his body tense. Although he didn't raise his sword, I knew he was poised to strike if necessary.
I broke into a run. Hannah kept pace beside me and we didn't slow until we reached the ruins. Now that I was closer, I could see the scowl on Quin's face, the angry set of his mouth as he bared his teeth at the stranger.
The stranger had been speaking, but broke off when he spotted us. He edged away from Quin, putting distance between them, and watched our approach with undisguised interest. His lips curled in a slick grin that sent a shiver down my spine.
"Now I understand," he said in an accent similar to Quin's, a little harsher than the French I was used to from my father's speech. It was the accent of the upper classes from the middle ages who spoke both French and English, albeit a more archaic form than our modern languages.
"What do you understand?" Jack asked, moving closer to his wife.
"Don't engage him." Quin's voice was as hard as the steel in his blade, his gaze brutal as it bored into the newcomer.
The stranger chuckled low in his chest. "Which one is yours, St. Clair? Or do they both belong to you?"
Jack stepped forward, but Quin put his arm across his chest and Jack halted. The veins on Quin's neck throbbed. His nostrils flared. I suspected he was restraining himself from thumping the stranger.
I glanced between Quin and the newcomer. "You know this…?" What was he? A man? Demon? Something else?
Quin didn't answer me. He was so intent on the stranger that I wasn't sure he'd even heard me.
"Myer?" I snapped. "Where did you go? Who have you brought with you?"
"I, er…" Myer touched his throat where his collar ought to be. It seemed he'd lost it and his tie and jacket too. His shirt was dirty, with sweat stains beneath the armpits, and his facial hair needed a trim. "I'd rather not say, Miss Moreau. You would not approve, but I can assure you, he means you no harm."
"You stole the book from us," I growled at him. "You hypnotized an innocent man to get it."
Myer snorted. "Lawyers are not innocents."
"Where is the book?"
He swallowed heavily. "I do not have it."
"Where is it?" My voice was not my own. It grated through my clenched jaw, harsh and guttural. Everyone turned to me. Myer flinched.
"It's gone." He held up his hands. "Not my doing! Please, Miss Moreau, this is not like you. You're quite agitated. Such a state isn't good for the delicate female constitution."
I lunged at him, but Quin caught me before I could scratch his eyes out.
The stranger laughed. "You allow a woman to speak to you in such a manner?" he said to Myer.
Myer simply shrugged. "She has a sharp tongue and I can't control what she says."
"You could if you hit her."
Hannah gasped and clamped her hands down on her hips. Quin's arm tensed around my waist for a brief moment then he let me go.
Myer touched his throat again, as if adjusting his absent tie. "A gentleman doesn't hit ladies these days."
"Then you are as weak as St. Clair." The stranger laughed.
"Quin, who is he?" I asked. "How do you know him?"
It was the stranger who answered, not Quin. "My name is Edward de Mordaunt. I was a friend to St. Clair once."
De Mordaunt! I searched my memory for everything Quin had told me about the fellow, but it was so little. He had been a friend to Quin's brother. His relative—a grandfather?—had come to England with William the Conqueror, and his distant descendent was Lord Alwyn, the rakehell who'd been prepared to harm members of my family if I didn't hand over the book of spells to him.
"You were never my friend," Quin growled. "And you were no friend to Guy."
"Ha! It seems you've set aside your guilt. That is unexpected. I'd thought your crime would dog you for eternity. How did you manage to forgive yourself?"
Quin lunged and slashed his sword near de Mordaunt's face. De Mordaunt parried it away, but not before his legs buckled from the force. He recovered and stepped back. A humorless grin stretched his lips wide. "You can't defeat me, St. Clair."
"You should not be here," Quin growled. "Return to the dungeons of your own free will or be sent back."
Dungeons?
De Mordaunt snorted. "You think I would come here without permission? Or without assistance?"
Hannah and I glared at Myer. His eyes bulged and he put up his hands. "Not me! I'm of no assistance in a fight."
De Mordaunt snorted again, this time in agreement. Then he said something under his breath that I couldn't hear.
Quin's fingers flexed around his sword hilt. "Langley, get the women inside! Now!" The words weren't even out of his mouth when he struck at de Mordaunt.
The grind of metal on metal filled the air as De Mordaunt blocked the blow and stepped neatly to the side. He did not stop speaking. Or rather, chanting.
Dread filled me.
"Go!" Quin shouted without taking his focus off de Mordaunt.
Jack gave us both a little shove. "Do as he says. Arm yourselves. Something is about to come through that portal, unless Quin can stop him."
Quin was trying, but every time he drew near, de Mordaunt dodged the strike or parried it. Every bone-jarring blow looked powerful enough to send an ordinary man to his knees, but the two otherworldly men kept their footing. And still de Mordaunt continued his chant. The wind picked up speed, whipping at our faces, sweeping leaves and soil into its funnel. The center of the portal widened. Something would come through at any moment.
I tried to drag Hannah away, but she refused to move.
"Jack!" she screamed over the din of the storm and the clang of metal.
"I have to stay and help," he told her. "If Quin is overset…" His didn't finish. Perhaps he didn't dare contemplate Quin's defeat. I certainly couldn't. "Go now. Please." This last was an appeal that he directed at me.
I pulled hard on Hannah's hand and together we ran, stumbling over stones and our own feet in our haste. "Wait," she said when we reached the edge of the ruins. We turned to look back at the portal and the men, only to see a creature covered in fur tumble through the portal, quickly followed by three more.
Demons.
Myer yelped and ducked behind a crumbling wall before the demons caught his scent. Three of them joined in the fight against Quin and Jack.
; The fourth sniffed the air. It turned lidless yellow eyes in our direction and its lips pulled back to reveal blade-like teeth. It crouched, a massive paw fisted on the ground, ready to spring. It emitted a hungry, vicious snarl, and saliva dripped from its mouth. It leapt and sprinted straight for us, lumbering on thickly muscled legs that propelled it at frightening speed. There was nowhere to hide, and we could not outrun it.
CHAPTER 3
"Weapon?" I screamed at Hannah as we ran. An earthly weapon couldn't kill the demon, but it could stun it long enough for Jack or Quin to attack with their blades.
"No. Jack!"
I glanced over my shoulder. Jack had heard his wife, but he and Quin were too far from the demon to reach it before it attacked us. Shock and fear rippled across his face, before it set hard. He raised his knife to throw it, even as another demon bore down on him.
"Duck!" The shout didn't come from him, but from the house, and it sounded like…Sylvia?
Hannah pulled me down with her and I slammed into the ground with a thud, scraping my chin and knocking the breath from my chest. The boom of a shotgun echoed around the estate, sending the birds screeching from the trees. Another shot fired, the sound more like the bang a revolver made. I glanced up to see Bollard striding past, shotgun raised to his shoulder, a demon in his sights. Behind him, Sylvia lowered her revolver. Hannah and I scrambled to our feet.
The demon had scampered back, frightened by the noise and the sting of its wounds, and rejoined what was left of the pack. There were now only two demons and de Mordaunt, and those demons were no longer obeying their master. They were afraid of the guns, being too new to this realm to know that the pain delivered from a gun was temporary and couldn't kill them. In time, however, they would learn.
Myer emerged from his hiding spot and joined us. "Ladies, I apologize for this chaos. It wasn't my intention to—"
Hannah slapped his cheek. I slapped his other one. He rubbed them both and eyed Sylvia with caution.
"If it helps, I hope your husband will not be harmed," he said to Hannah.